I.—BOTANY, GEOGRAPHY, AND CHEMISTRY OF THE TEA-PLANT.
The tea-plant (Thea Sinensis) is a polyandrous evergreen shrub (belonging to Monadelphia Polyandria of the Linnæan system and to Ternastrimiaccea, or the Theads, of Mirbel, De Candolle, and Lindley), and is of the same family as the camellias, to one species of which (Camellia Sasanqua, introduced from China in 1811) it bears a very close resemblance. It usually grows to a height of from three to five feet. The stem is bushy, with numerous and very leafy branches. The leaves are alternate, large, elliptical, obtusely serrated, veined, and placed on short channelled foot-stalks. The calyx is small, smooth, and divided into five obtuse segments or sepals. The flowers are white, axillary, and slightly fragrant; often two or three together on separate pedicels. The corolla has from five to nine petals, cohering at the base. The filaments are short, numerous, and inserted at the base of the corolla; the anthers are large and yellow; the style trifid; and the capsules three-celled and three-seeded.
Tea is more or less cultivated, for local consumption, in almost every province of China, but very little black tea is exported of other growth than that either of Fukien or of the Canton district, and very little green tea of other growth than that of Kiang-nan, or of the adjacent province of Che-kiang. In Japan, Tongkio, and Cochin-China, the plant is largely cultivated. The attempts which have been repeatedly made to cultivate it in Ceylon (both by Dutch and English colonists), Brazil, and South Carolina, have had but little success. In Brazil, indeed, it grows luxuriantly, especially in the vicinity of New Friburg, St Paul, and Santos; gaining, says Dr Liataud (who went thither with a commission from the French government to inquire into this culture), "the proportions of a third-class tree, and with a rich foliage." But, he adds, the Brazilian teas are too astringent and bitter, and lack the aroma so much prized in those of China. The cost of manufacture, too, is much higher than in China. Hence he infers that, in the long run, the Brazilian teas will not be able to compete with the Chinese.
Sir Emerson Tennent considers that the experiments of Messrs Worms in Ceylon establish the adaptation of soil and climate, and shows that the practical failure of the attempt is to be ascribed simply to the want of skilled artisans.
In South Carolina, the experiment was begun in 1850, by Dr Smith of Greenville, and it appears to have been prosecuted, under sanguine expectations of success, for a considerable period. Its ultimate abandonment is said to have been caused by the high price of labour, rather than by any unfavourable circumstances of soil or climate; but the evidence before us does not warrant any confident conclusions on this head.
In Assam, tea was discovered by Major Bruce as early as 1823. The instructive history of this discovery has been told in a former article [Assam]. Its most recent commercial results we shall have Assam, to indicate hereafter. In 1834, Lord W. Bentinck appointed a committee to report as to the best methods of cultivating tea in India. This committee recommended that the attempt should first be made on the lower hills and valleys of the Himalayan range. Next to them, it was added, "those of our Eastern frontiers offer Tea plantations, and, after them, the Nilgirrhy and other lofty talons of mountains, in Southern and Central India."
An abundance of seed-plants of T. Beakes was obtained from China, layas, with which plants were raised at Calcutta, and then distributed to the Nilgirrhy, to Coriap, and to Mysore. But these first experiments almost entirely failed. Ten nurseries were then established in Kumaon and Garhwal, and they have prospered. The plantations in the valley of Deyra (Lat. 30° 18' N., Long. 78° E.) were visited by Mr Fortune in 1851. Here, the plains bounded on the S. by the Sewalik range, and on the N. by the Himalayas, open on the W. to the river Jumna, and on the E. to the Ganges, he found three hundred acres planted, and about ninety more ready for some thousands of seedling-plants which had just been raised. "The soil of the valley," says Mr Fortune, "is composed of clay, sand, and vegetable matter, resting upon a gravelly subsoil, consisting of limestone, sandstone, clay-slate, and quartz-rock." But, in his opinion, this valley is too flat, too much exposed to hot drying winds, and too much irrigated. The Guddowli plantation, near Paorie in Eastern Garhwal (30° 8' N. and 78° 45' E.), pleased him much better. It occupies a large tract of terraced land, extending from the bottom of a ravine 4300 feet above the level of the sea, up the slopes of the mountain to a height of nearly 5300 feet. About a hundred acres were then under tea-culture, and they contained some 500,000 plants, growing admirably, and evidently liking their situation. All this country is mountainous. Nothing meets the eye but hills, ravines, and glens. Some of the hills rise to a height of 7000 feet. But cultivated spots are plentifully dotted along the lower slopes, and the cottages and gardens wear a cheerful aspect.
At a smaller tea-farm, on the banks of the river Koolla, and not far from Almora, the chief town of Kumaon, he found under culture thirty-four acres of land, of a sandy loam, well mixed with vegetable matter, and much resembling, in its general appearance, the best tea-lands of China. The plants were in robust health. This was not the case with the plantations of the Illebail (29° 30' N. and 79° 30' E.), situated amidst the sublime scenes of the snowy range. The tal or lake is 4000 feet above the sea-level, and the loftiest of the surrounding mountains rises to more than twice that height. Some of these plantations are on low, flat land, better suited to the growth of rice than to that of tea. Others are terraced on the slopes, but suffer from the prevalent fault of excessive irrigation. There is great similarity between the climate of the Himalayan districts and that of the best tea-lands of China. The rainy season comes earlier in China than in India, and hence the highest temperature of the former country occurs in July and August; that of the Himalayas in June. The extremes of temperature are somewhat less here than in China.
In a letter addressed to the Government of Agra in March 1857, Dr Jackson, superintendent of the botanical gardens of the East India Company, states that the tea-plant is now thriving well from Hazaribagh, in the Scinde Saugar Doab of the Punjab to the Kalee river, the eastern boundary of Kumaon; or over five degrees of latitude and eight degrees of longitude.
The geographical extent of the principal tea-growing districts (excluding Java) may be roughly indicated thus:
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1 Liataud, Article contributed to the Rio Janeiro Journal of Commerce, translated by the author in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine (New York), xxxiii. 442-445. 2 Emerson Tennent, Ceylon (1859), i. 89; ii. 252. 3 Merchant's Magazine, xxiii. 679. 4 Journey to the Tea Countries, 368-370. 5 ib. 373. 6 Minutes of Evidence before Select Committee on Colonization (India), Session 1859, 3464. The most conspicuous chemical constituents of tea are— (1.) tannin or tannic acid, to which it owes its astringency; (2.) volatile oil, to which it owes its peculiar aroma; (3.) theine, the crystalline principle, which is characteristic alike of tea and coffee, and which is to those beverages what quinine is to bark. The other substances extracted from tea by chemical analysis are those which, in various proportions, enter into the composition of all plants. The volatile oil in good teas is about \( \frac{1}{4} \) per cent. The tannic acid varies in different sorts and according to different analyses, from 13 up to 26 per cent.; the theine is represented to vary still more considerably. Mulder obtained less than \( \frac{1}{2} \) per cent. of their weight from Chinese teas, and about a fifth more than that proportion from Java teas. Stenhouse obtained a little more than 1 per cent.; Péligot obtained about 6 per cent. The experiments of the eminent chemist last-named are of great interest, and merit a somewhat detailed description—
M. Péligot began by determining (by Dumas's process) the total amount of nitrogen contained in the tea-leaf, dried at 110°. In Pakoo tea he found 6-58 of nitrogen in 100 parts; in souchong and gunpowder tea, 6-15; in Assam tea, 5-10; a proportion nearly six times more considerable than had been shown in any previous analysis. Thence, testing every soluble or separable substance for nitrogenous matter, he proceeded, by successive eliminations, to ascertain the quantity of theine in twenty-seven different sorts of teas. He thus found that green teas contain, on an average, 10 per cent., and black teas 8 per cent. of water; that dried black teas contain on the average 43-2 of matter soluble in boiling water, and green tea 47-1 per cent.; that the ordinary black teas of commerce contain 38-4, and the ordinary green teas 43-4 soluble parts; and further, that in this soluble matter yielded by gunpowder tea, there was 4-35 per cent. of nitrogen, and in that yielded by souchong 4-70 per cent. It remained to determine whether this large quantity of nitrogen was wholly due to the theine, or due in part to any other principle. Having first ascertained that the precipitate obtained by the sub-acetate of lead contained no appreciable quantity of nitrogen, he then treated the theine by a modification of Mulder's process, obtaining from hyson, on the average, 2-48 per cent.; from gunpowder, 2-49 per cent.; from gunpowder, hyson, imperial, caper, and pekoe, 2-70 per cent.; and from gunpowder, on the average, 3-52 per cent. Greatly as these quantities exceeded those obtained by Mulder and by Stenhouse, they were still insufficient to account for the whole amount of nitrogen found in the infusion. By another and simple process, that of adding to the hot infusion, first sub-acetate of lead, and then ammonia,
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1 Mulder's analysis was made from the hyson and congou respectively, both of China and of Java. Its entire results were as follows:
| | Chinese Teas | Java Teas | |----------------|--------------|-----------| | | Hyson | Congou | Hyson | Congou | | Volatile oil | 0-79 | 0-60 | 0-98 | 0-65 | | Chlorophyll | 2-22 | 1-84 | 3-24 | 1-28 | | Wax | 0-28 | 0-00 | 0-32 | 0-00 | | Resin | 2-22 | 3-64 | 1-64 | 2-44 | | Gum | 8-55 | 7-23 | 12-20 | 11-08 | | Tannic acid | 17-90 | 12-88 | 17-56 | 14-80 | | Theine | 0-43 | 0-46 | 0-60 | 0-65 | | Extractive matter | Traces | Traces | Traces | Traces | | Apotheum | Traces | Traces | Traces | Traces | | Colouring matter, separable by muriatic acid | 23-60 | 19-12 | 20-36 | 18-24 | | Albumen | 3-00 | 2-80 | 3-64 | 1-28 | | Woody fibre | 17-08 | 28-32 | 18-20 | 27-00 | | Salts or ash contained in these constituents | 98-78 | 98-30 | 100-42 | 97-70 |
—Mulder, in Pharmaceutisches Central-Blatt (1838), 403. On the sanitary effects of tea, there was for a long period much controversy. The champion of "our wholesome English product, sage," as being far superior to "the boasted Indian shrub," was but one of a host who attacked it as an innovation pregnant with danger both to health and good morals. Some of them, however, although resolute for its banishment from the caddy, were willing to give it a place in the medicine chest. Among many other novelties," says a medical writer in 1722, "there is one which seems to be particularly the cause of the hypochondriac disorders, and is generally known by the name of tea, or tea. It is a drug which of late years has very much insinuated itself, as well into our diet as regales and entertainments, though its occupation is not less destructive to the animal economy, than opium, or some other drugs which we have at present learned to avoid."
Dr Lettsom was the first medical writer who gave the public a reasonable and scientific account of the plant; but even his fears of its abuse ran away with his judgment. The poet who commends "the cups which cheer but not inebriate" must have been startled, if Dr Lettsom's tract ever fell into his hands, at the assertion, that "the first rise of this pernicious custom," of drinking spirits to excess, "is often owing to the weakness and debility of the system, brought on by the daily habit of drinking tea; the trembling hand seeks a temporary relief in some cordial, in order to refresh and excite again the enfeebled system, whereby such persons almost necessarily fall into a habit of intemperance." Here, assuredly, the exceptions must have been taken for the rule. That tea may be so abused as to create a craving for alcoholic stimulant is unquestionable. That, at any period, the abuse of tea has been so general as to become a main cause of drunkenness may safely be denied.
With the brain-workers, tea has always been a favourite beverage. The subdued irritability, the refreshed spirits, the renewed energies, which the student so often owes to it, have been the theme of many an accomplished pen. To say nothing of our own familiar poets and essayists, its praises have been sung by Herrichien and by Francius, in Greek verses; by Pechlin, in Latin epigrams; by Pierre Petit, in a Latin poem of five hundred lines; and by a German versifier, who celebrates, in a fashion of his own, its "burial and happy resurrection." Huét, bishop of Avranches, has also paid his grateful tribute to a stimulant, to which, probably, no scholar was ever more indebted, and which he continued to enjoy at the age of ninety. Johnson, indeed, wrote no verses in its honour; but he has drawn his own portrait as "a hardened and shameless teadrinker, who, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle had scarcely time to cool; who with tea amused the evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed the morning."
The assailants are not so distinguished, but, as we have partially seen already, they have been quite as emphatic. Jonas Hanway, a man "whose failings," as Johnson said, "may well be pardoned for his virtues," is perhaps the most conspicuous of them. He looked abroad on the world (of which he had seen a great deal), and perceiving that many things went wrong in it, and that other things no longer presented the same attractive appearances he remembered them to have worn in his youth; remembering, too, that when he was young tea was very little drunk, whereas it had by that time come into almost universal use, he laid to its charge the evils and the disenchantments that oppressed his spirits. "Men," he says, "seem to have lost their stature and comeliness, and women their beauty.... What Shakespeare ascribes to the concealment of love, is, in this age, more frequently occasioned by the use of tea." To these complaints, echoes were not wanting; but, after a while, the tea-drinkers had it all their own way.
Briefly, it may be said, that to persons in health, besides the more obvious effects with which almost everybody is familiar, tea saves food by lessening the waste of the body; thus it soothes the vascular system, whilst it excites the brain to increased activity. Nor are its directly medicinal uses quite without importance. In the early stages of fever, it is a useful diluent; in the later ones, a tincture, made by macerating tea in proof-spirit, is sometimes administered with advantage. A very strong infusion of tea has proved an antidote in cases of poisoning by arsenic, and by tartarized antimony, as well as by opium. Under the infirmities of advancing age, when the digestive powers become enfeebled, and the size and weight of the body begin very perceptibly to diminish, the value of tea in checking the too rapid waste of the tissues is especially observable.
That the characteristic element, theine, should be present, not only in the tea-shrub of China and India, but in coffee, in Guarana officinalis, and in the maté-plant (Ilex Paraguayensis) of Paraguay,—of which last-named plant it is estimated that 40,000,000 lbs. are consumed annually in South America,—is a striking and beautiful fact. From plants so unlike in appearance, and so remote in birth-place, Cultivation myriads of people in all parts of the earth derive a refreshing and invigorating beverage, alike enjoyable by persons of all degrees of civilisation and culture. Under such a fact, there may well lie more significance than science has yet elicited.
II.—THE CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA.
Soil of the tea-lands.
The soil of the tea-lands of China varies very considerably, even in districts which are alike famous for the growth of the plant. That of the Bohea tea-hills, or Woo-e-Shan district, is described by Mr Fortune as being commonly a brownish-yellow adhesive clay, containing a considerable portion of vegetable matter, mixed with fragments of clay-slate, of a sandstone conglomerate, "formed principally of angular masses of quartz, held together by a calcareous basis of granite and of a fine calcareous granular sandstone. It has always," he adds, "a very considerable portion of vegetable matter in those lands which are most productive, and in which the plant thrives best. In the gardens, on the plains, the soil is of a darker and often of a reddish colour, and contains a still greater portion of vegetable matter. It is uniformly well drained, owing to the natural declivities of the hills, or, if on the plains, by being a considerable height above the water-courses." Mr Ball (long a resident in China as inspector of teas for the East India Company), to whom we owe the most satisfactory account of the culture of the tea-plant which has yet been given to the public, sums up an elaborate examination of this part of the subject, by stating that, whilst it delights in hilly sites of moderate elevation, the plant may be successfully cultivated along the banks of rivers, in a light stony soil, subject to occasional inundations; or in a soil, rich and somewhat compact, retentive of moisture, though of easy filtration; sufficiently porous to be permeable to the delicate fibres of the roots, and sufficiently tenacious to supply a healthy moisture, without being liable to be dried up and baked during the alternations of sun and rain."
Seven specimens of earth from Chinese tea plantations, analysed by Mr Faraday, gave the following results:
| Constituents | From Lake near Macao | From N.E. part of prov. of Fokien | From Pot Plant, Bohea | From the Bohea Tea-hills, Woo-e-Shan | |--------------|----------------------|-----------------------------------|-----------------------|-------------------------------------| | Sand | 461 | 17-70 | 10 | 51-54 | | Farruginous clay, &c. | 339 | 58-53 | 90 | 48-46 | | Stony fragments | ... | 25-77 | a few fragments | no stones but much mica |
In the analysis of the earth of a Japanese tea plantation, by Nees von Esenbeck and Marquart, 100 grains were found to contain 53 of silicious earth, 22 of clay, 9 of oxide of iron, ½ a grain of oxide of manganese and magnesia, ½ a grain of gypsum, 1 of humus, traces of phosphoric acid, and 14 grains of water. In appearance this earth is described as resembling slate atmospherically dis-
"The gypsum and the traces of phosphoric acid are owing to manure. An analysis of the soil of the tea and Manu-plantations in Assam, by Mr Piddington, is reported thus:—Silice, 85-40; carbonate of iron, 7-40; alumina, 3-50; water, 2-45; vegetable matter, 1-0."
The accompanying and from assertion that the tea soils of China and of Assam are Assam, "exactly alike" is insufficiently supported by the evidence adduced.
The tea-plant is propagated in China from seeds gathered in October, and kept, mixed up with sand and earth, during the winter. The seeds are sown sometimes in the rows plant in where they are to grow; sometimes in a corner of the tea farm, whence, when they are about a year old, they are transplanted. The preliminary hoeing of the ground is shown in the accompanying illustration, copied, like those ground, that follow, from a series of Chinese drawings now in the South Kensington Museum.
"In sowing the seed," says the Kiun Fang Pu, quoted by Mr Ball, "use paddy husk and parched earth. Put from six to ten seeds into each hole, placing them about an inch below the surface of the ground." The rows are usually about four feet apart. This operation is shown thus:
"When the plants begin to germinate," continues the Watering, Kiun Fang Pu, "the weeds ought not to be raked up. If the season be dry, water them with water in which rice has been washed, and manure them often with manure in a liquid state, or with the dung of silk-worms. Water lodging about the roots of the plants will inevitably destroy them." The manuring process seems to be more
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1 Fortune, Two Visits to the Tea Countries, ii. 195, 217. 2 Von Siebold, Andeut und Berichtig des Thes auf Japan (Nippon) § vi.) 18. 3 As quoted by Mr P. Saunders in his Evidence before the Committee on Colonization of India (Minutes of Evidence, 1859, 3409). Cultivation used in the green tea districts than in the black tea districts.
"That tea," says another Chinese authority, "is the most fragrant which is not manured."
The young plants are generally allowed to grow until they are pretty well established, and are producing strong and vigorous shoots before the first gathering of their leaves. Sometimes this first gathering takes place in the second, sometimes in the third year. It begins in the Woo-e-Shan district about the 5th of April, and consists of the young leaf-buds just beginning to unfold. These constitute "Pekoe," the highest quality of black tea. The practice is often very injurious to the health of the plants; but copious showers fall at this season, and fresh leaves soon show themselves.
The first gathering of the expanded leaf begins towards the end of April or commencement of May. A second gathering follows about a month later, and a third at the beginning of July. The autumnal gathering takes place in August or September. It consists of large and old leaves, and is of small value. In some districts there are but three gatherings in all. "The first," says the Wu-ye Shan-chy, "is fragrant in smell and full-flavoured; the second has no smell at all, and is weak in flavour; the third has a little scent, but is also weak."
When a sufficient quantity of leaves has been gathered, they are carried to the cottage, barn, or public factory in which the operation of drying is performed. But the first process is to class the leaves, which is done with more or less care, according to the kind of tea under treatment. As thus:
Then comes the first drying process. The leaves are put into round and very shallow pans or trays of thin iron, which are placed in shady situations in the open air; often under verandahs, as shown in fig. 8.
Other drying processes follow, which greatly vary, according to the character of the teas manipulated. For these operations the Chinese have a long series of technical terms, the explanations of which, as vouchsafed to the "outside barbarians," are often perhaps intended rather to mystify than to elucidate. In the preparation of some kinds, a man collects together as many leaves as he can hold, turns them over and over, and then tosses them sifting to a considerable height, repeating the process many times. Some of the finer sorts are neither handled nor tossed, but are simply whirled round in sieves, as in fig. 9. The roasting of the leaves is performed in shallow iron pans (called kuo), a series of which is built into brickwork, low in front, and rising very gradually at the sides and back; having a flue beneath them, and a fire-place at one end. In the first roasting of black tea, a fire is made of dry wood, and kept very brisk. The roaster throws a small quantity of leaves into the kuo, draws them, with a slight pressure of his hands, from side to side, and turns them over and over; repeating the process for several minutes, and keeping them constantly in motion. The leaves immediately begin to crack, and soon become moist, soft, and pliable. When the heat becomes too great, they are lifted above the kuo, and allowed to fall gradually, so as to cool them. If any leaves begin to burn, they are instantly removed.
When taken out of the pans, the leaves are thrown upon a table surrounded by several workmen, each of whom takes as many leaves as he can hold in his hands, and rolls them from left to right, with a circular motion which keeps them together. This rolling process is performed either on a bamboo table, or on trays of bamboo-work, so as to admit of the passing away of the expressed moisture. The leaves are thus both twisted and dried.
As soon as the operations of rolling and twisting are completed, the leaves are once more exposed to the action of the air; after which they are again roasted at a diminished heat, and with charcoal instead of wood. They are frequently shaken and screwed around the less heated sides of the pans, so as to quicken evaporation. Then follows another rolling, and in the preparation of some kinds of tea—as for instance those called "Yen" or "Padre souchong"—a third roasting and rolling. For some of the finer sorts, the last stage consists of a drying process, performed in flat cultivation-bamboo baskets or sieves, over a slow charcoal fire. A man-drying-basket or tube is placed over the charcoal stove, and is furnished with cross-wires, on which the sieve containing the leaves is placed. After about half an hour's exposure to the fire, another sieve is placed over that which contains the leaves, and both are reversed, so as to turn the leaves without mixing them. They are then rubbed between the hands, and sifted until they become black, dry, crisp, and well twisted.
The manipulation of such green teas as are not artificially coloured (a process to be described hereafter) differs from that of black teas chiefly (1), in the roasting of the green teas, leaves almost as soon as they are gathered; and (2), in the rapid drying of the leaves after they have undergone the operation of rolling; whereas the black teas, as has been shown, are exposed to the air between all the stages of manufacture, and are finally dried by a slow and elaborate process. An accomplished chemist, Mr Warington, of Apothecaries' Hall, has shown by analogy, in a very interesting manner, how these differences of manipulation affect the characteristic properties which distinguish good green teas from good black teas. "The medicinal plants, for the most part nitrogenous, brought to us," he writes, "by dealers or collectors from the country, when they arrive fresh and cool, dry of a bright green colour; but if delayed in their transit, or kept in a confined state for too long a period, they become heated from a species of spontaneous fermentation, and, when loosed and spread open, emit vapours, and are sensibly warm to the hand. When such experiments are dried, the whole of the green colour is found to have been destroyed, and a reddish brown, and sometimes a blackish brown, result is obtained. I had also noticed that a clear infusion of such leaves, evaporated carefully to dryness, was not all dissolved by water, but left a quantity of brown, oxidized, extractive matter, to which the denomination opatthene has been applied by some chemists; a similar result is obtained by the evaporation of an infusion of black tea. The same action takes place by the exposure of the infusions of many vegetable substances to the oxidizing influences of the atmosphere: they become darkened on the surface, and this gradually spreads through the solution; and on evaporation, the same oxidized extractive matter will remain, insoluble in water. Again, I had found that the green teas, when wetted and redried, with exposure to the air, were nearly as dark in colour as the ordinary black teas." The inference is obvious, that the peculiar characteristics which distinguish black tea from green are to be attributed to a sort of fermentation, accompanied with oxidization by exposure to the air.
The picking and classing of teas for the market are performed very diversely in different localities. Hand-picking the teas to remove the coarse leaves and stalks is seldom practised for market, with the ordinary black teas, but is essential in the preparation of twankay and hyson. The black tea markets are usually held every tenth day during the season, and the teas of a farm are carried thither for sale in quantities of from 100 to 200 chests at a time. Thence they are removed to certain villages where the teas of a district are collected, and at which the Canton Hong merchants and tea-factors have large packing establishments. The congoes are packed in parcels or "chops" of about 600 chests, each chest containing about 80 lbs. of tea. Each parcel is divided into two packings, consisting generally of 300 chests each. The teas which are to constitute one uniform quality of 600 or even 1000 chests consist, according to Mr Ball, of certain proportions of the three gatherings, collected from various farms. These teas having been previously classed according to their quality, a sufficient quantity to make a
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1 Warington, "Observations on the Teas of Commerce," in the Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society of London, iv. 159, 160. The final preparation and classification of the hyson teas Mr Ball describes as follows: — The rough or unpicked tea, when purchased by the factors, is brought home, and roasted for two hours and a half. In about a month they are sifted. In this operation, as Mr Ball saw it, four sieves were employed. The first received the rough tea, and passed "young hyson" and the smallest "gunpowder" and dust, which he calls No. 1. The second sifted the returns of the first sieve, and passed the small hyson leaves and the large round gunpowder, No. 2. The third sieve passed the middling-sized hyson leaves, No. 3. The fourth passed large hyson leaves, No. 4, retaining still larger leaves, No. 5, which were then roasted in a kuo considerably deeper than those already described, at a heat of 90° Fahr. They were winnowed, whilst hot, with large circular bamboo trays, so as to drive off a chaffy kind of skin or dust. The leaves were then strewn upon a table. The large open leaves and large knobby leaves were picked out by hand, and formed the finest sort of "hyson skin" (known commercially as pretty good bloom, brightish hyson kind mixed, knobby leaf); the remaining leaves were hyson. Next, the large leaves, No. 4, were roasted and winnowed in like manner. The knobby and other fine skin leaves were picked out (middling to good middling, bloom brightish, mixed knobby leaf); the residue were hyson (middling bloom, brightish twisted leaf). The middle-sized hyson leaves, No. 3, were then roasted at a diminished fire and for a shorter time. When winnowed, a middling quality of skin was fanned off (but middling to middling bloom, small twisted wiry leaf); leaving hyson, as before. And in like manner with Nos. 1 and 2.
III.—THE ARTIFICIAL COLOURING AND ADULTERATION OF TEA.
For consummate skill in the tricks of trade, the Chinese have long been proverbial. "They are a self-ended people," says an old writer, "having the same repute in Asia that the Jews have in Europe." A century afterwards, we find Duhaldie warning his readers that "the Chinese call a great many herbs by the name of tea which have no claim to that distinction," and which nobody so designates without special reasons for the compliment. But, as we shall see presently, although the Chinese have by no means forgotten their cunning, they have been far outdone, as respects the crafty manipulation of tea, by "self-ended people" of quite another race.
In the course of these inquiries into the adulteration of food by which Dr Hassall and the proprietors of The Lancet has conferred so eminent a benefit on the British public, 29 samples of black tea as imported from China, and 30 samples of green tea, also as imported, were analysed. Of the black teas none contained leaves other than those of the tea-plant. But 12 samples—being varieties of "scented pekoe," "scented caper," and "black gunpowder"—were largely adulterated, either with an imitation of tea formed of tea-dust and fragments of rice or paddy husks, or with glazing substances, such as black-lead, indigo, turmeric, and an iridescent powder resembling mica. The congou and souchong were free from adulteration. Of the 30 samples of green tea, every sample without exception was found to be adulterated. The substances detected were Prussian blue, China clay, turmeric, and a white powder variously composed, but usually consisting of kaolin, soapstone, or sulphate of lime. Five of these samples, called by the vendors gunpowder, consisted entirely of what the Chinese themselves designate as "lie-tea." They have had the candour, in this particular, to call things by their right names. This "lie-tea" is composed of tea-dust and straw made up with rice-water. Another sample was largely composed of paddy-husk and other fraudulent substances. Another contained a large admixture of foreign leaves. Every sample of the thirty was artificially coloured or glazed; not a single leaf of natural green was found. All, when deprived of their cosmetics, were either yellow, olive, brown, or black.
Four samples of black teas from Assam and two from Java analysed at the same time were found to be pure. Two samples of green teas from Assam and one from Kumaon were also found to be pure and uncoloured. One from Java was slightly faced with a white powder.
The colouring of green tea is an operation performed exclusively for the advantage of Europeans, and the Chinese make little difficulty in exhibiting the process. Yes, they sometimes say on such occasions, is, "in our opinion," better without Prussian blue and gypsum; but as foreigners seem to prefer an admixture of those ingredients with their tea, to make it look uniform and pretty, and as the ingredients admired are cheap, we have no objection to supply them, especially as coloured teas always fetch a higher price.
A recent inquiry into this branch of tea manufacture, Mr Berthold Seeman, was so much pleased with the gentlemanly frankness with which the operation was shown and explained to him, that he protests against the application to it of so coarse a term as adulteration, although the very manipulations which he witnessed produced to the courteous Chinese who displayed them the agreeable result of converting a black tea worth about 3d. a lb. into a green tea valued at 1s. 6d. Mr Ball, too, dismisses these dyeing processes with the gentle remark, that "when the leaf is deficient in the requisite colour, the Chinese do not hesitate to employ colouring matter to improve it."
The colouring, as seen by Mr Fortune in the Hwuy-Chow district, was performed by the foreman of the factory. Having procured a portion of Prussian blue, he threw it into a porcelain bowl, and crushed it to a fine powder. A quantity of gypsum was then burned, pulverised, and mixed with the Prussian blue, in the proportion of four parts to three. Then, about five minutes before the removal of the tea from the pans, the foreman scattered this mixture over the leaves in each pan. The workmen then turned them rapidly round with both hands, that the colouring matter might be equally diffused. In the course of this procedure their hands became quite blue.
The British methods of adulterating tea are very multifarious. British leaves of the beech, elm, horse-chestnut, plane, willow, poplar, haw-adultera-thorn, and sloe, have been repeatedly detected. The usual method is to dry the leaves, break them up into small pieces, mix them up tea, with a paste of gum and catechu or terra japonica, reduces them to powder, colour them with rose pink, and then mix them with tea-dust or with genuine black teas of inferior quality. The microscope is of great service in detecting fabrications of this kind, even when the leaves have been completely pulverised. Exhausted tea leaves mixed with a solution of gum or of terra japonica, re-dried and faced or glazed with a mixture of rose-pink and black-lead, are used to an enormous extent. Here the fraud can best be detected by chemical analysis. Logwood is used to give a high colour to the infusion of inferior black teas. If such an infusion be tested by... History of the addition of a few drops of sulphuric acid, a reddish tinge will indicate the presence of this substance. Powdered talc or soap-stone is used for the purpose of imparting a deceptive bloom. It is not easy to pulverize these substances so completely that fragments of them may not sometimes be detected by the naked eye.
Twenty-four samples of black tea, and twenty of green tea, purchased from various retailers in London, were analysed by Dr. Hassall and his colleagues. Of the black teas, eight only were found to be genuine; of the green, not one. Almost every fraudulent substance which has been mentioned was found in one sample or other, together in several instances, with a liberal mixture of the homely leaves of our English hedges. The colouring and glazing matters, it may be added, which are commonly used by the adulterators at home are of a more injurious and poisonous kind than those used in China. These facts afford a sad commentary on the hopeful prophecy of a writer of 1750. "Here," said he, "we are secured against sophistication, and know what 'tis we drink."
IV.—HISTORY OF THE USE AND COMMERCE OF TEA.
One of the writers of the able Historical Account of China, published in 1836, as a portion of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, has ventured to identify with tea the malabathrum mentioned in that very curious passage of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, in which, after describing "a city called Thins," the author (usually supposed to be Arrian) proceeds to narrate a yearly mercantile journeying to its neighbourhood of "a certain people called Scota, of short stature, broad face, and flat nose." The articles they bring for traffic are wrapped, he says, in mats which outwardly resemble vine leaves, and which they leave behind them on their departure. From these mats, it is added, the Thins "pick out the haulm called Petros, and drawing out the fibres, spread the leaves double, and make them up into balls, passing the fibres through them. In this form the balls take the name of malabathrum (Malabathrum), and under this name they are brought into India by those who pass through Thins. Under any interpretation, this is an obscure and confused story. Vincent unhesitatingly asserts that malabathrum is the betel leaf, so widely used in the East, with its arborescent, as a masticatory; whilst admitting the difficulty of understanding why it should be carried from Arracan to China, and then carried back to India by the Chinese. Horace mentions malabathrum, but only as an ointment. Pliny mentions it both in that sense, as a medicine, and as a masticatory. Dioscorides has it in the latter sense.
The writer of the Historical Account of China prefers to consider the passage in the Periplus as a clumsy account of a process not understood by the describer, but agreeing far better with the manipulation of tea than with that of the betel leaf; and his conjecture, unsupported as it is, merits citation, if only for its originality.
Chinese writers agree in the assertion that the tea-plant is indigenous in China, and that it was first discovered amongst the hills of those central provinces where it still grows so abundantly. Some of them place the date of the discovery in the eighth, some in the ninth century. There is independent evidence, in the narratives by two Arabian travellers, of their wanderings during the latter half of the ninth century—supposing those narratives to be trustworthy—of the use of tea as a beverage by the Chinese at that date.
Von Siebold, relying on certain Japanese writers who state that the Chinese received tea-plants from Corea, assigns its introduction to the year 922. But this story seems hardly plausible. Von Siebold himself observes that, in the southern provinces of Japan, the plant is abundant in the plains, but as the traveller advances towards the mountains it disappears; and hence he infers that it is an exotic. The converse of this holds good of China, so that a like inference would tend to confirm the assertions of the Chinese, that with them it is indigenous. In the Kangz-Moo, a historical epitome quoted by Mr. Ball, it is stated that an impost was levied on tea by an edict of the 14th year of Te-Tsong (A.D. 783). The Japanese writers say that tea was brought to them from China in the ninth century, and that in 1206 a temple was built on the first Japanese plantation in honour of the bozo who brought it.
The intercourse of the Portuguese with China dates from 1517. A little poem of Waller's has often been quoted to show that tea came to England with Catherine of Braganza. He knew better than to say so, but what he really asserts is unquestionably true—
"Venus her myrtle, Phoebus has his bays; Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise; The best of queens, and best of herbs, we owe To that fair nation which the way did show To the fair region where the Sun doth rise, Whose rich productions we so justly prize!"
No accounts at present accessible to us establish the date of the first importation of tea by the Portuguese, but the article is mentioned in one of the earliest privileges or licences accorded to them for trade. It is not until the expiration of more than half a century from the beginning of that trade that we find a distinct account from an Englishman of tea being bought. "The inhabitants of China, like those of Japan," writes Giovanni Pietro Maffei in his Maffei's Historia Indica, "extract from an herb called chia, a beverage account of which they drink warm, and which is extremely wholesome, being tea (pub. remedy against phlegm, languor, and bleakness, and a promoter of longevity)." Elsewhere he tells us that the Japanese are very skilful in preparing tea well-made, and that the most distinguished persons prepare it for their friends with their own hands, and even have rooms in their houses especially devoted to that service.
Giovanni Botero, in his treatise Della Cause della grandezza del Cito, also published in 1589, says of the Chinese, that they account have a herb whence they extract a delicate juice, which they use instead of wine, and find to be a preservative against those diseases which are produced by the immoderate use of wine amongst us.
The earliest mention of tea by an Englishman is probably that first contained in a letter from Mr. Wickham, an agent of the East India Company, written from Piranha in Japan, on the 27th June 1615, by Englishmen, another officer of the Company, resident at Mexico, and fishermen, asking for "a pot of the best sort of chaw." How the commission was paid does not appear, but in Mr. Eaton's subsequent accounts of expenditure occurs this item—"Three silver porringers to drink chaw in."
Father Alexander de Rhodes, who entered China in 1623, re-f. F. Alex. remained there more than twenty years, and afterwards travelled Rhodes' through other parts of Asia, asserts that, although the use of tea account, was then common throughout the East, and "begin, I perceive, to be known in Europe, it is, in all the world, only to be found in two provinces of China, those of Nanquin and of Chin-Chean, where the gathering of it occupies the people as the vintage occupies us.
All China, Japan, Tonquin, and other kingdoms use it, and the abundance is so great that it is sold at a very cheap rate." They drink it, he adds, at all hours. He found it, in his own experience, an instantaneous remedy for headache, and when compelled to sit up all night to hear confessions, its use saved him both from drowsiness and from subsequent fatigue. On one occasion, he tells us, he so sat up, for six consecutive nights, but he honestly adds that at the end of them he was very tired, notwithstanding the virtues of tea.
Adam Olearius, describing the travels of the embassy sent by the Duke of Holstein to Muscovy and Persia in 1633, writes of the Persians that they are "great frequenters of the taverns called Tere Chataat Chare, where they have chaw or cha, which the Usbek Tartars bring either from Chinal, . . . . The Persians boil it till the water hath run off, bittering it with a little sugar, and add thereto fennel, aniseed, cloves, and sugar. But the Indians only put it into seething water. The Persians, Indians, Chinese, and Japanese assign thereto such extravagant qualities, that, imagining it alone able to keep a man in constant health, they are sure to treat such as come to visit them with this drink at all hours. But this herb is now so well known in most parts of Europe, where many
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1 Hassall, ut supra, 259-291. 2 Treatise on the Inherent Qualities of the Tea-Herb (1750), 11. 3 The Voyage of Nearchus, and the Periplus, &c., Gr. and Engl., by Vincent (Oxford, 1809), 116, 117. Comp. Vincent, The Commerce of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean, ii. 462, 528-528, 735-739. 4 coromatus nitentes, Malobathro Syrio capillos." (Copra, lib. ii. ed. 7.) 5 Dat et malobathrum Syria, arbores folio convoluto, arido colore: ex quo exprimitur oleum ad unguenta; . . . sapor ejus nardo similis esse debet sub lingua." (Hist. Nat. xii. 69.) "Malobathri quoque naturam et genera exposuimus. Urinam clet," &c. (Ib. xxiii. 48.) 6 Malobathro Syrio capillos." (Copra, lib. ii. ed. 7.) 7 Historical Account of China, i. 152-154. 8 Antiquae Relationes des Indes et de la Chine, published by Renandot, 222-226. These narratives appear to have been extracted from the curious repertory of Masoudy, entitled, Morouj-ed-dokhob, or "The Golden Meadows," &c. 9 Von Siebold, Anbau und Berichtung des Thees auf Japan, ut supra, 3. 10 Maffei, Historiarum Indicarum lib. vi. 108 (Col. Agr. 1589). 11 Ibid. 242. 12 Botero, Della Region di Stato . . . Con tre libri delle Cause, &c., 350, (Ven., 1589). 13 M.S. records of East India Company, as quoted by Crawford, "Account of British Intercourse with China," (Murray's China, ii. 337). 14 Sommaire des divers Voyages, . . . du R. P. Alexandre de Rhodes, 27, 28, (Paris, 1653). History of persons of quality use it with good success, that it must needs be known what are both its good and bad qualities.
This author's visit to Persia, as secretary to the embassy whose proceedings he narrates, was made in 1637. His narrative appears to have been first printed for the press in 1639 or 1640, although its publication at St. James's did not occur until 1647. In English translation did not appear until 1666. But the earliest expressions as to the familiar use of tea in Europe, applying, as they do, to the period certainly not later than 1640, are sufficient to show that the ordinary accounts place the adoption of that beverage, at least as respects the Continent, too late. Mandelbo, who, after accompanying the Danish embassy, visited Japan in 1638, wrote either in that or in the following year:—
"As for tea, it is a kind of this or tea, but the plant is much more delicate, and more highly esteemed. The Japanese prepare it quite otherwise than is done in Europe. For, instead of infusing it [in the leaf] into warm water, they break it as small as powder ... and put it into a dish of porcelain ... full of scalding water."
Tavernier confirms Mandelbo's assertion as to the superiority of the Japanese tea, and he states that it was exported to Tonquin. "The tea most prized," he adds, "is that which makes the water green; that which makes it yellow is middling; that which reddens it is worst of all." In Japan the king and the grandees take only an infusion of the flower of tea, which is more wholesome than the leaf and of finer flavour, ... but so dear that the quantity which would fill one of our ordinary glasses costs about a crown of our money."
There is distinct evidence that for some years prior to the year 1657, tea was occasionally sold in England at prices ranging from £1.6 to £1.10 the pound weight. "In respect of its scarceness and dearness, it hath been only used as a regalia in high treatments and entertainments," writes the first English tea-dealer, Thomas Garaway, "and presents made thereof to princes and grandees." In that year the founder of the London Coffee-house, still so well-known as "Garraway's," purchased a quantity of the rare and much-prized commodity, and for the first time offered it to the public, in the leaf, at fixed prices varying from 15s. to 50s. the lb., according to quality; and also in the infusion, "made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travellers into those eastern countries."
The curious broadside which records this fact is without a date of publication, but from internal evidence must have been printed in 1659 or 1660; in which last-named year an act of the first Parliament of the Restoration imposed a tax on "every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, and tea, made and sold, to be paid by the maker thereof, eighteenpence." (12 Car. II., c. 23.)
Pepys' often quoted mention of the fact that on the 25th September 1660, "I did send for a cup of tea, a China drink, of which I never had drunk before," has been too hastily regarded as proving the extreme novelty of the introduction of tea into England at that date. But he was then not so prosperous a man as in after years, so that its price may have deterred him from any earlier experiment, as it must have deterred many other people. A later entry (28th June 1667) seems also to imply that it was never very much to his own taste. In 1664, we find that the East India Company presented the king with 2 lb. and 2 oz. of "thea," which cost 40s. a lb., and two years afterwards with another parcel containing 22½ lb., for which the directors paid 50s. a lb. Both parcels appear to have been purchased on the Continent. Not until 1677 is the Company recorded to have taken any steps for the direct importation of tea from China. The order then given to their agents was for "teas of the best kind to the amount of 100 dollars." But their instructions were considerably exceeded, for the quantity imported in 1678 was 4713 lb., a quantity which seems to have glutted the market for several years.
As yet no alarm had been excited that the use of tea was putting in peril the stalworthood of the British race. But some many fellows already looked with discontented eye at the growth of a practice which might make liberality with the tea-caddy an excuse for restrictions on the butter-hatch. In the very year of this large importation, we find Mr Henry Saville, writing to his uncle, Mr Secretary Coventry, in sharp reproof of certain friends of his "who call for tea, jugs at instead of pipes and bottles after dinner; a base, unworthy the growing Indian practice, which I must ever admire your most Christian family for not admitting." And he adds, with an audible sigh:—"The truth is, all nations are growing so wicked as to have some of these filthy customs!" Whether from some sympathy in the public at large with these indignant reprehensions, or from other causes, the whole recorded import of tea during the six years 1679-84, amounts to only 410 lb. But, in December 1680, Thomas The sur-Eagle, "at the King's Head in St James' Market," inserted in the London Gazette the following advertisement, which shows that tea still continued to be imported independently of the Company, but only (as its terms seem to imply) at rare intervals:—"These are to give notice to persons of quality, that a small parcel of most excellent tea is, by accident, fallen into the hands of a private person, to be sold; but, that none may be disappointed, the lowest price is 30s. a lb., and not any to be sold under a lb. weight." The "persons of quality" are also desired to "bring a convenient box with them."
The annals of the Company record that, in February 1684, the directors wrote thus to Madras:—"In regard tea is grown to be a commodity here, and we have occasion to make presents therein to our great friends at court, we would have you to send us yearly five or six canisters of the very best and freshest tea." And they add, almost in the words of Tavernier, "That which will colour the water ... most of a greenish complexion is generally best accepted."
Until the Revolution, no duty was laid on tea other than that levied on the infusion as sold in the coffee-houses. By William and Mary, c. 6, a duty of 5s. a lb. and 5 per cent. on the value was imposed. For several years the quantities imported were very small, and consisted exclusively of the finer sorts. The first direct purchase in China was made at Amoy; the teas previously obtained by the Company's factors having been purchased in Madras and Surat. During the closing years of the century, the amount brought over seems to have been, on the average, about 20,000 lb. a year. The instructions of 1700 directed the supercargoes to send home 300 tubs of the finer green teas, and 80 tubs of bohea. In 1703, orders were given for "75,000 lb. Single (green), 10,000 lb. imperial, and 20,000 lb. bohea." The average price of tea at this period was 16s. a lb.
At this date an ingenious attempt was made in China to match the exclusive privilege of importing tea accorded by the British Government to the East India Company, with a like exclusive privilege to one Chinaman, called "the Emperor's Merchant," of selling it for exportation. But the Company did not consider the charms of the precedent to afford any reason for satisfaction with its Chinese parody. They stigmatized the arrangement as "a new monster in trade;" but had to compound with the "emperor's merchant" for the waiver of his privilege, by a gift of L1600 for each ship; and soon afterwards the emperor imposed on In 1728 an additional tax of 10 per cent. was levied in like manner, which continued until 1736.
In 1721 the annual import had reached 1,000,000 lb.; and in 1728, 1,000,000 lb. The net produce of the duty in Great Britain was, in the latter year (1727–8), L104,300.
In 1728–9 it reached L133,821. During the hundred years from 1710 to 1810 the aggregate sale of tea by the East India Company amounted to 750,219,016 lb., worth L129,804,595 sterling. Of this aggregate quantity 116,470,675 lb. were re-exported, and 633,748,341 lb. retained for home consumption. The duties during those hundred years ranged from 4s. a lb. excise, with a customs duty of 14 per cent., which was the maximum (1722–1744), down to a total duty of 12½ per cent., which was the minimum (1784–1795), but which lasted only eleven years.
Macpherson estimates the former duty as amounting to a tax of 200 per cent. on the value of common teas. The extreme reduction, therefore, amounted to 187½ per cent., and its effects are instructive.
The first result of so enormous a tax had been to create a smuggling trade not less enormous. The second had been to offer irresistible lures to the adulteration of the teas imported or smuggled, and to the fabrication of counterfeit teas. The extent of the smuggling trade may be estimated from the fact, that whilst there is satisfactory evidence that, prior to the great reduction of duty in 1784, the annual consumption of real tea in Britain amounted to at least 13,000,000 of lb., the annual importation in British ships averaged but 5,639,939 lb., and the average export from China to Europe in foreign ships averaged 13,198,201 lb., so that British consumption was, in fact, in inverse ratio to British, as compared with foreign, importation. The extent of the fabrication trade can only be estimated conjecturally, but none, we think, who may look carefully into the abundant evidence, will incline to regard Macpherson's estimate, that it amounted to at least 5,000,000 lb. annually as an excessive one.
The first reduction of duties, in 1745, amounted, practically, to 50 per cent. The sales for home consumption of the five years preceding that reduction show an annual average of 768,520 lb., and an annual revenue, under the high duty, of L175,222. The sales for home consumption of the five years succeeding it show an annual average of 2,360,000 lb., and an annual revenue, under the reduced duty, of L318,080. The lesson seems uneludible, but it was not learnt. Between 1759 and 1784, the duties were again, by successive steps, carried up to about 119 per cent. on the value. The smuggling and the fraud again increased, and much more rapidly.
The second reduction of duties, in 1784, amounted to 106½ per cent. The sales for home consumption of the three years preceding that reduction show an annual average of 5,721,655 lb., and an annual revenue, under the high duty, of about L700,000. The sales for home consumption of the three years succeeding it—excluding the year 1784, in which the reduction was made—show an annual average of 16,044,603 lb.; and an annual revenue, under a duty reduced from 119 per cent., on the value, to 12½ per cent., of L318,426. In other words, little more than one-tenth of the former duty produced nearly one-half of the former revenue.
But the old course was soon reverted to. Notwithstanding the success of the Commutation Act of 1784 (so called because it commuted the old tea duty for a window-tax), the duty was doubled in 1795, and by several successive augmentations was, in 1819, carried up to 100 per cent. on the value, of all tea sold by the Company at 2s. the lb. and upwards, and to 96 per cent. on all teas of lower price. Under these enhanced duties the quantity retained for home consumption in Great Britain, which in 1795 had reached 18,394,232 lb., remained for many years almost stationary, despite the vast increase of population. In 1800 it was 20,358,702 lb.; in 1805, 21,025,380 lb.; in 1810, 19,093,244 lb.; in 1815, 22,378,345 lb.; in 1820, 22,452,050 lb. The net amount of duty in 1800, at a maximum rate of 40 per cent., was L1,152,262; in 1805, at a maximum of 95 per cent., it was L2,925,295; in 1810, at a uniform rate of 96 per cent., it was L3,212,430; in 1820, at a maximum of 100 per cent., it was L3,128,449.
The effects of this system—greatly aggravated as it was in its operation upon prices by the monopoly of the East India Company—are seen conspicuously if the relative consumption, per head of the population, be stated in decennial periods. Thus, in 1801, it was 1 lb. 3¾ oz.; in 1811, 1 lb. 1½ oz.; in 1821, 1 lb. 1½ oz.; in 1831, 1 lb. 4 oz. Coffee, which had been very differently dealt with, had increased in consumption from somewhat less than 1½ oz. per head in 1801, to 1 lb. 5½ oz. per head in 1831.
To show, even in briefest form, in what manner the Cessation Company's monopoly impeded the trade in tea, and aggravated the restrictive effects of high duties, would demand India Company space which is not here available. This part of the question has been elaborately investigated by Mr M'Culloch in his Dictionary of Commerce, and to that valuable work we refer the reader who may desire to pursue the subject.
Here it must suffice to note, that the monopoly was abolished, and it was made lawful for any person to import tea, by an act of 1833, 3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 85. The trade was opened on the 22d April 1834.
By an act of the same session, 3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 101, Duties on the ad valorem duties were abolished; and all bohea tea and free-imported for home consumption was charged with a customs duty of 1s. 6d. per lb.; congou, twankey, hyson skin, orange pekoe, and campoil, were charged 2s. 2d. a lb.; souchong, flowery pekoe, hyson, young hyson, and all unenumerated teas, 3s. a lb. In 1836 these duties were altered to a uniform duty of 2s. 1d. a lb., which rate, with the addition of 5 per cent., imposed in 1840, continued to obtain until 1851, when the penny was removed. In 1853, the duty was regulated with a view to its permanent reduction to 1s. per lb. in 1856. The plan then adopted fixed the duty at 1s. 10d. until 5th April 1854; at 1s. 6d. from 1854 to 1855; at 1s. 3d. from 1855 to 1856; and at 1s. from and after the 5th April 1856. But amongst the many Effect of sacrifices which were imposed on the British public by the Crimean war and necessary war with Russia, a sacrifice of the mean war great advantages accruing from this modification of the tea duties was included; and, like the others, it was borne ungrudgingly by the great majority. The duty, which had fallen to 1s. 6d., had to be raised to 1s. 9d.; but, in 1857, it was reduced to 1s. 5d., at which it still remains.
During the first entire year of free-trade in tea (1835), Imports, the aggregate importations amounted to 44,360,550 lb.; exports, those of the last entire year of the restricted trade (1833) of duty having been 32,037,852 lb. The quantity re-exported was, under free-trade in 1833, 254,460 lb.; in 1835, 2,158,029 lb. The amount trade-duty received in the former year was L3,444,102; that received in the latter, L3,532,427. The highest importation which has been attained is that of the year 1856, which amounted to 86,200,414 lb.; that of 1857 was 64,493,989 lb.; of 1858, 75,432,578 lb.; and of 1859, History of 70,500,000 lb. (of which 62,037,000 were black, and 8,443,000 green teas). The total deliveries of 1859 were 83,500,000 lb., against 81,000,000 lb. in 1858. The total exports of 1859, 7,200,000 lb., against 8,000,000 lb. in 1858.
The amount of duty received in 1858 was £6,186,171. The average price of tea per lb., including duty, was in 1853, 4s. 4d.; in 1858, 3s. 8½d.; in 1854, 4s. 9d.; in 1855, 3s. 1d.; in 1856, 3s. 1½d.; in 1857, 3s. 1¼d.; in 1858, 3s. 1¼d.; and, in 1859, 3s. 1d.
The disturbed relations with China have not recently been attended with such violent fluctuations in the tea market as at former periods. There has been less speculation than has often followed political events of much smaller moment. Even the news, in September 1859, of the repulse on the Peiho (although it led to large sales at an advance extending to 2½d. per lb. in a market which had been steadily rising during the greater part of the year, to an aggregate advance of nearly 25 per cent.—common congo reaching, at the highest point, 1s. 5½d.—and was followed by the usual reaction) induced no permanent belief that trade would be seriously interrupted. But as the stock remaining at the close of 1859 was less by 13,000,000 lbs. than that held at the corresponding period of 1858, and less by 25,000,000 than the average of the three previous years, the prospect of continued dependence on China, for our main supply, would be an unsatisfactory one, despite the enormous breadth of land which is under tea culture; the relative insignificance of our demand compared with that of the Chinese themselves; and the great interest they have in fostering that demand, whatever may be the policy pursued at Pekin. The potency of the last-named consideration is shown by the latest intelligence received from China whilst these pages are at press. Advices from Hong-Kong, of 28th February 1860, state that the shipments of the present season amount to 61,096,600 lbs., against 41,607,400 lbs. during the same period of last season, being an increase of 19,489,200 lbs. On the other hand, the plantations of Assam, of Kumaon, and of other parts of British India are making rapid progress, and their capabilities of further development are vast. Assam teas, from their strength and purity, have commanded high and increasing prices, but the cost of production is relatively low. Of these teas, the sales in 1847 were but 144,161 lb.; Summary of Statistics.
Recent effects on the tea market of the disturbed relations with China.
The imports of tea into the United States amounted in 1844 to 14,257,364 lb.; in 1848 to 19,339,083 lb.; in 1851 to 28,056,712 lb.; in 1852-3 to 40,960,737 lb.; in 1853-4 to 27,867,000 lb.; and, in 1855-6, to 40,246,000 lb.
Of the States of continental Europe, Holland and Russia rank highest in regard to the consumption of tea. Holland takes about 3,000,000 lb., chiefly from Java, in a year, the duty on which varies from 1½d. to 4½d. per lb. Russia takes upwards of 10,000,000 lb. yearly. France imported, in 1848, 1,244,193 lb.; in 1853, 280,779 lb.; in 1855, 577,073 lb.; and, in 1857, 647,496 lb. In Paris the consumption is steadily on the increase, but was estimated, in 1856, not to exceed 90,000 lb. a year, the average price of which was 6s. 6d. the kilogramme, or about 2s. 11d. a lb.
The consumption of tea, relatively to population, in the principal tea-consuming countries, may be estimated as follows:—In the Channel Islands (where there is no duty), 56 oz. per head; in the United Kingdom, 36 oz.; in the U. States of America, 16 oz.; in Russia, 4 oz.; in France, 1 oz.; and in the German Zollverein, ¾ oz. per head. Taking the component parts of the United Kingdom, the estimated proportion is—for England, 40 oz.; for Scotland, 35 oz.; and for Ireland, 23 oz. per head.
V.—SUMMARY OF THE STATISTICS OF THE TEA TRADE.
The first of the following tables shows the quantity and value of the tea imported from Canton by the East India Company and by private traders during the last 14 years of the old system, together with like particulars of the American imports during the same period. The second table exhibits the quantities of tea retained in the United Kingdom for home consumption, and its average price at various periods, and under various rates of duty, from the year 1728 to the year 1859, inclusive. The third table exhibits the imports and deliveries of tea in the United Kingdom for each year, from 1849 to 1859 inclusive:
| Year | East India Company | Private Traders | Total for Britain | American Trade | |------|-------------------|----------------|------------------|---------------| | | Quantity | Value | Quantity | Value | Quantity | Value | Quantity | Value | | 1820-21 | 28,807,733 | 1,677,682 | 2,592,266 | 196,294 | 31,399,999 | 1,873,886 | 7,890,267 | 447,649 | | 1821-22 | 25,010,800 | 1,555,182 | 2,776,890 | 220,443 | 27,787,690 | 1,776,625 | 9,312,957 | 555,164 | | 1822-23 | 27,580,400 | 1,644,446 | 2,121,773 | 159,064 | 29,702,173 | 1,803,510 | 11,303,733 | 632,591 | | 1823-24 | 22,850,440 | 1,777,038 | 2,246,933 | 151,572 | 25,097,373 | 1,926,610 | 10,152,267 | 633,740 | | 1824-25 | 22,835,133 | 1,690,702 | 2,331,866 | 201,520 | 31,167,999 | 1,892,222 | 13,741,467 | 974,235 | | 1825-26 | 27,970,533 | 1,541,022 | 2,563,866 | 185,716 | 30,534,399 | 1,556,738 | 12,750,000 | 953,229 | | 1826-27 | 40,105,068 | 2,109,499 | 3,535,465 | 228,204 | 43,640,532 | 2,337,703 | 8,577,467 | 452,274 | | 1827-28 | 33,455,465 | 1,858,343 | 2,142,666 | 147,212 | 35,598,132 | 2,005,555 | 10,416,934 | 687,569 | | 1828-29 | 29,631,200 | 1,686,708 | 3,329,098 | 185,059 | 32,960,266 | 1,871,767 | 9,851,067 | 590,182 | | 1829-30 | 30,691,200 | 1,647,359 | 2,986,400 | 150,044 | 33,677,600 | 1,797,433 | 8,827,200 | 530,545 | | 1830-31 | 30,476,533 | 1,692,453 | 2,748,533 | 143,199 | 33,225,966 | 1,835,652 | 7,251,467 | 428,061 | | 1831-32 | 31,668,333 | 1,699,498 | 3,196,133 | 160,995 | 34,864,333 | 1,860,463 | 11,183,334 | 779,350 | | 1832-33 | 31,328,400 | 1,747,471 | 2,915,068 | 169,014 | 34,243,466 | 1,916,435 | 16,327,600 | 1,259,177 | | 1833-34 | 30,775,333 | 1,681,229 | 3,870,800 | 221,974 | 34,646,133 | 1,903,203 | ... | ... |
We take these facts from the valuable Tea Reports of Messrs W. J. and H. Thompson, for the communication of which we are indebted to their courtesy.
Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, xxix. 105; xxx. 743; Tooke, History of Prices, vi. 727.
Tableau General du Commerce de la France, pendant les années 1848, 1853, 1855, 1857, (Paris, 1849-58), pp. 97, 130.
Husson, Les Consommations de Paris (1856), 356-361. II.—Duty, Price, and Consumption of Tea in United Kingdom, 1728–1859.
| Year | Average Price of good qualities, per lb.; in the Company's Warehouse (until 1830), or in bond. | Rates of Duty | Estimated Population (England and Wales only, until 1851) | |------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------|--------------------------------------------------------| | 1728 | [32s. 6d. (duty included)] | 4s. per lb., and L.13, 18s. 7½d. per cent. | 1,493,626 | | 1760 | | 1s. per lb., and L.43, 18s. 7½d. per cent. | 3,960,976 | | 1782 | 5s. congou; 9s. 10d. hyson | 1s. 1¼d. per lb., and L.55, 10s. 10d. per cent. | 6,302,257 | | 1783 | | | 4,741,522 | | 1784 | 4s. 10d. congou; 8s. 3d. hyson | L.12, 10s. 0d. per cent. | 10,150,700 | | 1785 | 4s. 3d. congou; 6s. 9d. hyson | | 14,800,932 | | 1786 | 4s. 6d. congou; 7s. 1d. hyson | | 15,851,747 | | 1795 | 3s. 9d. congou; 6s. 4d. hyson | L.20 per cent. | 21,342,845 | | 1801 | 3s. 5d. congou; 5s. 6d. hyson | L.50 per cent., at or above 2s. 6d., and L.20 under... | 23,730,150 | | 1821 | 3s. congou; 5s. 4d. hyson | L.100 and L.96 | 28,754,537 | | 1832 | 2s. 2½d. congou; 3s. 5½d. hyson | | 31,620,420 | | 1833 | 2s. 2½d. congou; 3s. 5½d. hyson | | 36,674,094 | | 1845 | 1s. 5d. congou; 2s. 7d. hyson | 1s. 6d. to 3s. per lb. | 44,193,433 | | 1855 | 1s. 7d. congou; 2s. 7d. hyson | 2s. 2½d. per lb., for all kinds | 62,429,286 | | 1858 | 1s. 8d. congou; 2s. 1½d. hyson | 1s. 5d. per lb. | 73,000,000 | | 1859 | 1s. 9¼d. congou; 2s. 9¼d. hyson | 1s. 5d. per lb. | 78,300,000 |
III.—Imports, Deliveries, and Exports of Tea, in and from the United Kingdom, 1849–1859.
| Year | IMPORT | DELIVERY | Of which exported | |------|--------|----------|-------------------| | | Green. | Black. | Total. | | | 1849 | 9,166,000 | 43,234,000 | 52,400,000 | 9,936,000 | 45,364,000 | 55,300,000 | 5,200,000 | | 1850 | 8,427,000 | 40,873,000 | 48,300,000 | 10,161,000 | 46,239,000 | 55,400,000 | 6,400,000 | | 1851 | 9,286,000 | 62,214,000 | 71,500,000 | 9,095,000 | 49,405,000 | 58,500,000 | 6,700,000 | | 1852 | 9,314,000 | 65,336,000 | 64,700,000 | 9,288,000 | 52,512,000 | 61,800,000 | 6,700,000 | | 1853 | 11,249,000 | 68,451,000 | 69,700,000 | 9,038,000 | 54,362,000 | 63,400,000 | 4,900,000 | | 1854 | 8,601,000 | 70,099,000 | 78,700,000 | 9,731,000 | 60,469,000 | 70,200,000 | 9,000,000 | | 1855 | 13,030,000 | 70,270,000 | 83,300,000 | 10,775,000 | 67,225,000 | 78,000,000 | 15,000,000 | | 1856 | 10,591,000 | 77,147,000 | 87,741,000 | 9,528,000 | 59,713,000 | 69,241,000 | 6,241,000 | | 1857 | 12,713,000 | 51,759,000 | 64,499,000 | 12,229,000 | 66,531,000 | 78,760,000 | 9,600,000 | | 1858 | 8,834,000 | 66,965,000 | 74,000,000 | 11,888,000 | 69,132,000 | 81,000,000 | 8,000,000 | | 1859 | 8,043,000 | 62,457,000 | 70,500,000 | 10,975,000 | 72,225,000 | 83,500,000 | 7,200,000 |
Of the many and pregnant lessons which are taught by the history of trade, none lies nearer the surface than that which warns us of the rashness of prophesying results, whilst we are under the excitement of a strife to carry or to defeat projects of legislative change, and certainly none is more frequently disregarded. Fifteen years ago, Parliament was strenuously assured, on high official authority, that it was "more than probable that tea has now reached the limit of consumption in England, and that any reduction of taxation would not augment the use of this nutritious leaf;" and it was confidently predicted, that "a reduction of the duties from 2s. to 1s., as proposed, would diminish the revenue one-half," without any perceptible corresponding advantage to the consumer." As we have shown already, the whole reduction then wisely projected has not yet been realized. The self-denial which is imposed on nations as well as on individuals, for purposes of a higher order than buying and selling, has had to step in between plan and execution. But the duty, which was then 2s. 2½d. per lb., has already been reduced to 1s. 5d. The revenue received in the year 1844, at the former rate, was L.4,524,193; that received in the year 1858, at the latter rate, was L.5,186,171. The results (thus far) to the consumer have been sufficiently indicated in the tables given above.
(E.E.)
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1 Martin, Report on Tea-Trade, ut supra; Parliamentary Reports, Accounts, and Papers, of various years; Tooke, History of Prices, i. 416; iv. 433; Tea Circulars, ut supra. 2 Tea Reports and Circulars, ut supra. 3 Appendix to Report from Select Committee on Commercial Relations with China, 500.