will
allow their time to be taken up whilst there is a spirited fight between
two or three buyers for a single bag.

Whilst the London Auction Sales are of importance as fixing the prices
for the various markets, and reflecting to a certain extent the position
of supply and demand, only a fraction of the world's cacao changes hands
at the Auction Sales, the greater part of it being bought privately for
forward delivery.

_Prices and Quotations._

[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING VARIATION IN PRICE OF CACAO BEANS FROM
1913 TO 1919.]

The price of cacao is liable to fluctuations like every other product,
thus in 1907 Trinidad cacao rose to one shilling a pound, whilst there
have been periods when it has only fetched sixpence per pound. On April
2nd, 1918, the Food Controller fixed the prices of the finest
qualities of the different varieties of raw cacao as follows:

British West Africa (Accra) 65s. per cwt.

Bahia }
Cameroons }
San Thome } 85s. " "
Congo }
Grenada }

Trinidad }
Demerara } 90s. " "
Guayaquil }
Surinam }

Ceylon }
Java } 100s. " "
Samoa }

The diagram on p. 113 shows the average market price in the United
Kingdom of some of the more important cacaos before, during, and after
the war. The most striking change is the sudden rise when the Government
control was removed. All cacaos showed a substantial advance varying
from 80 to 150 per cent. on pre-war values. Further large advances have
taken place in the early months of 1920.

_The Call of the Tropics._

Many a young man, reading in some delightful book of travel, has longed
to go to the tropics and see the wonders for himself. There can be no
doubt that a sojourn in equatorial regions is one of the most educative
of experiences. In support of this I cannot do better than quote Grant
Allen, who regarded the tropics as the best of all universities. "But
above all in educational importance I rank the advantage of seeing human
nature in its primitive surroundings, far from the squalid and chilly
influences of the tail-end of the Glacial epoch." ... "We must forget
all this formal modern life; we must break away from this cramped, cold,
northern world; we must find ourselves face to face at last, in Pacific
isles or African forests, with the underlying truths of simple naked
nature."

[Illustration: GROUP OF WORKERS ON CACAO ESTATE.

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