598 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. TMarch r, 1888 
tell against the consumer by flooding the markets 
with cheap and innutritious China teas, upon which 
the duty of course falls proportionately more heavily 
than upon the more valuable Ceylon and Indian teas, 
and would have the effect of still further lowering 
the standard of the tea supply of the United King- 
dom, accompained also by revenual loss. 
It is rather, then, to the continued displacement 
of China tea in the English markets, and the sub- 
stitution of Ceylon and Indian teas, that the British tea- 
grower must look for the disposal of the largely-increas- 
ing quantities which will be thrown upon the markets. 
Chemistry and commerce have settled the superiority 
of Ceylon and Indian teas, but the customs of the 
trade in great measure prevent its domestic applica- 
tion. Sinoe the day when a licence was required to 
deal in tea, the trade has opened out as probably no 
trade ever did before. All sorts and conditions of 
men and women throughout the United Kingdom 
are engaged in the sale of tea. And the exigencies 
of excessive competitions, the nature of the trade 
which offers facilities and temptations for admixture 
of inferior qualities, and the spirit of the age which 
demands a cheap article, have so vitiated the trade 
that very few of the poor in our large towns know 
yet what the blessings of good tea arc. But national 
will may do much to achieve what legislation is 
powerless to cope with, and to institutions such as 
the Royal Colonial Institute, the tea-planter of India 
and the Colonies rightly looks to extend the knowledge 
of and stimulate an interest in his enterprise, for he 
knows that knowledge will be followed by appreciation. 
And surely these tea planters of Ceylon have a right 
to demand the sympathy and support of their country- 
men. They have, by their efforts, prevented one of 
the fairest islands in Her Majesty's possession from 
lapsing into a mere military or coaling station, and 
becoming a financial burden upon the British tax- 
payer ; they have built up an enterprise which gives 
employment to hundreds of thousands of the inhabi- 
tants of Ceylon and of the natives of the famine- 
stricken districts of India. If they are successful in 
the race of life, they return to the Mother Country 
to spend the fruit of their labours, and they provide 
suitable occupations for many who come after them, 
enabling them to enjoy the rights and privileges of 
Britons living under the British flag, instead of becom- 
ing aliens, and investing their energy and capital in 
foreign countries- They thus help to solve that 
domestic prob em of daily increasing difficulty, the 
emigration of the better classes, and to give the 
Mother Country control of the resources of one of 
its most important articles of food supply, and make 
it independent of foreigners. 
The large reciprocal trade which ensues from the 
tea-planting industry of Ceylon in cotton goods, in 
machinery, lead, iron, and the many requirements for 
manufacturing tea, forms a steadily increasing item in 
the export table of the United Kingdom, and apart 
from the portion of the wages of the labourer and 
artisan which is spent on food grown in British India 
and Ceylon, the whole of the money expended on tea 
production comes into England; but in these days of 
intense competition, this trade is necessarily reciprocal, 
and if Ceylon has to find a market for its produce 
in America and elsewhere, there it will also purchase 
its requirements; and apart from the cost of produc- 
tion, the whole profit derived from tea growing in 
Ceylon returns to the Mother Country, either in the 
form of interest on debentures or loans, dividends de- 
clared by companies, or profits of individual growers. 
It is estimated that apart from the lai>e annual draft 
upr>n England for cotton goods, machinery, &c, the 
coffi e enterprise of Ceylon returned in actual income 
to England the sum of 12,000 ,0QU., derived from tho 
profits of capital invested. The greater the success 
of the agricultural enterprise of the Colonies, the 
larger is the sum brought into circulation in lha 
British Isles. These seem strong imperial, political, 
sooia), commercial, and domestic reasons, applicable 
not only to the tea industry of Ceylon, but to many 
other similar Colonial and Indian interest, why tho 
consumer should, iu conjunction with the producer 
combine to overcome trade difficulties, to expose trade 
malpractices, and to protect, as far as possible, 
British-grown produce, and stimulate its consumption, 
other things being equal, giving preference to the 
fruit grown in our own Imperial gardens; and I ven- 
ture to think, that if those who regulate the supplies 
of our army and navy, our asylums, our hospitals, 
our clubs, our numerous public institutions, were to 
direct their attention into this practical groove, they 
would do much to promote that strength of mutual 
dependence, which, more effectually than any other 
chain, should bind in yet closer union the Mother 
Country and the Colonies. 
Appendix No. I. 
Annual Tea Bill of the United Kingdom. 
(Approximate.) 
Annual consumption 180,000,000 lb., retailed at Is. 11c? 
£17,250,000 
Average wholesale price, including freight and London 
charges: — 
90,000,000 lb. China and Java, at 9i. £3,375,000 
90,000,000 lb. India and Ceylon, at Is. 0\d. 4,500,000 
Duty on 180,000,000 lb. at 6d. 4,500,000 
Cost of distribution and gross profit to dealers 4,875,000 
£17,250,000 
Appendix No. II. 
Percentage of British-grown and China Teas Consumed 
in the United Kingdom. 
Percentage of Percentage of 
British-grown Foreign-grown Total 
1867 ... 6 94 100 
1877 ... 19 81 100 
1887 ... 50 50 100 
Appendix No. III. 
Average Consumption of Tea in English Pounds. 
<s X ■ ° o 3 2.2 g,=S 
.O <q _« -pi r-l B ' "j 
so 5 8 
Ps 
Australian 
Colonies 18,200,000 
New Zealand 3,902,000 
Tasmania 699,500 
Grt.Britainl70,733,600 
7-66 21,474,395 
7-23 4,442,867 
5-35 871,205 
4-70 178,891,000 
Canada 16,600,000 3-69 18,255,368 
United States, 
1883-84 70,572,530 T40 72,835,082 
Holland 4,860,373 T16 4,785,355 
Russia 62,408,500 0.61 59,184,000 * 
0-37 
013 
0-12 
Denmark, 
1880-83 746,000 
Persia, 1884, 
about 1,043,000 
Portugal 561,000 
Switzerland, 
1880-2 292,000 
Norway 170,000 
Germany 3,113,500 
Bel- 
gium,1883-4 155,896 003 
1884 
685,113 
1,120,000 
565,485 
'J3 
silt 
SP II 
M. to 6d. 
id. 
M. 
6d. 
( 10 p-c. from 
U.S.A-, rest 
I free 
Free 
r 2d. to life?. 
Is. lOitf. tor 
European 
, frontier 
3d. 
Not stated 
Is. Ud. 
0'10 253,814 
009 169,160 
007 3,950,221 
127,781 
1884 
Swe- 
den, 1880-3 139,250 
France, 1882 1,029,561 
Austria-Hungary, 
1883-4 739,500 
Spain, 1884 136,000 
003 
155,232 
1884 
0-03 1,172,355 
4|cZ. 
9d. to ll|d. 
0-02 958,414 8Ji7. to 9d. 
0'01 287,509 lOd. to 1*. ljd. 
