128 BENEFIT TO KXGL.AXD. 



planting until high prices induced them to do so ; that 

 would take a year, and then they might look upon the 

 rise as temporary and considering the necessity of their 

 land to them, it would be very difficult to make them 

 throw it out of one cultivation, which paid them yearly, 

 into another that comparatively would not pay them for 

 three or four years- afterwards. Therefore it may be 

 reasonably supposed that tea would be high in price for 

 five to six years after reduction probably for eight to 

 ten years. 



The revenue the British government derives from tea, 

 is 5,600,000, or $27,000,000. The import of tea is 

 generally 55 to 57,000,000 Ibs.; if only 50,000,000 of that 

 be consumed in England, and the remainder re-shipped, 

 the duty on 50,000,000 Ibs. would equal $28,343,750 

 and to reduce their duty from 55 to 5 cents per lb., 

 would be to lose in a manner, if not in revenue, at least 

 to revenue and consumers, the whole of the ten parts 

 out of eleven of the above twenty-eight millions of dollars. 

 China will not increase her plantations without a cause. 

 Plantations raised, and from which tea is not manu 

 factured yearly, would be but a waste of land, as the trees 

 would have to be cut down to make them productive when 

 required ; and the plant from the seed would be nearly 

 equal to it in point of time, and in point of endurance far 

 superior. Then England stands in that peculiar posi 

 tion ; she must go on as she is, until some country culti 

 vates the tea plant, and be able to furnish her with the 

 teas she may require in addition, or sacrifice for years 

 her revenue of some 27 millions of dollars. And in 

 her embarrassment, she would, even if she had a disrelish 

 so to do, be obliged to take American teas, if presented ; 



