Chapter XIII: Section I (5)

Quintals.
1839 344,725
1840 402,135
1841 212,767
1842 314,191
1843 223,265
1844 186,349
1845 42,409
1846 65,045
1847 106,904
1848 31,674
1849 92,974
1852 42,510

Porto Rico exported 85,384 cwt. of coffee in 1839.

_Africa_.--Coffee will require some four years to grow before it will give to the cultivator any income, but it should be known that after that time the tree, with little or no labor bestowed on it, will yield two crops a year. The quality of coffee grown in the republic of Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, is pronounced by competent judges to be equal to any in the world. In numerous instances, trees full of coffee, are seen at only three years old. 214 casks and bags of coffee were imported from the western coast of Africa in 1846.

Coffee, it has been proved, can be cultivated with great ease to any extent in the republic of Liberia, being indigenous to the soil, and found in great abundance. It bears fruit from thirty to forty years, and yields 10 lbs. to the shrub yearly! A single tree in the garden of Colonel Hicks, a colonist at Monrovia, is said to have yielded the enormous quantity of 16 lbs. at one gathering. Judge Benson, in 1850, had brought 25 acres under cultivation, and many others had also devoted themselves to raising coffee. It was estimated there were about 30,000 coffee trees planted in one of the counties, that of Grand Bassa, and the quality of the produce was stated to be equal to the best Java.

About the villages and settlements of the Sherbro river, and Sierra Leone, wild coffee-trees are very abundant. In several parts of the interior, the natives make use of the shrub to fence their plantations.

Coffee has been successfully grown at St. Helena, of an excellent quality, and might be made an article of export.

Portugal sent to the Great Exhibition, in 1851, a very valuable series of coffees from many of her colonies; of ordinary description from St. Thomas; tolerably good from the Cape de Verd islands; bad from Timor; worse (but curious from the very small size of the berry) from Mozambique; good from Angola; and excellent from Madeira.

Aden, alias Mocha coffee, is, along with the other coffees of the Red Sea, sent first to Bombay by Arab ships, where it is "garbelled," or picked, previously to its being exported to England.

An excellent sample of coffee, apparently of the Barbera (Abyssinia) variety, was contributed to the Great Exhibition from Norfolk Island. It was of good color, well adapted for roasting, and a most desirable novelty from that quarter.

Dr. Gardner, of Ceylon, has taken out a patent for preparing the coffee leaf in a manner to afford a beverage like tea, that is by infusion, "forming an agreeable refreshing and nutritive article of diet." An infusion of the coffee-leaf has long been an article of universal consumption amongst the natives of parts of Sumatra; wherever the coffee is grown, the leaf has become one of the necessaries of life, which the natives regard as indispensable.

The coffee-plant, in a congenial soil and climate, exhibits great luxuriance in its foliage, throwing out abundance of suckers and lateral stems, especially when from any cause the main stem is thrown out of the perpendicular, to which it is very liable from its great superincumbent weight compared with the hold of its root in the ground. The native planters, availing themselves of this propensity, often give this plant a considerable inclination, not only to increase the foliage, but to obtain new fruit-bearing stems, when the old ones become unproductive. It is also found desirable to limit the height of the plant by lopping off the top to increase the produce, and facilitate the collecting it, and fresh sprouts in abundance are the certain consequence. These are so many causes of the development of a vegetation, which becomes injurious to the quantity of the fruit or berry unless removed; and when this superabundant foliage can be converted into an article of consumption, as hitherto the case in Sumatra, the culture must become the more profitable; and it is clearly the interest of the planters of Ceylon to respond to the call of Dr. Gardner, and by supplying the leaf on reasonable terms, to assist in creating a demand for an article they have in abundance, and which for the want of that demand is of no value to them. It ought to be mentioned also, that the leaves which become ripe and yellow on the tree and fall off in the course of nature, contain the largest portion of extract, and make the richest infusion; and I have no doubt, should the coffee leaf ever come into general use, the ripe leaf will be collected with as much care as the ripe fruit.

The mode of the preparation by the natives is this. The ends of the branches and suckers, with the leaves on; are taken from the tree and broken into lengths of from twelve to eighteen inches. These are arranged in the split of a stick or small bamboo, side by side, forming a truss in such a manner, that the leaves all appear on one side, and the stalk on the other, the object of which is to secure equal roasting, the stalks being thus exposed to the fire together, and the leaves together. The slit being tied up in two or three places, and a part of the stick or bamboo left as a handle, the truss is held over a fire without smoke, and kept moving about, so as to roast the whole equally, without burning, on the success of which operation the quality and flavor of the article must depend. When successfully roasted, the raw vegetable taste is entirely dissipated, which is not the ease if insufficiently done. When singed or overdone, the extract is destroyed and the aroma lost. When the fire is smoky, the flavor varies with the nature of the smoke. The stalks are roasted equally with the leaves, and are said to add fully as much to the strength of the infusion. By roasting the whole becomes brittle, and is reduced to a coarse powder by rubbing between the hands. In this state it is ready for use, and the general mode of preparing the beverage is by infusion, as in the case of common tea.

That it would soon become a most valuable article of diet amongst the laboring classes, and on ship board particularly, if, once brought into use, there can be no doubt. The coffee-tree can be grown to advantage for the leaf in the lowlands of every tropical country, where the soil is sufficiently fertile, whilst it requires a different soil and climate to produce the fruit[7]. Dr. Hooker, in the Jury Reports, observes upon the prepared coffee leaves, submitted by Dr. Gardner, of Ceylon, to be used as tea leaves, that they are worthy of notice as affording a really palatable drink when infused as tea is; more so, perhaps, than coffee is to the uninitiated. That this preparation contains a considerable amount of the nutritious principles of coffee, is evident from the analysis; but as the leaves can only be collected in a good state at the expense of the coffee bush, it is doubtful whether the coffee produced by the berries be not, after all, the cheapest, as it certainly is the best.

TEA.

The immense traffic in the produce of this simple shrub, the growth of a remarkable country, hitherto almost entirely isolated from the western nations, is one of the most remarkable illustrations of the enterprise and energy of modern commerce. The trade in tea now gives employment to upwards of 60,000 tons of British shipping, and about ten millions sterling of English capital, producing a revenue to this country of nearly six millions sterling.

Every reflecting man will admit that articles of such vast consumption as tea and coffee (amounting together to more than 343,500 tons annually), forming the chief liquid food of whole nations, must exercise a great influence upon the health of the people.

There is scarcely any country in the world in which a dietetic drink or beverage resembling tea, is not prepared, and in general use, from some exotic or indigenous shrub. The two chief plants laid under contribution are, however, the Chinese tea-plant, and a species of holly peculiar to South America, producing the Paraguay tea. _Astoria theiformis_ is used at Santa Fe as tea. The leaves of _Canothus Americanus_, an astringent herb, have been used as a substitute, under the name of New Jersey tea.

It has been a matter of surprise why tea should be so much sought after by the poorer classes, since by many it is looked on more as a luxury than of use to the human system. The manner in which it acts, and the cause why it is so much in demand by all classes, is satisfactorily explained by Liebig; and the benefit, therefore, which will be conferred by selling it at a low rate, and thus placing it within the means of all, has at last come to be duly appreciated. Liebig says, without entering minutely into the medical action of caffeine, theine, &c., it will surely appear a most striking fact, even if we were to deny its influence on the process of secretion, that the substance, with the addition of oxygen and the elements of water, can yield taurine, the nitrogenised compound peculiar to bile:--

Carbon. Nitrogen. Hydrogen. Oxygen.
1 atom caffeine or theine = 8 2 5 2
9 atoms water = -- -- 9 9
9 atoms oxygen = -- -- -- 9
__ __ __ __
= 2 atoms taurine 8 2 14 20
= 2 4 9 10

To see how the action of caffeine, theobromine, theine, &c., may be explained, we must call to mind that the chief constituent of the bile contains only 3.8 per cent. of nitrogen, of which only the half, or 1.9 per cent., belongs to the taurine; bile contains, in its natural state, water and solid matter, in the proportion of ninety parts by weight of the former, to ten of the latter. If we suppose these ten parts, by weight of solid matter, to be chloric acid, with 3.87 per cent. of nitrogen, then 100 parts of theine would contain 0.171 of nitrogen in the shape of taurine. Now this quantity is contained in 0.6 parts of theine, or 2 grains 8/10ths of theine can give to an ounce of bile the nitrogen it contains in the form of taurine.

Although an infusion of tea contains no more than the one-tenth of a grain of theine, still, if it contribute in point of fact to the formation of bile, the action even of such a quantity cannot be looked upon as a nullity. Neither can it be denied, that in the case of an excess of non-azotised food, and a deficiency of motion, which is required to cause the change of matter of the tissues, and thus to yield the nitrogenised product which enters into the composition of the bile, that in such a condition the health may be benefited by the use of compounds which are capable of supplying the place of the nitrogenised substances produced in the healthy state of the body, and essential to the production of an important element of inspiration. In a chronical sense, and it is this alone which the preceding remarks are intended to show, caffeine, or theine, &c., are, in virtue of their composition, better adapted to this purpose than all nitrogenised vegetable principles. The action of these substances in ordinary circumstances is not obvious, but it unquestionably exists. Tea and coffee were originally met with among nations whose diet was chiefly vegetable.

Considerable discussion has taken place regarding the tea plants; some say that there is only one species; others that there are two or three. Mr. Fortune, who visited the tea districts of Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang, asserts that the black and green teas of the northern districts of China are obtained from the same species or variety, known under the name of _Thea Bohea_. Some make the Assam tea a different species, and thus recognise three: _T. Cantoniensis_ or _Bohea_, _T. Viridis_, and _T. Assamica_. The quality of the tea depends much on the season when the leaves are picked, the mode in which it is prepared, as well as the district in which it grows. The green teas include Twankay, Young Hyson, Hyson, Gunpowder, and Imperial; while the black comprise Bohea, Congou, Souchong, Oolong, and Pekoe. The teas of certain districts, such as Anhoi, have peculiar characters.

The first tea imported into England was a package of two pounds, by the East India Company, in 1664, as a present to the king; in 1667, another small importation took place, from the company's factory at Bantam. The directors ordered their servants to "send home by their ships 100 pounds weight of the best _tey_ they could get." In 1678 were imported 4,713 lbs.; but in the six following years the entire imports amounted to no more than 410 lbs. According to Milburn's "Oriental Commerce," the consumption in 1711 was 141,995 lbs.; 120,595 lbs. in 1715, and 237,904 lbs. in 1720. In 1745 the amount was 730,729 lbs. For above a century and a half, the sole object of the East India Company's trade with China was to provide tea for the consumption of the United Kingdom. The company had the exclusive trade, and were bound to send orders for tea, and to provide ships to import the same, and always to have a year's consumption in their warehouses. The teas were disposed of in London, where only they could be imported, at quarterly sales. The act of 1834, however, threw open the trade to China.

From a Parliamentary return, showing the quantity of tea retained for home consumption in the United Kingdom, in each year, from 1740 to the termination of the East India Company's sales, and thence to the present time, it appears that in 1740, 1,493,695 lbs. of tea were retained for home consumption. Two years afterwards, the quantity fell to 473,868 lbs., and in 1767 only 215,019 lbs. were retained. Next year the amount increased to 3,155,417 lbs.; in 1769 it was 9,114,854 lbs.; in 1795, 21,342,845 lbs.; in 1836, 49,842,236 lbs.

The return in question also specifies the quantity of the various kinds of tea, with the average sale prices.

According to the annual tea reports of Messrs. W.J. Thompson and Son, and Messrs. W.E. Franks and Son, the total imports of tea during the last fifteen years were as follows, reckoned in millions of lbs.:--

Years. Black. Green. Total. Home Consumption.
1838 26,786 8,215 35,001 36,415
1839 30,644 7,680 38,324 36,351
1840 21,063 7,161 28,224 31,716
1841 24,915 6,303 31,218 36,811
1842 31,915 9,729 41,644 37,554
1843 39,513 7,340 46,853 39,902
1844 39,644 8,749 48,393 41,176
1845 39,518 11,790 51,338 44,127
1846 44,017 12,486 55,503 47,534
1847 46,887 8,368 55,255 46,247
1848 37,512 7,611 45,123 48,431
1849 43,234 9,156 52,400 50,100
1850 39,873 8,427 48,300 51,000
1851 62,369 9,131 71,500 54,000
1852 55,525 9,175 64,700 54,724

The duty on tea was gradually raised from 9d. per lb. in 1787 to 3s. a lb. in 1806. It was 2s. 2d. per lb. until May, 1852, when 4d. per lb. was taken off, and further annual reductions are to be made. Down to the year 1834 the duty was an _ad valorem_ one of 96 per cent. on all teas sold under 2s. a lb., and of 100 per cent. on all that were sold at or above 2s., charged on the prices which they brought at the East India Company's sales. The _ad valorem_ duties ceased on the 22nd of April, 1834, and under the act 3 and 4 William IV. c. 100, all tea imported into the United Kingdom for home consumption was charged with a customs as follows:--

Bohea 1s. 6d. per lb.
Congou, twankay, hyson skin, orange
pekoe, and campoi 2 2 "
Souchong, flowery pekoe, hyson, young
hyson, gunpowder, imperial, and
other teas not enumerated 3 0 "

In 1836, the uniform duty of 2s. 1d. per lb. on all descriptions of tea was imposed, which, with the additional 5 per cent, imposed in 1840, made the total duty levied per lb. 2s. 2d. and a fraction.

During the years from 1831 to 1841, in spite of an increase of nearly three millions in the population of the country, and notwithstanding the impetus given to the tea-trade by the abolition of the East India Company's monopoly in 1833, the increased consumption was only 6,675,566 lbs. Great as the increase has been of late years, however, it is very far short of what we might expect to see were the duty reduced to a moderate per centage on the value of the article as it comes from the Chinese merchant. In Jersey and Guernsey, where there is no duty on tea, the average consumption is 4½ lbs. per head per annum. The same rate for the United Kingdom would require an annual importation of nearly 150 million lbs. I asserted, many months ago, if the duty could be gradually reduced from its present exorbitant amount to 1s. per lb., the revenue would not suffer much, whilst the comfort of the people would be much increased, and our trade with China greatly improved.

Years. Teas Imported, lbs. Entered for Home Consumption, lbs.
1843 42,779,265 35,685,262
1844 50,613,328 41,176,00
1845 53,570,267 44,127,000
1846 57,584,561 46,554,787
1847 55,255,000 50,921,486
1848 47,774,755 48,735,696
1849 53,460,751 50,024,688
1850 50,512,384 51,178,215
1851 71,466,421 53,965,112
1852 66,361,020 54,724,615

Amount of duty received on tea:--

£ Prices of Sound Common Congou per lb.
1841 3,973,668 1s. 7d. to 2s. 0d.
1842 4,088,957 1 7 1 10
1843 4,407,642 1 0 1 2
1844 4,524,093 0 10 1 0
1845 4,833,351 1 0 1 9½
1846 5,112,005 0 9 0 9½
1847 5,066,860 0 8½ 0 9½
1848 5,330,515 0 8 0 8½
1849 5,471,641 0 8½ 0 9½
1850 5,597,708 0 10½ 1 1
1851 5,902,433 0 8 0 8½
1852 5,986,482 0 7½ 2 2

Mr. Montgomery Martin, in his work on China, published in 1847, gave the average annual consumption of tea, the produce of China, as follows:--

lbs.
Great Britain and Ireland 45,000,000
British North America and West Indies 2,500,000
Australasia, Cape of Good Hope, &c. 2,500,000
British India and Eastern Islands 2,000,000
----------
Total used throughout the British Empire 52,000,000
----------

United States of North America * 7,000,000
Russia 10,000,000
France and Colonies 500,000
Hanse Towns, &c. 150,000
Holland and its Colonies 1,000,000
Belgium 200,000
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway 250,000
The German States 500,000
Spain and Portugal 100,000
Italian States 50,000
South American States 500,000
-------
Total consumption in foreign countries 20,250,000

[* This is only one-third the actual consumption.]

According to this statement, it would seem that the English consume twice the quantity of tea that is used by all the other countries excepting China and Japan.

The consumption of tea in Europe and America I estimated a year or two ago as follows:--

lbs.
Russia 15,000,000
United States of America 18,000,000
France 2,000,000
Holland 2,800,000
Other countries 2,000,000
Great Britain 50,000,000
----------
Total 89,800,000

The estimated consumption, at the rate of consumption found where taxation is favorable (as for instance 1½ pounds--the average of this country) would give the following:--

cwts.
England 400,000
France 510,000
Germany 400,000
Austria 500,000
Prussia ...
Belgium 63,000
Russia 900,000
Rest of Europe 750,000

The total exportation of tea by sea from China, was estimated by Mr. Martin in 1847 at 76 millions of pounds, viz.:--

England 50,000,000
United States 20,000,000
All other countries 5,000,000
----------
75,000,000

which, at 20 taels per picul (133 lbs.) amounts to 11,280,000 taels of silver at 80d. per tael, £3,760,000. The present Chinese duty of two taels five mace, does not include shipping and other charges; the old duty was five taels, and included all charges paid the Hong merchants. The export by sea is now about 97 millions of lbs.

The following was the returned value of the tea exported from the five Chinese ports in 1844 and 1845:--

1844. 1845.
Canton £2,910,474 £3,429,790
Shanghae 67,115 462,746
Ningpo 2,000 2,000
Amoy 544
Foo-chow-foo 638
--------- ---------
£2,979,589 £3,895,718

The average cost of tea in China at the ship's side is 10d. per pound, while it is confidently asserted that it could be produced in many parts of America at 5d. the pound. The great cost in China is owing to the expensive transportation, the cultivation of the fuel used, the absence of all economy of machinery, &c. It is only by adulteration that tea is sold in China as cheap as 10d. In America the beating and rolling of the leaves (one half of the labor) could be done by the simplest machinery, fuel could be economised by flues, &c.

The Russian teas, brought by caravans, are the most expensive and best teas used in Europe. The Chinese themselves pay 7½ dollars per pound for the "Yen Pouchong" teas.

Full chests were exhibited in 1851, by Mr. Ripley, of various Pekoe teas, some of which fetch 50s. per lb. in the China market; whilst 7s. is the very highest price any of the sort will fetch in England, and this only as a fancy article. The plain and orange-scented Pekoes now fetch little with us; but as caravan teas, are purchased by the wealthier Russian families. The finest, however, never leave China, being bought up by the Mandarins; for though the transit expenses add 3s. to 4s. per lb. to the value when sold in Russia, the highest market price in St. Petersburg is always under 50s. Among these scented teas are various caper teas, flavoured with chloranthus flowers and the buds of some species of plants belonging to the orange tribe, _magnolia fuscata_, olea flowers, &c. The Cong Souchong, or Ning-young teas, are chiefly purchased for the American market. Oolong tea is the favourite drink in Calcutta, though less prized in England, its delicate flavor being injured by the length of the voyage. For delicacy, no teas, approach those usually called "Mandarin teas," which being slightly fired and rather damp when in the fittest state for use, will bear neither transport nor keeping. They are in great demand among the wealthy Chinese, and average 20s. per lb in the native market.--(Jury Reports.)

The consumption of tea in the United Kingdom may now be fairly taken at fifty-four million pounds yearly, and sold at an average price to the consumer of 4s. 6d., per pound. The money expended for tea is upwards of twelve millions sterling.

The expenditure of this sum is distributed as follows, in round numbers:--

Net cost of 54,000,000 pounds, average 1s. per pound £2,700,000
Export duty in China of 1½d. a lb. 337,500
Shipping charges, &c., in China 25,000
Freight, &c., China to England, about 2d. per lb. 450,000
Insurance, ½d. per lb. 112,500
Commission, about ¼d. per lb. 56,250
Tasting charges, &c., about 1/8 of a penny per lb. 28,125
Interest for 6 months on £3,709,375 at 5 per cent. 92,734
---------
Total outlay in China £3,802,109
Profit to exporters in China,(about 12 per cent.) 445,116
Landing charges, &c., in England 39,000
----------
Cost price in bond in England £4,286,225
Duty received by government at 2s. 2½. per lb., about 5,985,482
----------
£10,271,707
Profit divided among tea-brokers, wholesale and retail
dealers, &c 1,878,293
----------
Total outlay by British public for tea, at 4s. 6d. per lb. £12,150,000

The tea imported into England in 1667 was only 100 lbs., while for the year ending June 30, 1851, the export from China to Great Britain was 64,020,000 lbs., employing 115 vessels in its transportation; and to the United States, during the same time, 28,760,800 lbs., in sixty-four vessels. Within the last five years, the export has increased 10,000,000 lbs. to the United States, and 17,000,000 to Great Britain. These statistics will show the immense importance of this article to commerce, and the vast amount of shipping it supports. But let us follow out the statistics a little more in detail.

The population of the Chinese provinces, as quoted by Dr. Morison, from an official census taken in 1825, was 352,866,012, and we may fairly conclude that during the last twenty-eight years this population has extensively increased. If we assume the annual consumption of tea at four lb. per head on the above population; and this is no unreasonable assumption in a country, where, to quote from Murray's valuable work on China, tea "is the national drink, which is presented on every occasion, served up at every feast, and even sold on the public roads;" we shall have a tolerably accurate result as to the total consumption in the empire. Indeed this computation falls short of the actual relative consumption in the island of Jersey, where, as we have seen, nearly five lbs. is the annual allowance of each individual.

If we multiply the population of China by four, we have--

lbs.
Total consumption of tea in China 1,411,464,048
Export of Great Britain and Ireland, for the year ending
June 30, 1851. 64,020,000
Export to the United States, same period 28,760,800
Export to Holland, returned at 2,000,000 in Davis's
"China" 3,000,000

Inland trade to Russia 15,000,000
Export to Hamburg, Bremen, Denmark, Sweden, &c.,
seven cargoes, about 3,000,000
Export to Sydney, and Australasian Colonies, at least 6,000,000
Export to Spain and France, four cargoes 2,000,000
---------
Total lbs. 1,533,244,848

The above is exclusive of the heavy exportation in Chinese vessels to all parts of the east where Chinese emigrants are settled, such as Tonquin, Cochin China, Cambodia, Siam, the Philippines, Borneo, and the various settlements within the Straits of Malacca. In comparison with such an enormous quantity, the 54 million lbs. consumed in the United Kingdom sink into insignificance.

£
The cost of tea to America, at the ship's side in China,
say 29,000,000 lbs., at an average of 1s. per lb.,
would be 1,450,000
The cost to England, 64,000,000, at the same price 3,200,000
The cost to other places, say 25,000,000 1,250,000
Russia, 15,000,000 750,000
----------
Total £6,650,000

It is therefore clear, that were the demand to be doubled from Great Britain, it would make very little difference in the Chinese market; since it would be only a question of letting us have six per cent, of their growth of the article, instead of three.

When we remember that the tea plant attains to maturity in three years, and its leaves are then fit for picking; and that there is a vast extent of country to which it is indigenous, growing in every climate between the equator and the latitude of 45 degrees, it is evident that, were there a necessity for it, the actual production of tea in China could be increased to an almost unlimited extent in the space of three or four years, an extent far more than compensating for the extra three per cent., which might be, in the first instance, required by the British.

The certainty of an increased consumption following upon a reduction in the price of tea to the actual consumers of it, is so obvious as to require demonstration to those only who have not considered the subject. The population of Great Britain and Ireland is, say in round numbers 30,000,000, the actual consumption of tea is only 54,000,000 lbs., or little more than one pound and three quarters for each individual. In the neighbouring island of Jersey, there are nearly five lbs. of tea consumed by every inhabitant yearly; and as we may fairly infer from analogy that similar results would arise from a similar cause, the consumption in the United Kingdom in the same ratio would amount to no less than 150 millions of pounds annually.

Tea, observes a most competent authority (Mr. J. Ingram Travers), is the favourite drink of the people: all desire to have it strong and good, and none who can afford it are without it. But in the agricultural districts the laborers use but little; numbers of them "make tea with burnt crusts, because the China tea is too dear." In Ireland the consumption is greatly below that of England; there are comparatively few people who do not, on company occasions, make their tea stronger than for ordinary use, and the general economy in the use of tea forms an exception to almost every other article of consumption. As to the working classes in the manufacturing districts, Mr. Bayley, President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, himself a very extensive manufacturer, and therefore well qualified to speak to the fact, says:--"The common calculation of two ounces per head per week I should think is very much in excess of what the working classes consume. Domestic servants, I believe, have that quantity allowed them, but I should say that the working classes do not consume one quarter of that." And yet it is these classes who are the great consumers of everything cheap enough to be within their reach. It is this consumption that, under better earnings, has sustained the steady increase of nearly two million pounds of tea per annum for the last eight years, and still there is such ample room for increase that domestic servants are allowed at least four times as much per head as those working people who value, more than any other class, the cheerful refreshingness of tea, but who, stinted in its use by the exorbitant duty, are tempted and almost driven to the use, instead, of degrading drinks.

And if the general consumption of the population should rise to even half servants' allowance, or one ounce per head per week, the consumption of tea would reach 97,500,000 lbs. per annum. And as to what might be used if the taste for it had free scope, some idea may be formed from the fact that the consumption of such people as have found their way from these countries, where the consumption is 1 lb. 9 ozs. per head, to Australia, has there risen to 7 lbs. per head, at which rate the consumption of the United Kingdom would be about 210,000,000 lbs. per annum, and which, even at a 6d. duty, would produce five millions and a half. There is nothing in the air of Australia to give any especial impulse to tea drinking: on the contrary; in this comparatively cold, damp climate, people would naturally use a hot beverage more largely than in the dry warm climate of Australia; and, after all, great as the Australian consumption seems, it is scarcely more than a quarter of an ounce per head per week above the allowance to English domestic servants.

The consumption of tea, notwithstanding the dicta of Mr. Montgomery Martin, is destined to a prodigious increase. Nor is it solely to an increase in the consumption of tea, that we must look to prevent any deficiency in the revenue, as there is no doubt that a reduction in the price of the article would lead to a prodigious increase in the quantity of sugar consumed, especially by the lower classes, who seldom take the one without the other.

It is not, however, merely that they would buy sugar in proportion to the quantity of tea that they consume; the circumstance of a smaller sum being requisite for their weekly stock of tea, would enable them to spend a larger amount in other articles, among which sugar would, undoubtedly, be one of the most important. The merchant, shipowner, manufacturer, and all connected with the trade between Great Britain and China, are in a position to see the prodigious advantages that such a measure as an extensive reduction of the impost on tea would occasion to the general trade of the country; and the public at large, who are not practically familiar with the subject, only require it to be brought before them in a distinct point of view, when the important results of such a reduction cannot fail to be apparent to them.

Tea is not now within the reach of the poor man. A person taking tea once a day, will consume about 7½ lbs. a year.

lbs.
Say 500,000 persons take tea twice a day, or 15 lbs. a year, is 7,500,000
Say 4,000,000 persons take tea once a day, or 7½ lbs. a year, is 30,000,000
Say 12,000,000 persons take tea once a week, or 1 lb. a year, is 12,000,000
----------
49,500,000

Which shows that, at present, only one person out of every sixty can have tea twice a day; one of every seven only once a day; and that out of the remaining 13,500,000 persons, only five millions and a half can procure it once in the week. The exact state of the case shows that only eight millions of the people of the United Kingdom enjoy the use of tea, leaving the other twenty-two millions excluded. A Chinese will consume thirty pounds of tea in the year.

But it is said we must not, if our accumulated stocks be drank off this year, expect the Chinese to meet at once so huge an increase in the demand as to supply us with as much next year.

Now on no point of the case is the evidence so clear as upon the capacity of the Chinese to furnish, within any year, any quantity we may require. The Committee of 1847, on Commercial Relations with China, state--"That the demand for tea from China has been progressively and rapidly rising for many years, with no other results than that of diminished prices:"--a fact to be accounted for only upon the supposition that our ordinary demand is exceedingly small in proportion to the Chinese supply. Nor is it an unreasonable inference, that if so much more than usual was to be had at a less price than before, any rise of price, however trivial it might be, would bring forward a much larger quantity:[8] a supposition which is completely confirmed by a review of prices here, and exports from China within the last four years; and in considering which it is important to bear in mind--1st, that our tea trade year, on which our account of import, export, home consumption, and stock on hand is taken, is from January to January, and the Chinese tea year from July to July; 2nd, that a rise at the close of the last months of the year in England, influences the next year's exports from China; and 3rdly, that of late years, since something of decrepitude has fallen upon the Chinese Government, smuggling there, to escape the export duty, has been carried on largely and at an increasing rate, so that the return is considerably below the real export.

In the Chinese tea year, July to July, 1848-9, the price of good ordinary congou, the tea of by far the largest consumption here, and which, in fact, rules the market, was 8½d. to 9-1/3d., and the export from China 47,251,000 lbs. The year closed with the higher price, and the Chinese export from July 1849, to July 1850, was 54,000,000 lbs., showing an increase of export on the year of 6,750,000 lbs. Throughout 1850, here, prices fluctuated a good deal. They were low in the earlier part of the year, but in January went up from 9½d. to 11½d., and from July 1850, to July 1851, the export from China rose to 64,000,000 lbs., being an increase of ten million pounds on a previous increase of nearly seven million lbs. Prices here, during 1851, varied very much: it was difficult to say whether any rise would be established, but the export still went up and reached, from July 1851, to July 1852, 67,000,000 lbs., giving a total increase in three years of 19,750,000 lbs. Nor was it pretended that in any of those years the Chinese market showed even the least symptoms of exhaustion. "We know," say the Committee, "that the Chinese market has never been drained of tea in any one year, but that there has been always a surplus left to meet any extraordinary demand." But the effect of the rise in price in 1850 is still more forcibly shown by a comparison of our total imports in that and the following year. In 1850 we imported 48,300,000 lbs.; in 1851, 71,500,000 lbs., being an increase of 23,200,000 lbs. Doubtless the Chinese export, if made up totally with our year, would not account for the whole quantity, part of which is to be set down to Chinese export-smuggling, and part to arrivals from America and the Continent. The probability is that the increase of price referred to above never reached the Chinese tea farmers; the supply came from the merchants' stock on hand. The rise was, besides, uncertain, and from any established advance a much larger increase of export might be looked for.

But the mistake made in England in estimating what tea we may look for from China goes upon the supposition that they grow expressly for us: the fact being, as stated by Mr. Robt. Fortune, in his recently published "Tea Districts of China," "that the quantity exported bears but a small proportion to that consumed by the Chinese themselves." On this point the report of the Parliamentary Committee is explicit:--"There is a population in China, commonly assumed at above three hundred millions, at all hours in the day consuming tea, which only requires some change of preparation to be fit for exportation; thus implying an amount of supply on which any demand that may be made for foreign export can be, after a very short time, but slightly felt." Mr. Fortune, in his evidence, says "that the Chinese drink about four times as much as we do: they are always drinking it." Four times as much is probably very much an under-estimate. With rich and poor of all that swarming population, tea, not such as our working classes drink, but fresh and strong, and with no second watering, accompanies every meal. But even taking their consumption at four times as much per head as ours, and their population at the lowest estimate, at three hundred millions, their consumption, setting ours at 55,000,000 lbs., will be no less than two thousand two hundred millions of pounds per annum, or forty times the quantity used in the United Kingdom. As reasonably might the few foreigners who visit the metropolis in the summer expect to cause a famine of fruit and vegetables in London, as we that a doubling of our demand for tea would be felt in China. The further fifty-five million pounds would be but another fortieth of what they use themselves, and would have no more effect upon their entire market than the arrival of some thousand strangers within the year in London would have upon the supply of bread or butchers' meat. There is no need, therefore, to wait for the extension of tea plantations, and so far from taking for granted the statement of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, "that time must be given to increase production, and that the point of its taking three or four years to make a tea-tree is to be considered in dealing with the duties," we have the fact unmistakeably before us, that the production is already so vast, that any demand from us could have no appreciable effect. And as to future supplies, if we should come to drink as much as the Chinese themselves, a matter not at all needful to be considered at present, the Committee report that "the cultivation of the plant may be indefinitely extended;" whilst Mr. Fortune, who has been upon the spot, states "that there is not the slightest doubt that there is a great part of the land which is nearly uncultivated now, which, were there a demand for tea, could be brought into cultivation. The cost would be very little indeed; they would cut down a quantity of brushwood, and probably dig over the ground and plant the bushes. They could clear and plant it in the same year, and in about two years they could get something from it." As, however, without this extension they have hitherto found enough for the increase of their own vast population, for every extension of demand from us and every other foreign customer, whether by land or water, without the least tendency to an advance in price, there is no need to do more than thus touch upon the undeveloped resources of tea production.--_Travers on the Tea Duties_.

The consumption of tea in Russia is very great, as the middling classes make a more frequent use of that beverage than the rest. Every year 60,000 chests of tea arrive at Maimiatchin and Kiakhta, of the declared official value of £1,185,000 sterling; and to this may be added £38,650 for inferior tea used by the people of the south, which makes the total declared value of the tea introduced about one and a quarter million sterling. The consumption of Russia may be assumed at over fifteen millions of pounds, although we have no correct data, as in the case of shipping returns, to calculate from. In 1848, however, the Russians took 136,217½ boxes of fine tea of the Chinese, for which they paid 5,349,918 silver roubles--one million sterling. The quantity forwarded from Kiakhta into the interior consisted of--

Foods.
Flowery or Pekoe tea 69,677
Ordinary tea 183,752
Brick tea 116,249
Equal to about fifteen million lbs. English.

_Brick tea of Thibet._--A sample of this curious product was shown by the East India Company in 1851. It is formed of the refuse tea-leaves and sweepings of the granaries, damped and pressed into a mould, generally with a little bullock's blood. The finer sorts are friable masses, and are packed in papers; the coarser sewn up in sheep's skin. In this form it is an article of commerce throughout Central and Northern Asia and the Himalayan provinces; and is consumed by Mongols, Tartars, and Tibetans, churned with milk, salt, butter, and boiling water, more as a soup than as tea proper. Certain quantities are forced upon the acceptance of the Western tributaries of the Chinese Empire, in payment for the support of troops, &c.; and is hence, from its convenient size and form, brought into circulation as a coin, over an area greater than that of Europe.--_Dr. Hooker, in Jury Reports_.

The quantity and value of the tea imported into the United States, from 1821, is thus stated:--

Years. Pounds. Value, dolls.
1821 4,975,646 1,322,636
1822 6,639,434 1,860,777
1823 8,210,010 2,361,245
1824 8,920,487 2,786,812
1825 10,209,548 3,728,935
1826 10,108,900 3,752,281
1827 5,875,638 1,714,882
1828 7,707,427 2,451,197
1829 6,636,790 2,060,457
1830 8,609,415 2,425,018
1831 5,182,867 1,418,037
1832 9,906,606 2,788,353
1833 14,639,822 5,484,603
1834 16,282,977 6,217,949
1835 14,415,572 4,522,806
1836 16,382,114 5,342,811
1837 16,982,384 5,903,054
1838 14,418,112 3,497,156
1839 9,439,817 2,428,419
1840 20,006,595 5,427,010
1841 10,772,087 3,075,332
1842 13,482,645 3,567,745
1843 12,785,748 3,405,627
1844 13,054,327 3,152,225
1845 17,162,550 4,802,621
1846 16,891,020 3,983,337
1847 14,221,410 3,200,056
1848 18,889,217

The annual reports of the Secretary to the Treasury, for the last twenty years, show a considerable increase in the consumption of tea in the United States, but not so great as in the article of coffee. The establishment of tea shops, in all the large cities of America, is a new feature in the retail trade, dating only some six years back.

The average rate of duty, which previously ranged between thirty and thirty-four cents. per pound, was reduced in 1832 to fourteen cents (7d.) a pound.

The proportion of green to black used is shown by the following return of the imports:--

lbs.
1844 Green 10,131,837
Black 4,125,527
----------
Total 14,257,364

1845 Green 13,802,099
Black 6,950,459
----------
Total 20,752,558

The large import of 1840, of 250,000 chests, of which 200,000 were green, was in anticipation of the disturbances arising from the war with Great Britain, and the blockade of the ports.

In 1850, there were 173,317 chests of green tea, and 91,017 of black tea exported from China to America; these quantities, with a further portion purchased from England, made a total of about twenty-three million lbs. of tea which crossed the Atlantic in 1850.

The imports and exports of tea into the United States, in the years ending Dec. 31st, 1848 and 1849, were as follows:--

IMPORTS.
1849. 1848.
lbs. lbs.
Green 14,237,700 13,686,336
Black 5,999,315 3,815,652
---------- ----------
Total 20,236,916 17,503,988

EXPORTS.
Green 230,470 262,708
Black 186,650 194,212
---------- ----------
Total 417,120 456,920

The value of tea imported into the United States during the year ending June 30th, 1851, amounted to 4,798,006 dollars (nearly £1,000,000 sterling); of this was re-exported a little over 1,000,000 dollars worth, leaving for home consumption 3,668,141 dollars.

The quality of tea depends much upon the season when the leaves are picked, the mode in which it is prepared, as well as the district in which it grows.

The tea districts in China extend from the 27th degree to the 31st degree of north latitude, and, according to missionaries, it thrives in the more northern provinces. Koempfer says it is cultivated in Japan, as far north as 45 degrees. It seems to succeed best on the sides of mountains, among sandstone, schistus, and granite.

In 1834, the East India Company introduced the cultivation of tea in Upper Assam, where it is said to be indigenous; and they now ship large quantities of very excellent tea from thence.

Mr. Boyer, director of the museum at Port Louis, Mauritius, has succeeded in rearing 40,000 tea-trees, and expresses an opinion, that if the island of Bourbon would give itself up to the cultivation, it might easily supply France with all the tea she requires.

The culture has also been commenced on a small scale, in St. Helena, and the Cape Colony.

The cultivation of the tea-tree might be tried with probability of success in Natal, and the Mauritius. The plant grows in every soil, even the most ungrateful; resists the hurricanes, and requires little care. The picking of the leaves, like the pods of cotton, is performed by women, children, and the infirm, without much expense. The preparation is known to the greater part of the Chinese, of whom there are so many in Mauritius; besides, it is not difficult. A Mr. Duprat has, I am informed, planted a certain extent of land in the neighbourhood of Cernpipe, in that island, but I have not yet learnt with what success.

The tea-plant has been successfully cultivated, on a large scale, in the island of Madeira, at an elevation of 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, by Mr. Hy. Veitch, British ex-Consul. The quality of the leaf is excellent. The whole theory of preparing it is merely to destroy the herbaceous taste, the leaves being perfect, when, like hay, they emit an agreeable odor. But to roll up each leaf, as in China, is found too expensive, although boys and girls are employed at about two-pence or three-pence per day. Mr. Veitch has, therefore, tried the plan of compressing the leaves into small cakes, which can be done at a trifling expense. It is performed when the leaf is dry; whereas, the rolling requires moisture, and subsequent roasting on copper plates is necessary to prevent mustiness. In this process the acid of the tea acts upon the copper, and causes that astringency which we remark in all the China teas.

The tea of Cochin China is considered inferior to that of China, being less strong and pleasant in flavour.

An inferior sort of tea, with a leaf twice or thrice as large as that of Bohea, grows wild in the hilly parts of Quang-ai, and is sold at from 12s. 6d. to 40s. the picul of 133lbs.

The Dutch have devoted much attention to tea cultivation in Java, and the plantations are in fine order. Nearly a million lbs. of tea were shipped thence in 1848; but the tea is said to be of inferior quality, and grown and manufactured at considerable expense.

Japan produces both black and green tea. The Japanese prefer the latter to the Chinese green tea. The black tea is very bad. The Japanese tea-tree, is an evergreen, growing in the most sterile places to the height of about six feet. It is described as above, by Koempfer, as having leaves like the cherry, with a flower like the wild rose; when fresh, the leaves have no smell, but a very astringent taste. Tea grows in all the southern provinces of Japan, but the best green is produced in the principality of Kioto, where it is cultivated with great care.

A few years ago, Messrs. Worms attempted the cultivation of tea in Ceylon. The island, however, lies too far within the tropics to offer a climate like Assam, which is situate without them. The plants may thrive to appearance, but that is not a demonstration of their quality. The tea-plant has reached upwards of six feet in height at Pinang, and in as healthy a state as could be desired, but the leaf had no flavor, and although thousands of Chinese husbandmen cultivate spices, and other tropical productions on that island, no one thinks it worth while to extend the cultivation of the tea-plant in Pinang. The Chinese there laugh at the idea of converting the leaf into a beverage.

The cultivation of the tea-plant has been introduced into the United States, and those planters who have tried the experiment have succeeded beyond their highest expectations. Dr. Junius Smith had successfully cultivated the plant on his property called Golden grove, near Grenville, in South Carolina. His plants were in full blossom, and as healthy and flourishing as those of China at the same stage of growth. Everything connected with them looked favorable, and Dr. Smith felt abundantly encouraged to extend the culture of the several descriptions of tea upon his property. It is stated that his expectations were so great, that he contemplated to place fresh tea on the tea-tables of England and Paris in twenty days, from the plantation. He had a large supply of plants, and tea seed enough for a million more. The black descriptions blossomed earlier than the green plant, but the latter also blossomed luxuriantly.

He introduced at first about 500 plants of from five to seven years' growth, overland from the north-west provinces of India, and some from China direct.

In the close of 1849, he writes me:--

"During the past year the tea-plant under my care has passed through
severe trials, from the injury received in transplanting, from the
heat generated in the packing-cases, from the want of shelter during
the severe frosts of February, from the excessive heat in June, and
from the drought of 58 days' continuance in July and August. The
plants were divested of their leaves and generally of their branches
and twigs in February, during my absence in New York. Knowing that
the plants were tender, and not fortified by age and mature growth
against severe weather, I had directed them to be covered in case a
material change of temperature should occur. But these orders were
neglected, and they consequently suffered from that cause.

The plant is sufficiently hardy to resist any weather occurring in
this part of the country, when seasoned for one year.

The plant has grown thrifty since April, and the quantity of
foliage, buds, and blossoms, show that the root has taken strong
hold, and is now fully equal to produce its fruit next autumn, which
always follows the year after the blossoms. I have a variety of both
black and green tea-plants. The buds and blossoms of the latter did
not appear until a fortnight after the black tea-plant. But the
blossoms were larger when they did appear in September, October,
November, and December. From present appearances, I think the
blossoms of some of the late plants will continue to unfold until
spring. It is not an unusual thing for the blossoms and the fruit to
appear at the same time upon the same plant. In this particular it
differs from any plant I have seen. As my chief object, at present,
is to cultivate and increase the tea-nut, it will be a year or two
perhaps before I attempt to convert the leaf into tea. The root
supports the leaf and fruit, and the leaf the root, so that neither
can be spared without detriment.

This climate appears congenial to the growth of the plant, and the
soil is so diversified in this mountainous district, that there is
no difficulty in selecting that best adapted to seed-growing plants,
or that designed for the leaf only. Upon the plantation purchased
this summer, I have light-yellow, dark-brown, and red clay subsoil,
of a friable character, with a surface soil sufficiently sandy to
answer the demands of the plant. I do not see any reason to doubt,
from a year's experience, that the tea-plant in its varieties will
flourish in what I heretofore denominated the tea-growing district
of the United States, as well as in any part of China.