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

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Net cost of 54,000,000 pounds, average 1s. per pound L2,700,000
Export duty in China of 11/2d. a lb. 337,500
Shipping charges, &c., in China 25,000
Freight, &c., China to England, about 2d. per lb. 450,000
Insurance, 1/2d. per lb. 112,500
Commission, about 1/4d. per lb. 56,250
Tasting charges, &c., about 1/8 of a penny per lb. 28,125
Interest for 6 months on L3,709,375 at 5 per cent. 92,734
---------
Total outlay in China L3,802,109
Profit to exporters in China,(about 12 per cent.) 445,116
Landing charges, &c., in England 39,000
----------
Cost price in bond in England L4,286,225
Duty received by government at 2s. 21/2. per lb., about 5,985,482
----------
L10,271,707
Profit divided among tea-brokers, wholesale and retail
dealers, &c 1,878,293
----------
Total outlay by British public for tea, at 4s. 6d. per lb. L12,150,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

L
The cost of tea to America, at the ship's side in China,
say 29,000,000 lbs., at an average of 1s. per lb.,
would be 1,450,000
The cost to England, 64,000,000, at the same price 3,200,000
The cost to other places, say 25,000,000 1,250,000
Russia, 15,000,000 750,000
----------
Total L6,650,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tea is not now within the reach of the poor man. A person taking tea
once a day, will consume about 71/2 lbs. a year.

lbs.
Say 500,000 persons take tea twice a day, or 15 lbs. a year, is 7,500,000
Say 4,000,000 persons take tea once a day, or 71/2 lbs. a year, is 30,000,000
Say 12,000,000 persons take tea once a week, or 1 lb. a year, is 12,000,000
----------
49,500,000

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

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

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

In the Chinese tea year, July to July, 1848-9, the price of good
ordinary congou, the tea of by far the largest consumption here, and
which, in fact, rules the market, was 81/2d. to 9-1/3d., and the export
from China 47,251,000 lbs. The year closed with the higher price, and
the Chinese export from July 1849, to July 1850, was 54,000,000 lbs.,
showing an increase of export on the year of 6,750,000 lbs. Throughout
1850, here, prices fluctuated a good deal. They were low in the
earlier part of the year, but in January went up from 91/2d. to 111/2d.,
and from July 1850, to July 1851, the export from China rose to
64,000,000 lbs., being an increase of ten million pounds on a previous
increase of nearly seven million lbs. Prices here, during 1851, varied
very much: it was difficult to say whether any rise would be
established, but the export still went up and reached, from July 1851,
to July 1852, 67,000,000 lbs., giving a total increase in three years
of 19,750,000 lbs. Nor was it pretended that in any of those years the
Chinese market showed even the least symptoms of exhaustion. "We
know," say the Committee, "that the Chinese market has never been
drained of tea in any one year, but that there has been always a
surplus left to meet any extraordinary demand." But the effect of the
rise in price in 1850 is still more forcibly shown by a comparison of
our total imports in that and the following year. In 1850 we imported
48,300,000 lbs.; in 1851, 71,500,000 lbs., being an increase of
23,200,000 lbs. Doubtless the Chinese export, if made up totally with
our year, would not account for the whole quantity, part of which is
to be set down to Chinese export-smuggling, and part to arrivals from
America and the Continent. The probability is that the increase of
price referred to above never reached the Chinese tea farmers; the
supply came from the merchants' stock on hand. The rise was, besides,
uncertain, and from any established advance a much larger increase of
export might be looked for.

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

The consumption of tea in Russia is very great, as the middling
classes make a more frequent use of that beverage than the rest. Every
year 60,000 chests of tea arrive at Maimiatchin and Kiakhta, of the
declared official value of L1,185,000 sterling; and to this may be
added L38,650 for inferior tea used by the people of the south, which
makes the total declared value of the tea introduced about one and a
quarter million sterling. The consumption of Russia may be assumed at
over fifteen millions of pounds, although we have no correct data, as
in the case of shipping returns, to calculate from. In 1848, however,
the Russians took 136,2171/2 boxes of fine tea of the Chinese, for which
they paid 5,349,918 silver roubles--one million sterling. The quantity
forwarded from Kiakhta into the interior consisted of--

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The value of tea imported into the United States during the year
ending June 30th, 1851, amounted to 4,798,006 dollars (nearly
L1,000,000 sterling); of this was re-exported a little over 1,000,000
dollars worth, leaving for home consumption 3,668,141 dollars.

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

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

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