Ivory Trade

Those who imported ivory into China by way of Canton in the ninth century of our era were not only forced to yield the high import dues we have noted, but were forced to sell all tusks weighing 30 catties or more (about 40 pounds or upward) in the official market, where there was commonly great undervaluation. Of course the consequent exclusion of competition must have been felt as a great hardship. To escape this restriction but one way was open: to cut up the heavier tusks so that each separate piece would weigh less than the limit set for the official market. Any attempt to evade the strict customs regulations was severely punished. Should any trader remove the smallest object from the ship’s cargo, the whole cargo was confiscated and, over and above this, the guilty trader was punished in an exemplary manner.

From Marco Polo’s accounts, the ivory market in Zanzibar flourished in the thirteenth century, for, treating of Madagascar and Zanzibar, he asserts that there were more elephants there than in any country in the world, and he adds: “The amount of traffic in elephants’ teeth in these two islands is something astonishing.” Although, from certain errors in his description of this region, he appears to have derived his facts at second hand and confused some of his data, this statement in regard to the ivory traffic of Zanzibar is almost unquestionably correct.

One of his erroneous assertions in reference to elephants here is interesting enough in itself to be cited, more especially as it was undoubtedly true for other regions. This is that the natives, when about to bring up a war elephant to the attack, would “ply him well with their wine,” until he was half drunk. In this state of semi-intoxication the animal was fiercer and bolder than when sober, and his attack was more impetuous. This can, however, scarcely refer to Zanzibar, for the trustworthy Arab writer, Mas’udi, definitely asserts that elephants were not tamed or trained there in any way, and that the natives only hunted them to kill them.

Although many of the ancient trade routes have been abandoned for one reason or another, still in a number of cases the old order of things has been maintained with but little change. In the ivory trade, for instance, the port of Aden on the coast of Arabia, at the entrance to the Red Sea and commanding the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, is to-day, as it was centuries ago, a centre of distribution for East African ivory. Vessels came hither in medieval times from all parts of the world, and among the innumerable articles of commerce were elephants’ tusks from Abyssinia, which land furnished an immense supply of elephant ivory.* Aden is now strongly fortified and has been called the “Gibraltar of the East.”

There can be little doubt that, as a general rule, the European supply of ivory was mainly, though perhaps not exclusively, derived from Africa. It is true there appears to be good evidence that in certain periods a considerable quantity of elephant tusks were brought from India, but in spite of the express statements to this effect made by the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, and others, it is not unlikely that what they believed to be Indian ivory had originally come from Africa and either been transshipped from some Indian port, or shipped at some African port, or one in touch with Africa, by Indian trading vessels.

Indeed, the older writers, beginning with Cosmas Indicopleustos, insist upon the large quantity of African ivory imported into India, and as late as the sixteenth century we are told by Garcias ab Horto that the annual importation amounted to 600,000 pounds, probably an excessive estimate. Several considerations, besides the active native industry in ivory working, conspired to this end. In the first place the tusks of the African elephants are, on the average, both larger and heavier than are those of the Indian elephants, and they are present with the females as well as the males of the species; then, in medieval and later times, these animals have been domesticated and trained in a great variety of ways in India, whether as war elephants, as beasts of burden, or in hauling and carrying materials for construction, etc.

Moreover, in many parts of India and the contiguous countries in which elephants are to be found, religious superstition has sometimes invested them with a quasi-sacred character. Hence elephant hunting, not for the purpose of capturing and training the animals, but merely to kill them and cut out their tusks, while actively pursued for many centuries in Africa, has been carried on but rarely in India, the native Indian ivory coming almost invariably from animals which have died a natural death, and as the elephant is exceptionally long-lived, the supply from this source has been limited.

The commerce in ivory in the interior of Africa is now carried on by caravans under the conduct of Negroes or Arabs, the funds being furnished by the European or Hindu merchants, as it very rarely happens that the leader of the caravan operates with his own resources. The German product is chiefly shipped from Bagawayo, Saadani, and Pangani; the posts for British ivory are Mombasa, Lamu, and Kismayu. While Bagawayo was formerly the most important of the posts, Mombasa has recently made very rapid headway.

Statistics show that about 1830 the average imports of ivory into Great Britain totalled 462,000 pounds; of this 330,000 were retained for home consumption. Even at this time it was feared the breed of elephants was threatened with extinction, owing to the wholesale slaughter of these animals. England’s supply came from the west and east of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, India, and the countries to the eastward of the Straits of Malacca.

In 1831 West Africa furnished Great Britain with 288,400 pounds of ivory, the Cape sending only 22,170 pounds; from India came 243,300 pounds. At this time the Chinese drew their supply from Malacca, Siam, and Sumatra (probably also from Ceylon). The work of Chinese ivory carvers seems to have been more highly appreciated in Europe about 1830 than it is to-day, as our authority says: “The preparation of this beautiful material is much better understood by the Chinese than by any other people.” The undoubted ingenuity and technical skill of the Chinese carvers seems to have caused many to overlook their artistic shortcomings [The price chart for 1833 has been deleted]…..

The size of the tusks of course affects the value of the material, as the larger the pieces of ivory, the wider the range of use. All tusks weighing less than 18 pounds were designated “scrivelloes.”

As with other commodities, the price of ivory has had wide fluctuations. In illustration of this we may take the average figures per hundredweight for the quarterly sales of billiard ball pieces of all grades in the London salesrooms in Mincing Lane during certain years, as follows:

1870            £155

1880            90

1890            112

1900            68

1905            167

The prices for less valuable material followed this general trend. Ivory always commands full value; for there is little or no material wasted, even the dust being available for polishing, for making India ink, or for the making of “ivory jelly.”

The progressive increase in sales in the London market is shown by the fact that toward the close of the eighteenth century they totalled something less than about 192,000 pounds annually, on an average, while in 1837 they had risen to 364,784 pounds, and had reached 1,000,000 pounds in 1864. According to the London Board of Trade figures, 1,434,900 pounds of ivory were imported in 1890; 1,091,100 pounds in 1895; while the figures declined to 988,900 pounds in 1900 and to 904,500 pounds in 1904.

Bombay secures the main part of its supply of ivory from Zanzibar, Mozambique, and Aden. The total imports for the year 1883-4 were 462,403 pounds, of which 197,866 pounds were exported again, principally to London (167,150 pounds). Of the imports Zanzibar furnished 178,278 pounds, Mozambique 109,327 pounds, and Aden 49,730 pounds; from England came 98,463 pounds.

A good average tusk weighs about two maunds, something over 57 pounds, and sells at the rate of 250 rupees ($80) per maund. Zanzibar ivory pays an import and export duty to the Sultan of the country amounting to 25 rupees ($8) per maund (about 29 pounds). On every tusk put through the custom house the Sultan’s seal is cut when the duty has been liquidated.

The ivory received in Bombay is not exported in the form of tusks, but the latter are cut up and the parts variously distributed. To Europe go the solid tips especially well adapted for the manufacture of billiard balls, and also the bases of the hollow shaft of the tusks, known as “bamboo ivory.” For home consumption the middle part of the tusk is reserved; this is called churdar, from its use in the making of churis, or bangles; China receives a small amount of an inferior material.

A somewhat curious circumstance is that those who cut up the tusks do not receive any remuneration in money, although the employer furnishes the requisite tools, but they are allowed to keep the ivory dust, for which they find purchasers among cattle raisers, who believe that milch cattle will secrete milk more abundantly if they be given a solution of ivory dust. Another use (in Northern India) is as a tonic medicine. A recent ordinance provides that in the State of Mysore all elephant tusks shall be sold at public auction by the district treasury officer, at Bangalore, once every year.

The internal commerce in ivory is mainly carried on by Marawis, who furnish the stocks for the chief markets, Palee in Jodhpur, Surat in Guzerat, and Amritsar in the Panjab. This last-named mart supplies in its turn the material for the Delhi comb makers and for the inlayers of Dera Ismail Khan, while a good part of the ivory is kept in Amritsar where the small combs worn by the Sikhs are produced in great quantity. These combs constitute an important article of masculine dress among the Sikhs, as the religious regulations do not permit the men to cut their hair, and it has to be carefully bound up and kept in place by a comb beneath the turban.

Strange to say, the Marawi traders, as they belong to the religious sect of the Jains, are not able to come into direct contact with the elephant tusks, because the touching of an animal substance constitutes a pollution. Hence the material in which they deal must be handled and weighed by Mohammedans in their employ.

The striking change in the location of the chief distributing point in Europe for ivory is exemplified by a comparison of statistics for 1908, and for a date twenty years earlier. While at the earlier date the annual sales of ivory were 373 tons in London and but 6 tons in Antwerp, in 1908 sales on the London market had fallen to 214 tons, while in Antwerp 227 tons of ivory were sold. This change in markets is of course directly due to the large exportation in recent years from the Belgian Congo.

The German territory of Cameroon in Central Africa has furnished a small, but recently a decreasing, supply of ivory. The figures for 1910, when 38 tons of the material were exported, show a decrease of 16 tons from those of the previous year, the value falling off from $219,705 to $156,395. The prohibition to shoot young elephants, rendered imperative in order to save the breed from extinction, has been often violated by the natives, who have smuggled the tusks they obtained across the French Congo. It appears that with the annexation of what is called the “New Cameroon” territory, recently ceded by France to Germany in connection with the Morocco arrangement, the export of ivory from Cameroon will increase, for a German sportsman came across many elephants on a trip lately made to this newly acquired territory, although he had failed to find any in the old Cameroon territory.

In German East Africa there has also been a falling off in ivory exports for 1910 and 1911 from the higher figures for 1909. By some it has been stated that this results from a decrease in the number of “large tuskers,” but others believe that the diminished supply is rather due to the enforcement of a new game law for the protection of elephants toward the end of 1911. The chief port for ivory exports here is now Dar-es-Salaam, Bagawayo having lost its earlier primacy in this respect. As an intermediate centre for ivory Zanzibar has not maintained its rank, the volume of trade in ivory here having fallen from £45,000 in 1909 to but £28,900 in 1910 [The price chart for German East Africa has been deleted]….

Aden, long so important as an ivory market, has lately lost much of its trade in this material. [The price chart for Aden has been deleted]….

The entire stock on hand, early in 1914, was but 8,000 pounds, and this was held in the anticipation of obtaining better prices later on. The fact that most of the ivory from the Sudan is now shipped either directly overland or by way of Jibati is cited as one of the principal causes of Aden’s loss of ivory trade. Another cause is stated to be the lapsing of a contract accorded by the late Negus of Abyssinia, giving to one of the leading ivory dealers of Aden an option upon Abyssinia’s share of the ivory secured in these regions.

In the French Asiatic colony of Laos each of the captive elephants, which are quite numerous, is provided with a duly registered card of identification, and if any owner of an elephant decides to sell the animal out of the country, he is obliged to pay half of the value into the local treasury. The price is said to vary, according to age, sex, degree of training, or length of tusks, from 600 to 1,500 piastres; ivory brings in Laos from 15 to 20 francs per kilogram.

The Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa reported recently that while at the time the French first occupied this region a considerable stock of ivory existed there, this stock has been exhausted, and the ivory exports are now comparatively stationary, amounting to about 160 tons annually. As to a prospective increase of these exports, the Governor-General was not very sanguine, in spite of the fact that herds of from eighty to one hundred elephants are still occasionally to be met with in this territory.

Ivory, as well as hippopotamus teeth and rhinoceros horns, has for years been counted among the staple products of the British East African Protectorate on the Indian Ocean. Some of the ivory goes to London and a certain quantity is sent to the United States. The total value of the ivory exports from Mombasa, the seaport of the Protectorate, for the six months ending June 30, 1909, was $170,876, of which sum $68,178 represented the value of the Congo ivory shipped by way of this port.

The strong competition of Mombasa has affected the trade of Zanzibar so unfavourably that even apart from the general demoralization due to the outbreak of war, this trade showed a falling off in 1914, and figures for the entire year, including the war period, are much lower than those for 1913. This is true of the ivory imports and exports as of those of other merchandise. Of course the imports of ivory are only made to re-export the material, Zanzibar being thus a mere port of transit [The price chart for Zanzibar has been deleted]….

Ivory merchants claim that the elephants living on opposite sides of a lake in Africa, eleven miles long, although of the same species, furnish ivory differing as much in quality as does Egyptian ivory from that of the Congo. Indeed, ivory of the same district will often vary greatly. While some Congo ivory is hard, brittle, white, and translucent, other material from the same region will be opaque, and soft in texture as that from Zanzibar; it may also be greenish tinted at the nerve-centres.

A large part of the trade in ivory imported to Europe is in the hands of two firms, Messrs. Hale & Sons of London and Messrs. Lansberger & Cie. of Antwerp, the latter house taking all the ivory from the Belgian Congo. The price of choice pieces of ivory in the London market is sometimes very high. For instance, while in 1908, $453 per cwt. represented a record figure for whole tusks, $750 per cwt. was paid for cut points especially suitable for billiard balls.

The general price-movement of ivory in the New York market during the past thirty-eight years is shown in the following figures, which note the weight of the ivory purchased at a given date in the year and the price per pound; this is only for the finest selected material, and not for an average quality: [The price chart for New York has been deleted]….

As we have already stated, these relatively high prices have been paid for ivory of superior quality, such as is constantly in demand for the manufacture of billiard balls, of the finest toilet articles, etc. This is clearly brought out by the last entry in the list, noting the purchase of 122 pounds’ weight of ivory at an average price of $3.84 a pound, while at about the same time the average value per pound of the ivory imports was a trifle over $2.50. On April 8, 1907, as high as $4 a pound was paid although the average value of the imports for that year was $3.10 a pound.

It will be noted that the price in 1912 is but 8 per cent. higher than it was in 1875, the intermediate fluctuations following, in the main, the general financial condition of the country.

As London is still recognized as a great ivory mart, although of late years the Antwerp sales of Congo ivory have attracted many buyers, English and Continental, the German ivory dealers having their main offices in Hamburg usually keep also a branch house in London. Of a total importation into Germany of 315.7 tons of ivory in 1912, 102 tons came from England.

The various grades are specially named, tusks under 20 pounds’ weight, for instance, being called scrivelloes; of these the tusks suitable for billiard balls are called “ball scrivelloes,” the smaller ones being designated as “bagatelles,” and others according to their form or quality “hollows,” “cores,’ or “defectives.” The London sales of April, 1913, were but 34 tons as against 45 tons in the same month of 1912. Importations from January 1 to March 31, 1913, amounted to 64 tons; for the same period in 1912, to 66 tons, while deliveries, 71 tons in 1913, were 85 tons in 1912. Stock in dock warehouses was greater in 1913 than in 1912, the respective figures being 72 tons and 62 tons.

As there is a constant demand for all varieties of ivory, and as the greater part of the buyers are excellent judges of form and quality, there is less tendency to violent fluctuations in the ivory market than in many others. It but rarely happens that the supply outruns the demand to any considerable extent or for any length of time. [The price chart for London sales in April, 1913 has been deleted]….

At the quarterly sale in Antwerp in May, 1913, ivory weighing 92 tons was disposed of, as against 87 tons at the same time in 1912. Of this total 53½ tons was Central African; 26 tons Angola; 4 tons Congo; 2 tons Swift-Congo; 4 tons Abyssinian; 1 ton Senegal; ½ ton Hard Egyptian, and ½ ton Soft Egyptian. Good prices were realized as there was considerable competition, the demand from America and the Continent being quite active, the London and Sheffield trades, however, only bought moderately. The increase in price amounted to £2 per cwt. for large and medium hard teeth; scrivelloes (tusks under 20 pounds) registered an advance of £2 or £3 per cwt.

The total imports of ivory into the United States according to official figures are here given for the years 1884 to 1911 inclusive, as well as the value of these imports and the average value per pound. From 1884 to 1894 this covers “animal ivory, not sawed, cut, or otherwise manufactured.” This limitation was changed in 1895 to “animal ivory, sawed or cut into logs, but not otherwise manufactured,” and still further modified in 1898 to “ivory in its natural state: tusks cut vertically across the grain only, with the bark left intact.” The advances noted above amount to from about 8 cents to 13 cents above the prices previously obtained. Of course, the New York prices have been mainly based upon those of the London and Antwerp markets, no duty having been imposed on unmanufactured ivory until October 4, 1913. Immediately after that date imports decreased notably, but would have risen again to the normal level if the great war had not ensued nine months later. [The price chart for New York has been deleted]….

As will be seen, the highest average value was in 1886 and the lowest in 1901, while that of the years 1909 and 1910 almost exactly agrees with the average for twenty-eight years. [The price chart for the years 1913 and 1914 in New York has been deleted]….

It will be noted that while the weight of ivory imported last year [1914] was much less than in either of the preceding fiscal years, the average value per pound was considerably greater and, indeed, exceeds that of any calendar year since 1896, excepting the years 1907 and 1908. Undoubtedly the imposition of an ad valorem duty of 20 per cent. after October. 4, 1913, explains in part the diminished imports, but recently the great war has been the most active cause. There can be little doubt that with the resumption of free commercial intercourse between Europe and the United States, and with the cessation of the numerous and unavoidable interruptions to trade that the war has caused, the ivory market will rapidly improve in every way.

The weight and value of the ivory imported into the United States from all parts of the world during the years 1902 to 1911, arranged according to the sources of supply, were as follows: [The price charts for the United States have been deleted]….

The corresponding figures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, were $34,943.27, and for the year ending June 30, 1914, $51,697.69. To this should be added, for dice, dominoes, draughts, chessmen, and for billiard, pool, and bagatelle balls of ivory, bone, or other materials, $61,108 in 1913, and $67,789 in 1914.

The duties on unmanufactured ivory have varied less in the past fifty years than have those imposed upon some other materials, destined to be worked up into articles of luxury. From 1867 to 1871 the duty was 10 per cent. ad valorem, this impost being removed in the latter part of 1871. Until October 13, 1913, ivory (unmanufactured) remained free of duty, the impost since then, under the so-called Underwood Tariff, being 20 per cent. ad valorem. Manufactured articles, whether of ivory or bone, such as chessmen, dice, draughtsmen, etc., were dutiable from 1867 to 1913 at a rate of 50 per cent. ad valorem, other manufactured articles of vegetable ivory, bearing a duty of 35 per cent. from 1867 to 1883, 30 per cent. from 1884 to 1891, 40 per cent. from 1891 to 1895, and 35 per cent. ad valorem from August 28, 1895, to the present time. On unmanufactured vegetable ivory no duty has been imposed.

In an earlier chapter the principal ivory substitutes have been described and some details given of their use. For the cheaper toilet articles, and for a number of other objects, celluloid has been quite extensively employed, although it is not a very satisfactory substitute. The value of the manufactured, or partly manufactured, material imported has varied widely in the different years, owing to the character and quality of the workmanship, the cost of manufacture being of course the main element of value. Thus when a large quantity of fully manufactured articles are imported, the total value will be many times what it would have been if a great share of the material had been brought in only partly finished, or only prepared for working. The use of celluloid for the small front facing of piano keys has been alluded to in the chapter on the working of ivory. [The price chart for imported celluloid articles to the United States, as well as other charts have been deleted]….

Perhaps, in the interest of the ivory trade, the partial check upon ivory exports in some parts of Africa and their total cessation in others, is no unmixed evil, for this state of things operates automatically to check the destruction of the elephants even more effectively than do the special laws and regulations enacted for this purpose in the elephant regions of Africa. [Various import and export charts, including Germany, have been deleted]….

The rapid and progressive falling off in these exports is very noteworthy [up to 1913]. Owing to the intercourse with Germany resulting from England’s control of the seas, later figures are not available and of course this trade, as far as Germany is concerned, has come to a standstill. [Export chart from the Congo has been deleted]….

Perhaps, in the interest of the ivory trade, the partial check upon ivory exports in some parts of Africa and their total cessation in others, is no unmixed evil, for this state of things operates automatically to check the destruction of the elephants even more effectively than do the special laws and regulation enacted for this purpose in the elephant regions of Africa. [Various import and export charts have been deleted]….

There has been a general decrease in the average weight of the tusks imported to Antwerp. In 1889 this average was 12 1/2 kilograms and in 1890 10 9/10 kilograms; but in 1896 the average had fallen to 6 2/5 kilograms, recovering somewhat from this low point to 9 kilograms in 1900 and 8 3/8 kilograms in 1901.

Although this necessitates a repetition of the figures for the Antwerp sales, we give here the sales from 1886 at the three European ivory marts, Antwerp, London, and Liverpool, so as to exhibit in a graphic way the passage of the primacy in this trade from London to Antwerp. What the further development may be when the port of Antwerp is again opened to the world’s commerce it would not be easy to predict with any certainty, but trade routes are not often completely and radically changed in accord with temporary political vicissitudes. This is the lesson taught us by history, both ancient and modern, many of the Asiatic and African trade routes having been used for commercial intercourse from the very dawn of history; indeed, the use of some of them must considerably antedate our oldest historic records. [Sales and other charts have been deleted]….

The value per hundredweight (112 lbs.) of sound, fresh mammoth ivory in the London market is stated to have ranged, not long ago, all the way from 20 shillings to £15 or even £30 for exceptionally fine tusks. For the past year, of course, there have been no shipments of this ivory received in England. Even the highest of the prices noted is very considerably lower than those commanded by ivory from the living African elephants.

Since 1906 ivory has been exported from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in annually increasing quantities, the increase in the six years from 1906 to 1912 being very marked; in the first-named year only 20,354 kilos were exported, but in 1912 the weight of the exported ivory was 106,755 kilos. This would indicate the killing of 4,000 elephants in the latter year (although of course part of the ivory may have come from animals that died a natural death), if we figure on the ascertained average of about 13 kilos for each tusk. The provinces Bahr-el-Ghazal and Mongalla furnish the greater part of the supply, the balance coming from the region of the Sobat and its tributaries and the Bahr-el-Arab country. The centres for ivory trade are Khartoum and Omdurman, and most of the product finds its way to the London market. [The 1912 Sudan export chart has been deleted]….

Only a very small quantity is exported at present from Sierra Leone.

The import and export movement in the Indian ivory trade, as given for 1904-5, shows that while the value of the ivory imported was 7,439,671 rupees ($2,478,890), the exports of ivory and of manufactures thereof totalled but 585,934 rupees ($195,311); the manufactured product probably represented a considerable percentage of the whole value.

While in the first two ivory sales in the London market in 1914 prices were practically unchanged, the financial distrust due to expectation of war made itself felt at the July sales, causing a general decline, except in the case of “ball ivory,” which brought as much or even a little more than at the earlier sales. The regular October sales were indefinitely postponed, but many private transactions have taken place. In these, hard ivory has maintained its price, but the less valuable qualities, such for instance as the grades known in the trade as “soft scrivelloes” and “cut hollows,” have found little demand.

It is noteworthy, however, that in general the dealings in ivory have been less seriously interfered with than those in most other articles of luxury. The supplies of Egyptian and West Coast African ivory have been larger in 1914 than in 1913. But few walrus tusks have been received, the demand being slack and the prices lower; a limited quantity of boars’ tusks was disposed of at unchanged prices. The stock of ivory on hand in London at the close of 1914 was 188 tons, against 105 tons at the end of 1913, this notable increase being due to the transfer from Antwerp of a large quantity of Congo ivory…. [Import chart into Great Britain has been deleted]….