288 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



receive in duty upwards of 11,000 each year from Indian Tea 

 more than it does now. To re-solder the lids on the boxes 

 would cost nothing like that ; and highly as Indian Tea is 

 thought of now, how much higher still would it stand were 

 it not injured to the frightful extent it is in passing through 

 the Customs. 



CONCLUSION. 



I lit on the following in the Home and Colonial Mail just 

 before going to press, and it is too pertinent to much in 

 preceding pages to omit : 



THE CHINA TEA TRADE. 



The influence of the expansion of the Indian Tea enterprise on 

 the trade in China is being felt. We have more than once adverted 

 to the fact that the growing use of the well-flavoured Teas of India 

 would diminish the consumption of the better grades of China Tea, 

 and that the effect of the competition between the two countries would 

 be first seen in the falling off in the demand for so-called fine China 

 Tea. 



The following letter, which appeared in the Times Money article 

 lately, confirms this view, and refers to the present unsound condition 

 of the China Tea trade : 



" Sir, In view of the opening of the Tea season in China, a few 

 remarks upon the present position and future prospects of this im- 

 portant trade may not he inopportune. 



" It is no secret that for some years past the losses of merchants 

 have been serious, and that while most of the wealthy firms so long 

 known as connected with China have either entirely ceased to import 

 Tea, or have reduced their operations to a very small compass, the 

 trade has been carried on by new houses possessing but little capital, 

 who are enabled, by the competition of the banks, to do a large 

 business by drawing bills on China, not only for the whole cost of the 

 Teas purchased, but also for their commissions on these purchases 

 that is to say, for an unrivalled profit of 3 per cent. The question,. 

 Who has so far paid the losses of the past two years ? is one that 

 greatly exercises the minds of the trade. Many suppose that large 

 balances are being carried over in the books of some of the banks, or 

 by the Chinese, and that it is the hope of recouping a portion of this 



