March 1, 1902.] TEE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 58^ 
Achest contains from ; 80 to 100 lb. of tea. 
A half chest about 50 lb, and 
A box 20 lb. 
We have had up till now I hope a pleasant canter 
across the green sward of the subject of my lecture. 
We will now with your kind permission turn to the 
question raised a few pages back on the struggle for the 
mastery between British-grown and China teas, vi?,, 
which of them will finally obtain the tea supphi of the 
world, is it to be India and Ceylon on the one hand or 
China on the other ? 
Last year's Imports into the United Kingdom were 
as follows : 
India 156,9G8.149' 
Ceylon n5,.S22,673. 
China, etc .. .. 31,576,327. 
149. 
303,867, 
One of the most striking episodes in the annals of 
modern commerce is the struggle between these coun- 
tries for the tea supply of the world. As regards the 
consumption in Great Britain the result of that struggle 
is no longer doubtful. The Indian and Ceylon tea 
grower has won the battle. During the past twenty 
years he has displaced China teas in the British Mar- 
ket to the extent of 83,000,000 lb. In 1880 Great 
Britain consumed nearly 115,000,000 lb. of China teas, 
last year she consumed only Sl.OOO.OOD. In 1880 Great 
Britain cotisumed only about 44,000.000 lb of Indian 
and Ceylon teas, last year she consumed 272,000,000 
lb. While therefore the total British consumption 
of tea has increased by nearly 145,000,000, during 
the past 20 years, her purchases of tea from India 
and Ceylon have increased by 228,000,000 and her 
purchases from China have decreased by nearly 
83,000,000, The Times in a leading article upon 
the subject says :— " This great Industrial revolution 
has been accomplished by an international rivalry 
almost without parallel in the history of the world. 
British enterprise has been doggedly met by Chinese 
persistence. British energy and dash against the 
inertia with which the Celestial clings to an esta- 
blished livelihood, however slender the subsistence 
which it yields. But Ceylon has taken a rapidly in- 
creasing share of the battle till it has now become 
a struggle beeween British enterprise in Asia and 
the Chinese power of endurance. It now stands 
revealed as a gigantic struggle between the Eaut and 
West, and between the ancient and modern organisation 
of industrial life. Like all such struggles it ulti- 
mately resolves itself into a question of quality and 
price. It only takes a nation about ten years to get 
rid of its taste for bad teas, and to acquire a prefer- 
ence for good ones. As regards quality China has not 
a chance against India and Ceylon. Her rnle-ot-tbnmb 
methods produce an article inferior in flavour and in 
high class strength to that which the scientific 
appliances, the costly machinery, and the chemistry 
of arrested fermentation enable the British tea 
planter to send to the market. It is therefore no 
longer in the British Marhet but in the market of the 
v:orld, that the struggle must be fought out. The 
British Planters whether consciously or unconsciously 
have practically acted on the principle that they had 
to pretty nearly kill the China tea trade in Great 
Britain, if they were to secure an adequate expansion 
for their own industry. They have as shown by the 
returns already cited pretty nearly hilled it ; and they 
.are doubtless determined to go on with the struggle to 
^ the end. It is as we already said ultimately a question 
of quality and price and although the British planter 
has come off victorious, figures show the loss in price 
which the struggle has cost him. It is clear that the 
further displacement of China tea in Great Britain 
, alone will not offer an adequate outlet for the rapidly 
increasicg production of Indian and Ceylon Teas. 
But even if the British planter succeeded in displa- 
cing that quantity of China tea in the British Market 
be would still require to liad new outlets for tha 
additions which arc being yearly made to the ta 
exports from India and Ceylon. To find these new 
markets outside the United Kingdom I repeat 
is the special mission Messrs. James Finlay & Co. 
have undertaken to pursue and to devote their great 
influence and large capital to this end. It is for this 
purpose that Mr. Maurice Rogivue, Director-general 
of Rogivue & Co., Ltd., was chosen by the Planters' 
Association of Ceylon to represent the Ceylon Tea 
Industry in Russia. It is now many years since 
this redoubtable champion of Ceylon tea was honored 
by this confidence. He went to Mo.scow and there 
started a great number of depots and year by year 
has enormously increased the sale of Ceylon tea, 
displacing China Teas to the extent of 17 millions of 
pounds in 10 years and gradually forcing a path 
through the strong prejudices of the conservative 
liussian Tea drinker in favour of British grown teas. 
The land of the Turk has not beeen forgotten and a 
very large trade is being strongly pushed by Mr. Rogivue 
in Constantinople. It is now many years since I 
arrived in Switzerland also for the express purpose 
of introducing the teas grown in British Territory. 
Twelve years ago in Montreux it was almost impos- 
sible to procure Ceylon tea, and I believe the local 
Banker was almost the only medium for the supply 
of Indian tea in small packets. We have now about 
a dozen agents in Montreux who sell our Ceyloa 
teas. Your humble servant was also one of the first 
Kelani Valley Planters and was also one of the first 
few to start the sale of tea in England. Myself and 
Partner represented Ceylon tea at the Healtheriea 
Exhibition in 1884. I daresay some of you will re- 
member our Sinhalese Bungalow in the gardens. 
We served out to the British Public very often as 
much as 2,000 cups in one day of the until then un- 
heard of Ceylon Tea. It is needless to say this 
Bungalow acted as a splendid advertisement. The 
following year 188.5 we shipped it over to the Antwerp 
Exhibition for the purpose of introducing Ceylon 
Teas into Belgium. At the Chicago Exhibition the 
Ceylon Planters provided a fund of £21,000 stg. 
to push their teas in the United States, the Indian Plan- 
ters expended £7,000 stg. on the same purpose. The re- 
sults were most satisfactory. British grown teas for the 
first time were brought within the knowledge of the 
American consumer. Next to Great Britain the 
United States is the largest tea purchaser in the 
world, but unfortunately the 100,000,000 pounds which 
they take are almost entirely obtained from China 
and Japan. Indeed the American taste for tea haa 
been formed upon the coarse leaf of these countries 
and the fine flavoured Indian and Ceylon teas were 
a new revelation to most of the visitors at Chicago, 
1,500 of the largest American tea firms inimediatly 
sent orders for JSritish grown tea and the Ceylon 
Planters opened a central permanent depot for their 
teas in Chicago itself. 
The amount of British Cipital invested in tea 
gardens is about £30,000,000 stg. It is not to 
be wondered at that the proprietors of this huge 
undertaking are anxiously looking about for new 
customers for their ever increasing yield. In the 
year 1883 Ceylon bashfully sent to Mincing Lane 
1,000,000, pounds of its new tea, in 1900 it plumped dowu 
over 115,000,000 at the door of the London Custom 
House. Such astounding assurance has met with its 
proper reward, for instead of the goods being returned 
with thanks as no doubt the aforesaid " Ah Sin " 
thinks would have been the proper course to pursue, 
the teas were actively competed for and found a 
ready market. From the days of its Cadetship Ceylon 
has grown into a fully equipped fighting soldier who 
in conjunction wiih India having fought "alamort' 
for the possession of the London market with China, 
has had many a friendly round with its Indian 
neighbour, but the contest has always been fought 
with " gloves," and there is every reason to believe 
that in future only a friendly alliance supported by 
identical interests will exist between the two great 
British tea producing countries, This allianee wilj 
