Chap. XIV. 
CHOP-NAMES. 
221 
purchased are taken to his house, they are then mixed 
together, of course keeping the different qualities as 
much apart as possible. By this means a chop of 
620 or 630 chests is made, and all the tea of this chop 
is of the same description or class.* If it was not ma- 
naged in this way there would be several different kinds 
of tea in one chop. The large merchant in whose hands 
it is now has to refire it and pack it for the foreign 
market. 
When the chests are packed the name of the chop is 
written upon each. Year after year the same chops, or 
rather chops having the same names, find their way 
into the hands of the foreign merchant. Some have 
consequently a higher , name and command a higher 
price than others. It does not follow, however, that the 
chop of this year, bought from the same man, and 
bearing the same name as a good one of last year, will 
be of equal quality. Mr. Shaw informed me that it 
was by no means unusual for the merchant who pre- 
pares and packs the tea to leave his chests unmarked 
until they are bought by the man who takes them 
to the port of exportation. This man, knowing the 
chop-names most in request, can probably find a good 
one to put upon his boxes ; at all events he will take 
good care not to put upon them a name that is not in 
good repute. 
My principal object in collecting the information that 
follows was to ascertain, if possible, the precise amount 
* Sometimes a chop or parcel is divided into two packings, con- 
sisting generally of 300 chests each. — Ball's ' Cultivation and 
Manufacture of Tea."* 
