Nov. 1, 1899.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
351 
tea. This latter fact arrested the attention 
at once, of quite a number to Avhom the 
circular was given at Vichy and in Paris ; 
and no less during the late B. A. Excursion 
in Northern France and Belgium. I am 
convinced that by means of useful literatare, 
popularly distributed, and judicious adver- 
tising, great progress can be rapidly made in 
winning the Continent of Europe for Ceylon 
tea, the proximity of the Colombo market 
to Odessa, Trieste, Genoa, Marseilles as well 
as Antwerp andHiunburg being another great 
advantage, when once a direct trade is fully 
developed. 
But now I come to another phase of my 
subject and one which is, perhaps, of moi'e 
immediate interest in tea circles in London 
at present. I refer to the arr:ingements 
connected with the receipt, handling and 
selling of our staple product in this, 
THE GREATEST TEA MART IX THE WORLD. 
The agitation over the one-pound draft, al- 
though it may be thought by many to have 
ended abortively, and even disastrously, for 
the time, has undoubtedly resulted in one 
great good, by bringing a full light of en- 
quiry and criticism to bear on all the arrange- 
ments connected with the importation and 
selling oi tea, and some of the details, I 
find, were quite unknown to men of not a 
little experience in the trade. I have not 
yet seen my friend, Mr. Brooke, the well- 
known, experienced, practical head of Messrs. 
J. A Hadden & Co. ; but I am assured 
that the system which he induced the Cus- 
toms to sanction (and which he brought 
out so fully in his letter of protest) was quite 
unknown to most of his brethren, or some 
of them would not have proposed a change 
equivalent to, perhaps, foux'-pence a chest, in 
the weighing, at the risk of incurring a charge 
of five-pence for taring the same chest ! The 
whole question of warehouse arrangements 
is now under the careful consideration of 
the joint Committee of Indian and Ceylon 
Tea representatives (chey held a meeting 
yesterday) and not a little novel information 
IS liliely to be obtained as to the process 
attending " overtakers," — surplus tea not 
put back in chests — not, as always supposed, 
because of careless repacking preventing its 
admission, but under a regularly adopted 
system which must have been worked to 
the great advantage of some unknown pai'ties, 
neither planters nor merchants. Then, again, 
the strange fact is likely to be brought out 
that certain Indian Tea Companies, 'having 
protested, and insisted on a strict account 
•f all their tea, hAve not suffered, like the 
bulk of their brethren, from this •' overtak- 
ing" arrangement! ("learly there is great 
room for reform and for putting all the 
warehousing, weigliing gross and tare, 
bulking and repacking arrangements, on a 
consistent, equitable and economic footing, 
and I trust this may be the final outcome 
of tlie present inquiry. 
But now I come to an aspect of my 
subject which has been discussed freely in 
my presence, pro et con, by brokers and 
merchants during the present week and re- 
garding which I may send you more infcirm- 
ation by another mail. Every change and 
reform has the object of ■' economy " more 
or less in need, and it may be permitted here 
to offer a few general remarks on this aspect 
of the question. The position of the tea- 
growing indiistry has, during the past two 
or three years, necessitated the exercise of 
strict "economy" in all matters of expend- 
iture, but the equally important question of 
"M.\RKETING THE PRODUCE" 
to the best possible advantage, has I'eceived but 
little, if any, general attention. The very 
considei-able decline in values, as compared 
with, say, ten years ago, is doubtle-s mainly 
due to increased production. This increase 
was induced by the steady fall in the ster- 
ling value of the rupee ; and so long as the 
fall continued, it compensated growers for 
the lower range of values established. But 
it would be well for producers to consider 
what other influences may have contributed 
to this lowering of values. The practice of 
putting up to public aiiction all Indian 
and Ceylon teas as fast as they arrive, re- 
gardless of the immediate requirements of 
the trade, has undoubtedly (in the opinion 
of good authorities) had, very frequently, a 
depressing effect on prices from which re- 
covery has been extremely slow. This it is 
now sought to overcome by the forination 
of a Committee to regulate the offerings of 
Indian teas, which certainly is a step in the 
right direction ; but unless the members of 
the Regulating Committee are able to gauge 
fairly closely the extent of the current con- 
sumption of the article, and unless the whole 
of the Indian importers consistently back 
up the Regulating Committee, it is to be 
feared that the movement may not prove as 
full and complete a remedy as is desirable. 
It Is pointed out to me that, duinng the 
past ten or twenty years, very important 
changes have occurred in the methods of the 
HOME DISTRIBUTING TRADE. 
Formerly, I am told, when the China leaf 
held the market, the dealer was practically 
the only purchaser for the home trade, the 
"Blender to the Trade" being unknown. 
And it is of importance to bear in mind that 
nearly the whole of the China tea sold in 
the London market passed by ''private 
contract "—very little, and that only to close 
lip shipments, etc., being offered at auction. 
The dealers in thoae days carried very con- 
siderable stocks ; and as they were able to 
obtain reasonable profits on the basis of 
Mincing Lane quotations, they had no in- 
ducement to lower market values. With the 
present-day wholesale blender and packet man 
the case is quite difterent. He has his stand- 
ard blends, with fixed prices so far as his 
customers are concerned ; and inasnuich as 
his purchases at auction cannot be followed, 
as can those of the dealer by bis grocer 
clients, bis profit is the greater the more he 
can knock down Mincing Lane vaiaes. We 
have also, apparently, to accept the fact 
that the blender and packet man ha^'(' been 
eminently successful in cutting into the trade 
of the old-time dealer and family grocer, 
for whom the grower may be excused for 
having as great a reverence as has the. 
modern buyer for the old-established "poimd 
draft!" It must not be imagineii that, to 
start as a "blender to the trade" or as 
proprietor of a " packet," is necessarily equi- 
valent to banking a fortune, Many have 
