H 



TKA AND THE TKA Tl. 



MKWt'AI. 1'KOI'KKTIKS OF. 



their li| ooe hundred pounds weight of the bait toy they could gut" 

 In 167*, 4713 Ib*. wore imported; but in the x following yean the 

 entire import* amounted to no more than 41011)*. The contiimou- 

 official account* of the trade do not commence before 1725; but, 

 according to Milburn (' Oriental Commerce'), the consumption in 1711 

 WM 141,995 Iba.; 120,695 Ibs. in 1716; and 237,904 Ibs. in 17 JO. 

 Then, taking periods twenty yean apart, we find that the quantities 

 entered for home consumption were, in round numbers, 1,000,000 ll. 

 in 1740 ; 4,000,000 Iba. in 1760 ; 6,000,000 Ibs. in 17SO ; 20,000,000 Iba. 

 in 1800; 42,000,000 Ibs. in 1820; 82,000,000 Ibs. in 1840; and 

 77,000,000 Iba. in 1860. 



For ai'ove a century and a half the aole object of the East India 

 Company's trade with China waa to provide tea for the consumption 

 <>f the United Kingdom. The Company enjoyed this trade to the 

 exclusion of all other parties, and were bound from time to time 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 ; and the Company was bound to sell them to the 

 highest bidder, provided an advance of one penny per Ib. waa made on 

 the price at which each lot was put up. This price was determined 

 by adding together the prime cost at Canton and the bare charges of 

 freight, insurance, interest on capital, and certain charges on importa- 

 tion; but by the mode of calculating these items, and the heavier 

 expense* which always attend every department of a trade monopoly, 

 the upset price* were greatly enhanced. The prices realised at the 

 Company's soles were however in still greater proportion beyond the 

 upset prices ; a result easily produced by a body who monopolised the 

 sole supply ; aa it was only necessary that the quantity offered for sale 

 should not be augmented in proportion to the growing demand of a 

 rapidly increasing population. The 18 Geo. II., c. 26, passed imme- 

 diately after a large reduction of the duty had taken place, provided 

 for such a contingency aa this, by enacting that if the East India Com- 

 pany failed to import a quantity sufficient to render the prices as low 

 aa in other parts of Europe, it should be lawful to grant licences to 

 other persons to import tea. This would have constituted a Y.TV 

 efficient check if it had been acted upon ; but eventually the mode of 

 levying the duty gave the government almost the same interest in a 

 restricted supply as the East India Company. The duties were col- 

 lected ot/ vabrtm on the amount realised at the Company's sales ; and 

 thus the very circumstance which enhanced the price raised the total 

 amount of duty. The duty, at that time, was nominally 90 and 100 

 per cent, ad ralorem, but being charged on a monopoly price, the 

 difference on the cheaper teas consumed by the working and middle 

 classes amounted to above 300 per cent, on the cost price of the some 

 teas at Hamburg; and in 1830 the difference between the prices 

 realised at the Company's sales and the Hamburg prices amounted to 

 .1 sum of 1 ,889,9751. The sales in the last year of the East India Com- 

 pany's monopoly are shown in the following table : 



An Account of the Quantity and Prices of several sorts of tea sold 

 in England from May 1st, 1833, to May 1st, 1834 : 



Ibs. t. d. 



EoUea 6,170,961 1 10 



Congou 18,663,835 2 1 



Campoi .... 1,1,03 3 4 



Souchong . . . . 354,515 2 9 



Pekoe 514.S11 2 10 



Twank>7 4,339,672 2 1 



Hyion Skin .... 141,610 



Hyson 887,052 8 6 



Total 



. 31,164,061 



The Company's sales were in March, June, September, and December, 

 the latter being the largest. About 2,000,000 Ibs. were offered belong- 

 ing to the officers of the Company, who were allowed to import a cer- 

 tain quantity of tea on then- own account. In 1839 there were only 

 VJ2,"1'2 Ibs. offered for sale by the East India Company; and the 

 change effected by the 344 Wm. IV., c. 93, which, on the 22nd oi 

 April, 1834, opened the trade to China, is now complete. The im- 

 portation of tea is no longer confined to the port of London. In the 

 four yean ending 1834, the average annual number of ships entered 

 inwards from China at the ports of the United Kingdom was 23 ; 

 in the four following years the average was 66; other commodities 

 besides tea have since been extensively imported, and a corresponding 

 increase in the quantity and variety of the exports to China has taken 

 place. The exports of tea from the United Kingdom, which formerly 

 >t exceed 250,000 Iba. annually, amounted to 4,847,432 H>-. in 

 1841, and have gradually much increased. The quantity retained for 

 home consumption lias also considerably increased, although accc 

 panied by an extraordinary increase in the use of coffee. 



The tea duty has long constituted an important item in the English 

 revenue. It has varied greatly in amount at different times. In 1725 

 there WM a Customs' duty of 131. 18*. 7l</. per 100/. of value, and an 

 Excise duty of 4. per Ib. Sometime*, during the next )>criod of a 

 hundred yean, the Customs' duty was raised, sometin.eM lowered, and 

 on a few occasion* repealed altogether ; and precisely the same may be 

 aid of the Excise duty. In 1834 the Excise duty was finally repealed 

 and at the eauic time the Customs' duty was rated at It. 6rf. to 3j. per 



b., according to price and quality. In 1836 it wai reduced to It. I.I. 

 er Ib. for all qualities: and in 1S40 an additional 5 per cent, waa 

 mposod. During the existence of the Excise duty, it was very vexa- 



the retailers. Each of the hundred thousand tea-dealer* in 

 he United Kingdom were visited once a mouth by the officers of 

 excise, who took an account of their stock ; and no quantity exe> 

 six pounds could be sent from their premises without a permit, of 

 which above 800,000 were required in a year. In short, this system of 



-ion was very troublesome, costly, and answered no useful pur- 

 x>ac. The number of tea-dealers in 1839 waa 82,7:M in England ; 

 13,611 in Scotland J 12,774 in Ireland: total, 109,179. Tea is now 

 sold by the importing merchants by public auction and private sales. 



The revenue which the tea duty >m 1805 to 1841 waa 



singularly uniform, never rising above 4,7uO,0(M>f. and in'. .r falling 

 jelow 3,100,000t Within the last twenty yean, the rate <>f duty and 

 the amount received have varied much. In 1851 the duty wa* fixed 



plus 5 per cent. In Mr. Gladstone's tariff of 1853, the duty 

 was intended to undergo successive diminutions, bringing it to 1. 10dL 

 in 1854, 1. Sd. in 1855, and 1. in 1856 and later yean, plus 5 per 

 cent. A warlike expenditure so far interfered with this plan, as to 

 prevent the lowering going beyond 1. 5</. plus 5 per cent. In 1857 

 he average price of all kinds of tea in bond was exactly equal to the 

 duty, each being about In. 6d. The actual prices in bond ranged 

 From Sd. to 4s. Grf. per Ib. Mr. M'Culloch supposes that all the 

 Chinese tea brought to England costs on an average about It. per Ib. 

 when on board 'ship in Chinese ports, all charges included; and that 

 this is raised to the retail consumer to 3. '.<!. by the following steps 

 freight, insurance, and interest Ijc/., duty 1. 6d., wholesale anil 

 profits 8rf. The average price in bond, between 1850 and I860, varied 

 from In. 2\d. to It 64rf. ; and the duty realised varied from 4,80' 

 to upwards of 6,000,000/. The actual trade in I860 is represented in 

 the following figures : 



Ibs. 



Imported 88,940,532 



Rc-expoiUd 12,087,104 



Retained for liome consumption . . . 76,859,428 



This consumption is about 2J Ib. per annum for each individual of 

 the whole population. 



On a recent occasion (May, 1861) the House of Commons consented 

 to a renewal of the present tea duty (1. 5rf., plus 5 per cent.) for the 

 financial year 1861-62; supporting Mr. Gladstone in an abolition of 

 the paper duty instead of a reduction in that on tea. 



The usual net weight of a chest of tea is 138 Ibs. for Bohea, 49 Ibs. 

 for Pekoe and Hyson, and 64 Ibs. for Congou. So greatly does the 

 proportion of Congou excel that of the other kinds, that 64 Ibs. is con- 

 sidered a fair average of all the chests ; this will afford an approximate, 

 rule for converting chests into Ibs., in the commercial lists of imports 

 and deliveries. The Chinese weights and moneys are of course \.iy 

 different from the English ; but it may be convenient to know that ">" 

 taeli per jiieul of tea is about equal to In. Srf. per Ib. . More than nine- 

 tenths of all the tea brought to the United Kingdom in 1859 entered 

 the port of London; and the preponderance is still increasing. The 

 great increase in the use of tea has not checked that of coffee. The 

 following table shows the average annual consumption of tea, coffee, 

 and cocoa, in the last four decennial periods : 



Average 



1820-29 

 1830-39 

 1840-49 

 1850-59 



Tea. 



Ib?. 



. 25,000,000 

 . 31,000,000 

 . 41,000,000 

 . 63,000,000 



Coffee. 



PML 



12,000,000 

 24,000,000 

 33,000,000 

 95,000,000 



Cocoa. 

 Ibs. 



500,000 

 1,000,000 

 2,500,000 

 3,500,000 



Bringing in a more modern article of consumption, chicory, the figures 

 for 1859 were tea 76 million Ibs , coffee, 34 million Ibs , chicory, 30 

 million Ibs., nnd cocoa 3 million Ibs. The proportion of 1,' 

 tea consumed in the United Kingdom is about 6 or 7 to 1 ; in the 

 United States the use of green tea is greater than that of black. 



TKA, Medical Propcrllet of. The botany of tea is y 

 TIIKA, in the NATUIIAL HISTORY DIVISION of thin work ; its cl. 

 properties are noticed under (' t'"r an account of its culture 



Bee TEA AND THE TKA TnADB. 



Before attempting to estimate the action of tea on the human 

 system, it is necessary to call to mind that some of the effects are due 

 to the plants mixed with the real tea, several of which, such 

 Clilnmiithu* inninsiiicuut. are stimulants of the highest order ; and in 

 other instances deleterious chemical compounds are used by the 



to convert damaged black teas into saleable green teas. < : 

 ' Chinese,' ii. 466.) For the effects of these, tea is not justly ehai 



et estimate of the action of tea is not easily formed ; yet the 

 most dispassionate inquirer* regard it as a narcotic, the stimulating 

 period of which is the most conspicuous and of longest <ir; 

 has been preposterously praised by some writers, and unju 

 by others as being productive of numerous diseases : above all it has 

 been charged wi'h c;:ii-ing an increase .f nervous diseases. It would 

 perhaps be more just to attribute t i; of such complaints to 



the more complieated state of our social relations, arising from an 

 augmented population, and an advance in luxury, with the more 



