THE. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August t, 1&88. 
THE LOCAL TEA MAEKET: BBOKEES' EE- 
POETS AND QUALITY OF TEA. 
July 4th, 1888. 
Sib, — Everything which throws light on this 
subject is of public interest, and that must be my 
apology for troubling you with my views. There 
is an undoubted impression that the Colombo 
market for teas is one not favorable to the seller, 
and there must be some ground for an opiniori 
which is so generally held. The chief ground for 
this opinion lies, I think, in the fact that the 
market is a limited one, and is very much at the 
mercy of " orders " from home, i. e, it is not 
independent. Owing to this fact the grower who 
wishes to sell all his tea in Colombo frequently 
finds that he can sell his pekoe souchong, congou, 
or dust, but that he cannot get rid of his pekoe 
and broken pekoe except at an absurd sacrifice, 
or vice versa. Preferring, very naturally, to ship 
the complete consignment, rather than have it 
opened and sampled in Colombe for no purpose, 
he loses confidence in Colombo as a market for 
teas above the value of his lowest qualities. 
Another reason is that loeal valuations are 
seldom reached in the local market, which, quite 
rationally, drives the producing seller to conclude 
that local buyers will not give a fair prioe. Add 
to this that sales are often privately effeoted at 
prices considerably over the prices bid in " the 
room " to those who have been bidding and some- 
times to the highest bidder himself. Finally, 
whereas in the local market both buyer and 
seller have a court of appeal, the London market, 
there is no such appeal from the London market. 
Now, sir, for the first of these evils there is 
no remedy, except an increase of buyers, or of 
orders, or of speculation ; and the second evil 
brings us to the dispute between Mr. Christie and 
Messrs. Forbes and Thompson, viz., brokers' re- 
ports and quality of tea. Owing to my not having 
at hand files of local market reports as well as 
of London reports, I cannot dispute Mr. Forbes' 
assertion that the local experts do not wait for 
the London " echo," before discovering the im- 
provement in the quality of the tea ; but my im- 
pression certainly is that they do not do so six 
weeks before it is noticed in London. I do not 
see, however, that this is of much consequence to 
the individual, except in the way pointed out by 
Mr. Christie, that it may injure the general repu- 
tation of Ceylon tea. At the same time, Mr. 
Christie should not forget that speaking generally 
only "common" teas are sold or offered in Col- 
ombo ; and also that Colombo valuations profess 
only to state present value— not value six weeks 
hence. Mr. Forbes has candidly admitted that 
faults are more conspicuous in a weak market 
(which by the way looks very like a buyer's remark 1), 
whioh is a considerable concession towards Mr. 
Christie's assertion, and it is to be hoped some 
of the London brokers will notice the discussion 
in their circulars, as the subject is one of great 
interest. 
But, sir, the real cauBe of all the grumbling 
about the local maket is, that there may be an 
appeal to London. A seller may grumble to some 
purpose of the local market, because he can ship 
his tea. But in London he may grumble to the 
end of time without the slightest advantage, be- 
cause there is no going beyond London. As far 
as my own opinion goes, I believe in the Colombo 
market, except for fine teas always, and for com- 
mon teas during three months of year, or perhaps 
four months. — lam, Ac., PEODUCEE. • 
P. S.— I have just seen Mr. Eutherford' s letter. 
He is in error, in the present state of our knowledge, 
iu attributing the fall in the prioe of Ceylon 
tea entirely to inferior quality owing to climatic 
cause. Is there no honest and candid broker or 
expert who can inform us, whether there are not 
some conditions connected with the trade at certain 
seasons of the year conducing to, if not causing, 
a fall in prices ? 
CEYLON TEA" PLANTEES AND COLOMBO 
BBOKEES. 
St. Andrews, Maskeliya, July 5th, 1888. 
Sir, — The letters signed by Messrs. Jas. Forbes and 
Somerville, which have appeared in your columns, 
oontain little more than a statement that the 
Colombo brokers had lor 3 months past decried the 
quality of Ceylon teas, which is precisely what 
I blamed them for doing, and indeed they are tod 
modest in limiting their period to 3 months, they 
might fairly claim every month of the year when 
the market is low. I stated, and I adhere to my 
opinion, that the Colombo brokers have not been 
able to detect in advance these great changes in 
quality of which we hear from London. Their 
usual complaint of the quality of the teas offered 
in Colombo is, I believe, quite misleading. Oae 
knows that a large proportion of the tea sent to 
the Colombo market is made up of the inferior 
grades and odd lots of spoiled or exceptionally 
inferior tea ; but so far as my experience goes the 
estates which regularly send all-grade breaks 
to the Colombo market send teas which ob- 
tain an average valuation (made on a London 
basis by these very brokers) and price higher 
than the London average of the same 
day. If this be so, and your correspondents will 
correct me if I am wrong, there is no justification 
for the sweeping condemnation of the teas offered 
in Colombo. Condemn as much as you like the 
Bending of red leaf, dust, congou, and rubbish to 
the Colombo market, but class your all-grade 
breaks differently, and work out your weekly average 
from them. If the Colombo brokers so clearly 
recognised the general and great falling-off in the 
quality of Ceylon teas, and were consequently 
prepared for the heavy fall, it is strange that they 
gave the prices they did for the teas. No tea broker 
has ever y>±t been known to admit that he was 
wrong, and how very like human nature it was for 
Messrs. Forbes and Somerville to pile on further depre- 
ciation of Ceylon teas in their last circulars written 
after my letter. This wretched product has now 
reached the "poorest assortment of teas that we 
have seen as yet this season," and the quality is 
"very markedly poor." A few more circulars will 
see it noted as worthless, possibly poisonous ! 
Shakepeare tells us "there is nothing either good 
or bad, but thinking makes it so." If saying will 
make our teas bad, they ought by this time to have 
no quality left. Eeally, I wonder- what the 
Colombo standard of a tood tea is ? Something 
we know not of upcountry. 
I did not expect that the Colombo brokers would 
express agreement with my views, but there is 
hardly a planter in the island who will not agree 
with me that the continued disparagement of the 
quality of our teas has done and is doing harm, an J 
that the poor quality cry has been carried a great 
deal too far. A Colombo broker who buys as well 
as sells would need to hold the balance very 
truly if he wishes his utterances to be believed. 
Mr. Jas. Forbes gives us his opinion as to the cause 
of the alleged falling-off in quality, due he says 
to the rush of leaf preventing time and attention 
being given to it. Beyond being, what Mr. Forbes 
claims for it, " simple," I fear his explanation ha3 
nothing to support it. Many of our highest priced 
teas were ma le in mere " shanties " possessing no 
appliances, and much of the " poorest quality" tea of 
today is made in factories with ample room and every 
