THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [December i, 1889. 
THE SUPPOSED " CORNER " IN TEA.. 
(From the Home and Oolonial Mail, Oct. 25th.) 
The following letter appears in today's Financial 
News : — 
Sib, — An interesting clique is just now attempting 
to boom the tea market, and it must be admitted 
that the statistical position of stock and visible supply 
is stronger than it was in the memorable year of 1879. 
Many of your readers will doubtless have a lively 
reoollection of that ill-advised speculation, and its 
consequent results. Figures then appearently proved 
conclusively that it was impossible for any more tea 
to arrive, and that we should have a tea famine in 
the spring. 
A reference to results will show that the heaviest 
quantity arrived that season. Further the country 
traders paralysed the boom by simply shutting down 
and waiting until they got the article at their own 
figure. In the meanwhile old stocks were worked off 
and any purchases made were of a limited character. 
Intending outside operators would do well to pause 
and take into consideration two facts : — 
1. The reduced output from India is due to finer 
pluckings. If the prices here rise to acknowledged 
remunerative figures, the bushes will be stripped as 
heretofore, and the stuff hurried home. The cable 
and fast-going steamers have quite neutralised " tea 
oorners" 
2. Tea does not now possess the same keeping 
qualities as that of years ago, owing to too hurried 
preparation and the best of it rapidly deteriorates 
in this humid climate. No sane man would attempt 
to "corner" fresh fish and hold on for a week or 
BO, and the same line of argument applies, with 
slight extension of time, to the average run of 
tea.— I am, sir, yours, &c, Anti-Humbug. 
•♦ 
CAN TEA BE CORNERED. 
There has been some talk of a possible corner in 
tea, and the suggestion has caused some uneasi- 
ness. There is a certain degree of plausibility about 
the story, the statistical position appearing on a 
cursory glance at the situation to make a oorner, 
or at least an operation for the purpose of raising 
prices, not only possible but probable. On closer 
examination the fear is dispelled, and an explana- 
tion is speedily forthcoming of the circumstances 
which seem to be tending towards higher prices in 
tea. The contention of those who anticipate a 
oorner is, that stooks are much smaller than they 
ought to be in view of the fact that considerable 
arrivals of new season's teas have taken place and 
much smaller than is consistent with the continuance 
of the present low level of prices. It is pointed out 
that the stock of China tea is attenuated to a de- 
gree never equalled before ; that the receipts of tea 
from India are short of those of last year instead 
of ahead, as was expected, and that Ceylon has 
not sent forward so much tea as was estimated to 
come from that source. All these statements are 
perfectly true. Were no explanation at hand it 
would be justifiable to assume that in view of a 
brisk demand — deliveries lately exoeeding imports 
of some kinds of tea — prices should rise, and it 
would be not difficult to believe that some far- 
sighted speculators had been buying largely in the 
hope of profiting by the expected advance. Be- 
sides, events seemed to confirm such theorisings 
on the outlook. There has been a distinct if not 
a sustained stiffening in prices, due perhaps partly, 
though not wholly, to speculative purohases of 
tea. But it would be a mistake to give too muoh 
importance to these faots, which are partly acci- 
dental, and do not form any portion of an organ- 
ised movement in the direction of permanently 
enhanced values for tea. 
The diminution in the stock of Chinese tea 
is easily explained. The consumption of it in 
this country has shrunk so in late years that 
a much smaller stock is consistent with safety 
than used to be thu case. The market hardly 
seems to have reasoned that out. One is so 
little accustomed to dwindling markets that it is 
difficult to tumble at once to the conditions of 
a trade moving in that direction. We are in the 
habit of looking for an increase in stocks of com- 
modities, and a falling off causes instinctive alarm. 
But it follows that if an extending area and 
amount of consumption require proportionately 
increasing stocks, so a diminishing market may be 
kept in equilibrium with smaller stocks. Thus 
the smallness of the stock of China tea as compared 
with former years need occasion to no anxiety. As 
to the smaller volume of Indian imports this year, 
it must be remembered that the Indian production 
has been so rapidly and constantly progressive 
that the slightest halt in it is apt to be exaggerated. 
That is the case just now. The Indian outturn 
this year was almost certain to be short of the 
estimate, which was based on former experience, 
because there has been a distinct change in the policy 
of the growers. So much favour has been shown 
in the market to the finer Indian teas, that 
growers see it is to their advantage to devote more 
attention to quality than to quantity. The leaves 
are consequently being picked at an earlier and 
tenderer state of their growth, and as the leaves 
are smaller the output must also be smaller. The 
improvement in quality thus secured should also 
tend to produce a rather higher level of prices. 
There is still the shortness of the imports from 
Ceylon to consider. Here also an explanation is 
speedily forthcoming. The earlier part of this 
season was very cold and damp in the island, with 
the result that the growth of tea was seriously 
retarded. At the close of the wet season the bushes 
began to grow vigorously, and though the crop 
has been kept back in point of time, there is no 
expectation that it will fall far short of the estimates. 
It is thus evident that the three features of the posi- 
tion of the tea market whioh have given rise to fears 
of scarcity and high prices, do not necessarily 
bear that construction or justify these inferences. 
Passing to more general considerations, ihere are 
one or two circumstances which make a tea corner 
improbable. Dealing in tea futures is quite in its 
infancy, being but a few months old. There were 
serious obstacles in the way of introducing the 
system. Tea is an article which cannot be made to 
conform to such market formulas as " good mer- 
chantable brands " or "good middies." Every cargo 
— every series of packages— is bought and sold on its 
merits, after careful tasting and examination, and 
the variations in flavour and quality are infinite 
and innumerable.* To undertake to deliver tea of 
a certain quality at the end of a fixed period 
would, therefore, be extremely dangerous. The 
difficulty has been overcome by the fixing of a 
variable " type " for tea futures by the Produce 
Clearing House. Tea sold in advance is required 
to oonform as nearly as possible to the type, but a 
variation of a halfpenny a pound in value is allowed 
either way. The type adopted was that of tea rather 
above the average Congou, there being a feeling in 
the trade that no encouragement should be given 
to the importation of inferior classes. When deli- 
very is to be made, the tea proposed to be delivered 
is tasted by two experts, whose judgment.is subject 
* They are certainly not infinite (that is an 
attribute not of created thiugs, but of the Ceeatob). 
Neither are they numberless : they are just very 
numerous. — Ed, 
