The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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Coffee exports from the ports of Havana and Matanzas, in Cuba, for the
years ending December in

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 41/2 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:--

L 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 91/2
1846 5,112,005 0 9 0 91/2
1847 5,066,860 0 81/2 0 91/2
1848 5,330,515 0 8 0 81/2
1849 5,471,641 0 81/2 0 91/2
1850 5,597,708 0 101/2 1 1
1851 5,902,433 0 8 0 81/2
1852 5,986,482 0 71/2 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 11/2 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, L3,760,000. 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 L2,910,474 L3,429,790
Shanghae 67,115 462,746
Ningpo 2,000 2,000
Amoy 544
Foo-chow-foo 638
--------- ---------
L2,979,589 L3,895,718

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 71/2 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:--