458 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



TEA IN 1909-10. 



Messrs. Brooke Bond & Co.'s Report. 



17 and 18, St. Dunstan's Hill, London, Oct, 7th. 



Dear Sir, — Last year in our annual review of 

 the history of the tea trade, we stated that con- 

 sumption was on the whole increasing, and that 

 the prospects of those connected with tea were 

 brighter than had sometimes been the case. 



This year we are glad to be able to say that 

 the increase in consumption continues and that 

 the prospects of those engaged in the trade, 

 particularly the planters, have greatly improved. 

 Some writers even express the opinion that there 

 will bo a boom in tea as there has been in rubber. 

 It is not, however, possible that tea prices 

 should go up as did rubber prices. The con- 

 sumption of tea can only increase gradually, as 

 more people take to drinking it, whereas the 

 demand for rubber increased because new uses 

 for it were discovered. 



Several times, in reviewing the events of the 

 year, we have lamented the annual dislocation 

 of business due to the anticipation of a change 

 in the tax. This year we have to refer to an 

 absolutely unprecedented state of affairs, when 

 businoss men petitioned Parliament to tax them, 

 and being refused, imposed a voluntary tax on 

 their commodity. 



As is doubtless well known to most of your 

 readers, the tea duty is the only indirect tax for 

 which there is no standing enactment, but which 

 has to be imposed annually. The usua! course 

 of procedure is that as soon as the Budget is in- 

 troduced, a resolution is passed by the Com- 

 mittee of Ways and Means, authorising the 

 collection of the duty. This resolution has the 

 force of an Act of Parliament and becomes law 

 when the Finance Bill is passed. 



In 1908 the usual resolution was passed, im- 

 posing the tax until June 30th, 1909, and duly 

 became law. In 1909 the Budget was intro- 

 duced April 23rd, but did not become law, as 

 the Finance Bill was thrown out November 30th, 

 and Parliament prorogued three days later. The 

 session closing without a Finance Bill being 

 passed, payment of the tea-duty could not 

 legally be enforced. It was even suggested that 

 the return of all the duty payments made since 

 June 30th might be demanded. " Anarchy at 

 the Custom House " was prophesied, but was 

 averted by the action of the merchants. Before 

 the Prorogation the Tea Buyers' Association 

 urgently petitioned the Government to pass a 

 short Act to fix the duty until a Budget could 

 be passed. Ministers, however, declined and 

 it was left to the merchants themselves to take 

 steps to avoid " chaos." It was fairly certain 

 that the tea-duty would be re-imposed and made 

 retrospective, whichever political party came 

 into power after the pending General Election. 

 After much deliberation, but with complete 

 unanimity, the tea buyers decided that the 5d 

 per pound should continue to be paid, the only 

 difference being that whereas formerly it was 

 called duty, henceforth it was to be called deposit. 

 His Majesty's Customs agreed to accept such 

 payments and, should the tax not be re-imposed 



or not be made retrospective, or be reduced, 

 to return the money. Before these arrange- 

 ments were concluded, or an absolute unanimity 

 of opinion had been reached, a small amount 

 of tea had been removed from bond without 

 paying duty, probably in order to prove that it 

 could be done. As soon as the final decision 

 was arrived at by the trade, the deposit was 

 paid on the few thousand pounds of tea chat 

 had left the control of the Customs, so that a 

 week after the Prorogation the deposit had been 

 paid on every pound that had been withdrawn 

 from bond. Business then proceeded as usual. 



This year the Budget was re-introduced April 

 19th, passed through all its stages, and received 

 the Royal assent April 29th. The Customs offi- 

 cials then formally notified the members of the 

 trade that they now had authority to collect 

 the duty which for four months had been paid 

 voluntarily, and which is henceforth to be called 

 duty and not deposit. 



The 5d duty was not re-imposed without 

 efforts being made in Parliament to get it re- 

 duced. Two motions were brought forward, 

 one to roduce the tax to 4d on British-grown tea, 

 leaving it at 5d on all other tea, and another to 

 reduce it to 4d on all tea. Both were rejected. 



It is difficult to give exact figures of the 

 amount of tea grown throughout the world, as 

 a great deal is consumed in the countries of pro- 

 duction, particularly China and Japan, where 

 it is grown on small farms and consumed locally, 

 so that it does not appear in any returns. Pro- 

 bably the world's total production is about 1,200 

 million pounds annually, of which about half is 

 grown in China, rather more than g in the British 

 Kmpire, (India, Ceylon and Natal), and rather 

 less than $ in other countries, of which Japan, 

 Java, and Formosa are the most important. 



This calculation would give rather more than 

 450 million pounds as the amount of British- 

 grown tea produced each year. This year the 

 crop has considerably exceeded this quantity, 

 India having produced in round numbers 262 

 million pounds, Ceylon i91 miliion, and Natal 

 2 million, making a total of 455 million pounds. 

 A small quantity has also been grown in Nyas6a- 

 laud, the Mauritius, the Straits Settlements, 

 Quoensland and the Fiji Isles. In the last- 

 named countries, the tea is mostly grown in 

 small gardens and consumed locally. 



The tea exported from India during the last 

 two seasons was distributed as follows : — 



United Kingdom 

 Australia 

 America 

 Russia & China 

 Other Ports 



1909-10 

 180,000,000 

 8,500,000 

 5,600,000 

 30,000,000 

 11,000,000 



1908-9 

 163,000,000 

 8,900,000 

 6,500,000 

 25,000,000 

 13,000,000 



235,100,000 220,400,000 



Russia and China are put together in this 

 table, because practically all the tea sent to 

 China from India consists of dust and broken 

 tea, which is converted into " brick tea " and 

 sent to Russia. 



As will be noticed, the United Kingdom took 

 12 million pounds more than last year, but in 

 spite of this large increase in imports, prices 



