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THE TfiOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1SB4. 



THE INDIAN TEA AND SILK TKADE. 



(From tlie Times of India.) 

 An interesting article ou those two important 

 articles of Baitisli importation from the Far East, 

 tea and silk, appears in the current number of 

 the London and China Teleyrapli. In view of an import 

 of 61,000,000 lb. of Indian tea, says the wTiter, it is curious 

 to read in the latest edition of " M'CuUoch " ( 1880) a 

 doubt expressed as to whether tea culture will succeed in 

 Assam. The imports of Indian tea have now attained, 

 roughly speaking, to half the total from China. The ex- 

 periments made in Ceylon have proved completely success, 

 ful, and even the Javanese product is praised. Year by 

 year, therefore, the competition which China teas have 

 to sustain, becomes more keen, and the prices of the 

 comniouer kinds are so low that the duty is now almost 

 in the proportion of cent per cent as in the last century. 

 A 6d duty is equal to about 25 per cent ou the higher kinds, 

 while on common congou it seems so oijpressive as to cause 

 our contemporary to be surprized that the cry for the 

 breakfast-table has not again been raised. The imports 

 of tea increase every year, but it is not the China tea 

 which shows an increase, but Indian tea, the importation 

 of which advances " by leaps and bouuds." ■^Vhether in- 

 creasing or decreasing, however, the condition of the China 

 tea trade seems healthy enough. There are, at all events, 

 no rumour of disease in the plants, and no freaks of fashion 

 are likely to disturb the consumption. It is otherwise with 

 the othca- article named— silk. The fall of the crop from 

 the C0,000 to 70,000 bales of former days to the 27,000 

 bales at which the China 1883 crop is estimated, is a matter 

 for serious consideration. Uapropitious weatlior in the 

 spriug may, it is well-known, have very deleterious effects ; 

 but tlicr(! does not appear to be any instance on record 

 when the crop was thus reduced two-thirds; and there- 

 fore the report that the Oliekeang silk-men are 

 threatened with a visitationof the silk-worm disease, which 

 wrougiit such havoc in France and Italy not long ago, 

 is far from improbable. The disease apjicars to have been 

 effectually overcome in 'Em-ope, thanks to Pasteur's dis- 

 cove.rios, and tho trade in silkworms' eggs, at one time 

 an important feature in the Japanese export trade, has 

 become a thing of the past. It will be remarkable if tho 

 disease has now broken out in tho Far East. So far as 

 European holders are at present concerned, the silk year 

 has opened under favourable auspices for thom. It is a 

 significaut indication of the depression in tlie Oliina markets 

 that oven the comparative failure of the local crop did 

 not api)e,ar to help the great mandarin speculator out of 

 his enormous oporatiou. According to the latest advices 

 his endeavour to "corner" the silk market seems to have 

 completely failed, and his holdings have now i)assed into 

 tlie hands of foreigners, who have various chances in 

 favour of making this year some of tho profit which tho 

 Chinese speculator o,\-x>ected to make. 



TEA : ITS CULTURE AND CONSUMPTION. 

 The progress of tea-culture iu Assam, l and ' in various 

 other locahties beyond the limi ts of China Proper, within 

 the last haK-ceutury is of sufficient interest from manv 

 points of view to deserve notice. In Java, iu Burma, auil 

 in our own Eastern possessions from Ceylon to Singapore 

 and Perak hi the Malay Peninsula, tea-culture is full of 

 promise. The result affords a curious conuuentary ou the 

 falUbility of .spcciaUsts prouo to claim the authority of 

 experts for tlieir judgments. Oue of these, in the latest 

 edition of McCulloch's "Commercial Diction.-uy." a work 

 of great repute, says that, " notwithstanding the command 

 of comparatively cheap labour and a close resemblance of 

 the hills and table-lands of Assam to the te;i, districts in 

 China," he is not sanguine as to the result. For this ex- 

 pression, of doubt tliero miglit have been some show of 

 reason thirty ye;u-s ago, when Mr. Fortune's first oxperi- 

 meuts in the introduction of tlio tea-plant to Assam were 

 incomplete ; but it is quite misleading now, when by the 

 lat-'st returns we see that, while the estimated amount of tea 

 imported from China was lll,y.j,-),000 lb., from India wc 

 received .i9,097,000 lb. or 34 \im cent. This great pro- 

 gre.ss may well have exceeded all early anticipations. The 

 iuiportatiou of tea fts>iB Assam iu ISH fetood at l1,7'iO,W} 



lb. In 1878 it had increased to 3G,77l5,000 lb. and in 1880 

 to 13,807,000 lb. 



But not Indian tea alone competes with the Chinese 

 in the English market ; by so much, rendering the tea-con- 

 sumers here independent of Chinese produce. The experi- 

 ments made in Ceylon have proved eminently successful, 

 and the produce is reported not inferior to the superior 

 qualities of Chma. In like manner the Java tea receives 

 high praise. The competition, therefore, with China is be- 

 coming year by year more keen ; and the prices now 

 paid for the more common kiuds will ere long raise a com- 

 plaint of excessive charges for duty, which, at its pre- 

 sent rate of sixpence per pound, does not fall far short 

 of the ceut.-per-cent. rate of fifty years ago when the 

 duty fluctuated from two shillings to one shilUng per 

 pound. 



The chief consumers of Chinese tea are still the British 

 the Americans of the United States, (and the Bussiaus. 

 But in America it is chiefly green tea that is iu request, 

 as black is with us. The history of the growth of this 

 taste iu England is very remarkable. The East India 

 Company sent out their first order to their factors in 

 lOlii for 100 lb., after havmg offered 2 lb. of tea as a pre- 

 sent to the King. But iu 1060 Mr. Pepys tells us he 

 went to take a cup of the "new Chinese drink— tea." 

 From 1741 to 174.5 the importation did not exceed 708,420 

 lb; during the next five years it increased to 2,860,000 lb. 

 valued at £318, 080. In that year a duty of 4s per lb. 

 and an excise of 2s were levied. The fluctuations in duty 

 since that period have been gi-eat ; and there is nothing 

 more obvious than the increase or decrease of sale as 

 the duties and charges were lowered or raised, until at 

 last a fixed Customs duty of 6d per lb. has been reached. 

 Yet so much has the cost of tea iu China fallen, that 

 this reduced rate on all the more common classes of tea 

 is even now httle short of 100 per cent. What the effect' 

 of lowering this by one-half would be can hardly be 

 doubted. A greatly increased demand, and a higher class 

 of tea would prohably come into general use ; and tliis 

 witli no serious loss to the revenue : perhaps. That, how- 

 ever, would be a serious question for the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer. The quantity of tea now consumed per 

 head on the whole population of the British Isles does 

 not amount to more tJian 31- lb. jier aunum ; which seems 

 to leave a large margin for Increase. — St. James's Gazette. 



THE TEA TRADE OF CENTEAL ASIA. 

 (From the Indimt Agriculturist, Feb. 16th.) 



An extract from the Oriental Review, quoted in the 

 Muscow Gazette of the 20th of November, and translated in 

 the Englishman, contains the following observations regard- 

 ing the tea trade of Central Asia : — 



The consumption of tea is much more common in Centra! 

 Asia than in Russia. In former times the tea trade was 

 exclusively in the hands of the Cliiuese ; their principal depot 

 was Kuldja, to which place the tea came dii'oct from China 

 by caravan through Shiklio, and from Kuldja it was carried 

 to Konak, Kashgar, Turkestau, and to the Russian Semi- 

 retch province. The ShUdio route haviug been closed by 

 the rebelUon in Kashgar, the Chinese merchants removed 

 their tea stores to Yerni iu Semii'etch, and from China the 

 tea was brought eia Kiakhta and Siberia. Nothwithstaud- 

 ing this lengthening of the route, the Obiueso, retamiug 

 their monopoly of the ti'ade, still derived enormous profits 

 from it. In the meanwhile, however, Indian teas began to 

 penetrate into Kokand (now the Ferghana province), and 

 the Russian Kiakhto merchants started a competitiou in the 

 Central Asian trade. The first attempt of these Russian 

 firms was not successful, because they did not import the 

 kinds of tea which are in-eferred by Asiatics, and these 

 were despatched to Kashgar, where Yakub Beg, holding 

 witli the Englisli, laid embargoes on the Russian trade. Two 

 circmnstances soon favoured the Russian traders: a regul- 

 tion was imsscd for the refuudiug of tho duty levied on tea 

 passing through Kiakhtaand Siberia to Central Asia, and tho - 

 Anglo-Afghan war put a stop to the passage of ludian teas 

 through Afghanistan. The Ki.akhta firms of Molchanof and 

 otliers thereupon increased their business, and improved it 

 still more when tho Chinese merchauts, unable to com- 

 pete with them, left the trade in Russian hands. Chinese 

 Yambo silver was in a large measure taken in exchange for 

 tea, and wasseut to Kiakhta in metallic payment of duty; 



