TEA. 



91 



his recently published Tea Districts of China," " that the quan- 

 tity exported hears but a small proportion to that consumed by the 

 Chinese themselves." On this point the report of the Parliamen- 

 tary Committee is explicit : — There is a population in China, 

 commonly assumed at above three hundred millions, at all hours 

 in the day consuming tea, which only requires some change of 

 preparation to be fit for exportation ; thus implying an amount of 

 supply on which any demand that may be made for foreign export 

 can be, after a very short time, but slightly felt." Mr. Fortune, 

 in his evidence, says that the Chinese drink about four times as 

 much as we do: they are always drinking it." Four times as 

 much is probably very much an under-estimate. With rich and 

 poor of all that swarming population, tea, not such as our Avorkiug 

 classes drink, but fresh and strong, and with no second watering, 

 accompanies every meal. But even taking their consumption at 

 four times as much per head as ours, and their population at the 

 lowest estimate, at three hundred millions, their consumption, 

 setting ours at 55,000,000 lbs., will be no less than two thousand 

 two hundred millions of pounds per annum, or forty times the 

 quantity used in the United Kingdom. As reasonably might the 

 few foreigners who visit the metropolis in the summer expect to 

 cause a famine of fruit and vegetables in London, as Vv-e that a 

 doubling of our demand for tea would be felt in China. The 

 further fifty -live million pounds would be but another fortieth of 

 Avhat they use themselves, and would have no more effect upon 

 their entire market than the arrival of some thousand strangers 

 within the year in London would have upon the supply of bread 

 or butchers' meat. There is no need, therefore, to wait for the 

 extension of tea plantations, and so far from taking for granted 

 the statement of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, " that time 

 must be given to increase production, and that the point of its 

 taking three or four years to make a tea- tree is to be considered 

 in dealing with the duties," we have the fact unmistakeably before 

 us, that the production is already so vast, that any demand from 

 us could liave no appreciable effect. And as to future supplies, if 

 we should come to drink as much as the Chinese themselves, a 

 matter not at all needful to be considered at present, the Com- 

 mittee report that " the cultivation of the plant may be indefinitely 

 extended;" whilst Mr. Fortune, who has been upon the spot, 

 states " that there is not the slightest doubt that there is a great 

 part of the land which is nearly uncultivated now, which, Avere 

 there a demand for tea, could be brought into cultivation. The 

 cost would be very little indeed ; they would cut down a quantity 

 of brushwood, and probably dig over the ground and plant the 

 bushes. They could clear and plant it in the same year, and in 

 about two years they could get something from it." As, however, 

 without this extension they have hitherto found enough for the 

 increase of their own vast population, for every extension of de- 

 mand from us and every other foreign customer, whether by land 

 or water, without the least tendency to an advance in price, there 



