WORLD'S PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION. 245 



China possesses one great advantage, that is, that the 

 Chinese grower, working' for himself instead of wages, 

 brings greater care and more industry to the task. 

 Experience with him takes the place of science, and he is 

 thus enabled to produce a finer flavored tea than has yet 

 or ever will be produced in either India or Ceylon. Again 

 the great decline in the consumption of China teas in 

 England and her dependencies cannot be attributed, as is 

 so loudly proclaimed by her statisticians,to any falling offin 

 the quality of China teas or any inherent merit possessed 

 by those of India or Ceylon, but simply to the narrow 

 and contracted policy of her merchants of favoring and 

 forcing the product of her colonies to the prejudice if not 

 positive exclusion of that of the older tea-growing 

 countries. 



In 1865 China exported over 120,000,000 pounds of 

 tea, in 1870 nearly 170,000,000 pounds, in 1880 over 

 214,000,000 pounds, reaching the enormous total of 

 221,000,000 pounds in 1890, thus China's export has 

 also been increasing in a proportionate degree. But 

 although the figures for 1870 and 1890 show that in 

 twenty years it has nearly doubled, still it is not such a 

 remarkable increase relatively when compared with that 

 of India, which during the same period has increased 

 nearly fourteen fold in quantity. In estimating the 

 probability of a recovery in the position of China teas 

 in the markets of the world the following considerations 

 are of interest on the subject: First, It is well known 

 that the heavy Likin (grower's tax) Kutang (transit 

 dues) and export duties levied on tea have contributed 

 in a great measure to the decadence of the tea-trade in 

 that country and to the development of that of India and 

 Ceylon, where the article, at least, starts free and unencum- 

 bered. The Chinese laboring under this disadvantage, at 



