EBB AND FLOW OF TRADE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 16

EBB AND FLOW OF TRADE.

Dealing with tra<to booms, a contemporary recalls the rush which developed in Greece something like thirty-five years ago, when landowners staked their all on the future of currants. After the vineyards of Franco had been ravaged by phylloxera, there sprang up a great demand from that country for Greek currants to be used in wine-making, and prices soared to heights never before known in the currant trade. Under this stimulus Greek landowners all through the currant-producing provinces uprooted their olive groves and planted the lands to currants, until within a few years the acreage had far more than doubled. Then France, having found means to combat the phylloxera, placed upon currants a prohibitive import duty, thereby permanently shutting off from Greek currant growers the market whose demands had stimulated them to increased production. Immediately supply overtopped demand in the world's currant market — this district, which supplies the world's currants, was producing 30 per cent, more fruit than it could dispose of. Prices fell precipitately, and for decades the currant trade was in a bad condition.