Aug. 1, 1902,J THE TROPICAL AGRICUr.rURIST. 
97 
hides, (fee, shipped in the same vessel. A Sub-Corn 
mittee, cousistlng of the President, Messrs W H 
Anderson, B A Cameron, J B Keith and T C Owen, 
has been appointed to confer with the Shipowners 
in connection with the numerous claims arising from 
the damage so incurred. 
A Deputation of India and Ceylon Tea Growers 
waited on the Chanoellor of the Exchequer on 4th 
February, with tefereuse to the dnty of Tea entering 
the United Kingdom, and met with a sympathetic 
reception No change has been made in the Uritish 
and French duties, while in Australia Tea will in future 
be free. In the United States also it is probable 
that Tea will be freed of dnty at the end of the year. 
Other objects that have engaged the attention of 
the Committee during the year are the planting by 
the Indian Government of a large area in Burma 
with rubber trees ; the rules of steamships as to 
claims on account of "uUaged" packages, and the 
more careful plucking of Tea on estates. 
ACCOUNT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPIiNDITURE 
1901-1902, 
Receipts.— 1901, May 23, To Balance with Messrs 
Smith, Payne & Smiths, £151 Ss 9d ; To Use of 
Ceylon Room, £1 Is; To Newspapers Sold, Ss 3d; 
To Subscriptions —Planters' Association, £60; Ceylon 
Chamber of Commerce, £50 ; Members— 1899-1900. ±'2 
2s; Members— 1900-1901, £1C 10s; Members-1901- 
19U2, £134 8s; Members— 1902-1903, £2 23— ^259 2s. 
Total £418. 
Expenditure.— £1901 By Secretary's Salary, £100 ; 
By Eeut. £80; By Firing, etc., £2 13s 4d ; By Room 
for Annual Meeting, £1 lis 6d ; By Book Case, £9 
lOs ; By Office Repairs, £11 lis ; By Newspapers, 
Books, ifec, £7 193 7d ; By Printing and Stationery, 
£27 43 7d ; By Ceylon Contingent Fund, £39 Ss 3d 
By Postages and Petties, £12 13s 3d ; By Balance 
with Messrs Smith, Payne & Smiths, £125 83 6d. 
Total £418. 
Examined and found correct, Wm. Rollo. 
London, 29th May, 1902. 
ANNUAL REVIEW OF TEA TRADE. 
(By Messrs WJ and Henry Thomson.) 
38, Mincing Lane, June. 
Another season's business being completed, and 
London figures published for thetwelve months ending 
31st May we take this opportunity of reviewing the 
events of the year and considering the future. 
Attention is at once fixed upon the contrast with 
record of the previous season. A year ago we were 
confronted by 
OVER-SUPPLY AND INFERIOR CROP, 
from India and Ceylon, expansion in China's export, 
and a serious decline in value. Now, we record 
reduction in the total output of British-grown tea, 
contraction in exports from China, and the beginning 
of recovery from depression. Amidst much that 
changes, two features areconstant, viz : that the use of 
tea almost everything increases, and that British-Grown 
tea advances in favour wherever it once fairly gains 
k footing. What were the remedies proposed a year 
ago ; how have they been applied ; what has been 
the result ? They were, in the first place tu raise the 
standard of quality; in the second place, and as a 
consequence, to make less tea, and then to iiud new 
buyers. Smaller and better crops have been made, 
partly because weather checked growth of leaf, partly 
as the result of more careful plucking. The crops 
have contained less common tea, aud the average 
value has risen, although, for reasons to which we 
will presently allude, all kinds have not shared in 
the improvement, but only those that were specially 
depressed. Directly or indirectly, our trade with 
Colonial and Foreign markets is maintained, and 
openings are lost for business which should be larger 
daring the coming year. The attempt to place tea 
within the reach of native consumers in India ia 
watched here with interest; the business-like way 
in which it is being carried out, and the progress 
already made, augur well for ultimate success. But 
when expedients, schemes and policies have been con- 
trived, discussed and given a trial, we come back 
to the elemental facts that what Planters need is a 
better price, and that the value of tea, as of other 
commodities, is snbject to the inexorable law of supply 
and demand. We said a year ago — and it will bear re- 
petition— that producers could maintain prices at the 
level that pays by combining to keep supply within rea- 
sonable limits : for consumers in the aggregate, outside 
the producing countries, are now dependent upon 
India and Ceylon for the greater part of their re 
quirements, and tea has become so necessary that its 
use will not be stopped by such a moderate advance aa 
would satisfy growers and could be caused by reducing 
supply. 
The necessity of making no more than is required ii 
particularly felt by those at home who see the balance 
of power passing into the hands of buyers with large 
means, fertile in resource, who operate in London. 
Calcutta or Colombo as may suit them, and are ready 
by acting in concert to control the market — but are 
only able to do this effectually when there is too much 
tea ; where it is, or who has it, matters not. But if 
the law of supply and demand prevails in the long 
run, markets are effected by other influences which 
have also to be taken into account. Tea has been too 
long subject to the 
DEPRESSING INFLUENCE OF HEAVY DUTIES, 
and the theory held by some that thev are wholly 
paid by consumers has broken down under the practi- 
cal experience of those engaged in trade. Every grower 
abroad, every shareholder at home, pays part of the 
sixpence levied here ; shippers of China and Japan 
teas have suffered from the 10 cents' war tax in the 
United States, and traders all ihe world over are ham- 
pered by duties almost everywhere imposed as though 
tea were a needless luxury instead of a most nutritious 
and, to many, a necessary article of diet. Those who 
think otherwise rely upon the argument that consup- 
tion is large here than when the duty was less, and 
ignore the fact that. the average value is much lower 
than when duty was fourpence, notwithstanding that 
over-supply is arrested and crops are of good quality. 
They also seem hardly to realize that when more of 
the buyer's capital is taken for payment of tax less 
of it remains for purchase of tea — which must be 
prejudicial to the seller, for the capital employed 
in a trade is not capable of indefinite ex- 
pansion unless business is so profitable as to 
attract it, which is not the case with tea. We dwell 
upon this because a beneficent industry of great im- 
portance to India and Ceylon is being partly crippled 
by high taxation, and unless there be relief some 
gardens will be abandoned and native labour will cease 
to find employment. That the fruit of British enter- 
prise in our Eastern Possessions should have to pay 
an impost of nearly £(5,000,000 upon a value of 
£7,500,000 before it can reach consumers at home, to 
whom it is a necessary of life seems to be without 
precedent. Would such a tax upon the produce of 
Australian or Canadian husbandry be now agreed to ? 
What prospect is there of relief, aud where ? 
The Australian markets are now free : they should 
take more from us, and tea of higher value. The 
American tax will be abolished next year, an impetus 
given to trade, and larger imports called for, as stocks 
are Hw— an encouragement to India and Ceylon to 
make more uncolonred or green tea than has yet been 
thought of. This should be tried at onoe 
and where it can be done cheaply on gardens 
whose black tea does not usunlly command a high 
price. An estate that can put a crop of black on tbe 
London market at a cost of 4d per lb could lay down a 
crop of green tea in New York at 9 or 10 cents per lb 
without much risk. Such a chance may not recur for 
years ; it should not be missed and America left 
dependent upon Japan and China. The probable 
