5IO - Voyage of the Novara. 



are plucked, for about \d. per pound, and as it takes about 

 4 lbs. of the fresh leaves to make 1 lb. of dry leaves, it may 

 be calculated that the tea, as drunk by this class, must cost 

 from 4f/. to 5t/. per lb. Moreover, it is customary to add 

 some of the less costly descriptions, more especially in dis- 

 tricts at some little distance where the tea plant is culti- 

 vated. 



The first historical document referring to the introduction 

 into England of tea as a beverage, is an Act of Parliament 

 in the year 1660 (the year of the Restoration). At that ^30- 

 riod China tea cost sixty shillings the pound, vv^hich of course 

 limited its use to a very narrow circle. At present there are 

 30,000,000 lbs. imported into England * annually, or more 

 than one-half of the entire export from the Central Empire, 

 the consumer in London paying about 3^. per pound on the 

 average. 



Of late years attempts have been made -to cultivate the 

 tea plant at the foot of the Himalayas, in Java, and in the 

 United States. In Hindustan, whither only a few years ago 

 that well-known and enlightened gentleman, Mr. Robert For- 

 tune, dispatched 24,000 plants, selected from among the finest 

 tea districts, the experiment has already proved successful, 

 and even remunerative. The cost of growing is about lOJc?. 



* In the year 1859, the exports into England were 30,988,598 lbs. (viz. 22,292,702 

 lbs. black, and 8,695,896 lbs. green), out of a total export of 55,325,731 lbs. Within 

 the same period 19,952,147 lbs. went to the United States, 1,879,584 lbs. to Australia; 

 to Hong-kong, and other ports along the coast of China, 1,261,347 lbs. ; to Montreal, 

 510,600 lbs., and to the entire continent of Europe 736,455 lbs. 



