3H 
previous yenrs, but possibly the present year may see 
a further advance. 
of the last eight years are given 
The exports 
below :— 
(OOO's omitted.) 
lb. 
59,912 
64,162 
68,784 
78,703 
87,514 
97,011 
,. 103,760 
.. 107,015 _ . 
iu price which 
K. 
4,083,880 
4,044,759 
4,306,133 
4.7i!7,992 
5,174,440 • 
5,267,315 
5,277,630 
5,219,2:J3 
maikeil the year 
... 12-4 
11-8 
ll-2i 
... 10-3 
9-9 
8-i0| 
... 8-1 
7-5 
7-2 
... 6-3 
57 
5-8i 
... 5-10 
5-0 
5-H 
... 66 
5-7 
5-10 
... 4-11 
4 8 
5-2 
continues 
to absorb 
the bnlk 
1883- 84 
1884- 85 
1885- 86 
1886- 87 
1887- 88 
1888- 89 
1889- 90 
l?90.9l 
The heavy fall 
1889-90 waa succeeded by a further fall last year 
for the higher qualities of tea, the fall oo- 
ourring during the months when cxohauKe was 
raising. The average prices realized at the 
auction sales in Calcutta during the last three years 
were as follows, in anuas and pie per pouiid:— 
1888 89. 1889-90. 1890 91. 
Orange (and broken 
orange) Pekoe 
Broken Pekoe 
Pekoe 
Pekoe Souchong 
Broken ditto 
Pekoe Fannings 
Other low class 
The London market 
of the exports, but there is a noteworthy increase 
in the exports to Australia which have more than 
doubled in four yearf. An export of five million 
pounds is not much after ten years of exertion to 
secure a market in colonies which coneiime tea very 
largely, but it maybe taken as an iudication that the 
merits of Indian tea are now understood there and 
that the Au=.tra)iDn3 will no longa' be content to drink 
Obioa tea merely because it is cheap. 
The exports are as follows, in pounds (OOO's omit- 
ted:)— 
1887-88. 1888-89, 
United Kingdom 
Australia 
Persian Gulf ... 
United States... 
Canada 
China 
While the imports of Indian toa into Enk'Iand con- 
tinue to incresse, tlioso of Chinese tea continue to 
diminish, but while China is being graduiUy 
but surely thrust out of the EnRlieh mHrket, 
another and perhaps a more formidable competitor 
has stepped in. The advance made l>y Oeylou toa iu 
recent years is little shoit of roarvellouf. It 
is interesting to note how completely the position 
in England of Indian and Ceylon teas wilh respect 
to China tea has been reverstd. Seven years ago the 
imports of China tea were more than double the im- 
ports of Indian and Ceylon teas. At the end of seven 
years we find the imports of China tea to be about 
half the imports from India and Ceylon. The folio .v, 
ing are the imports from Indi.i, Ceylon, and China 
into England in the last seven years (quantity slated 
in lb, OOO's omitted):— 
From Ceylon 
... 2,211 .. 
1889-90. 1800 91. 
98,731 100,209 
2,472 
2.880 
8,419 
5,119 
324 
467 
1,200 
1,311 
54 
155 
103 
79 
14 
85 
Gl 
"e 
19 
33 
61 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
From India 
... 63,208 
r4,382 
... 73,467 
84,645 
H9,874 
... 95,384 
101,771 
4,242 
7,144 
13,002 
22,509 
32,673 
42,491 
From China 
143,771 
139,673 
145 308 
119,799 
105 7.35 
88, .558 
73,713 
Tlius India and Ceylon furnished last year two-thirds 
of the imports, India's bharo boin« about 45^ per cent 
while China furnished only one-third. Tuiii'y years 
ago China's share was an much as 83 pi r cent; but 
twenty years ago Ceylon sent no tea to Eugkud and it 
had only oiic per cent cf the imports a,» lately a i 18S4. 
It is said, with referenco to tl)c remarks in paragraph 
21 of this review, that tho quality of Ceylon tea is 
detoriecating a. d, with a poor Boil, will cmtinue to 
detoticrate ; and that therefore the Indian planter 
has nothing to apprehend from his Ceylon competitor. 
It is undesirable to be over confident in commercial 
competition, »nd it may ba expedient to reflect that 
the Ceylon planter, who has already made such a 
success of his business, is hardly likely to make the 
mistake which is destroying the Chinese tea industry. 
There is also no sufBcieut evidence as yet that quality 
is deteriorating : on tho contrary, Mwsrs. Stenning 
and Inskip, iu their review of the tea trade of 1890, 
say in regard to Ceylon tea : " Quality has shewn a 
distinct improvement on that of last year, the ter- 
mentatioQ having been better than hitherto. Flavoury 
teas have commanded very satisfactory prices." 
The increase in tho exports of Indian tea (and 
all but a fractional portion is exported) was in 
rotind numbers, for the eight years ending June 
1891, from GO miilions of pounds to 107 millione, 
a good rate of increase, but entirely distanced by 
the Ceylon product, which showed an export in 
1883 of only 1,041 810 lb.; while the figures for 1890 
were 46,901,554 lb. 0£ course our ratio of increase will 
now diminish, although we are going ahead at a 
rate which demands every possible effort to keep up 
quality and open new markets. In the Oustoma 
value of tbe Indian tea exported, the increase in the 
eight years has been little more than a million 
of 10-rupee pounds,— Ex5,219,000 in 1890-91 
asaiast Ex4,083,000 in 1883 84. The downward 
course of prices in the past three years has been 
at least as severely felt by Indian producers as 
by our own planters. All ivise economies must 
be exercised by the latter, and we have emphasised 
the word " wise," because we believe that a wise 
liberality in regard to the best manufacturing 
appliances and also in the application in many 
oases of the best fertilizers to cur soil, will be 
our beet policy, even in the light of economy. 
Of course our friends acrops the water take the 
most unfavourable view of our soil; and it cannot 
be denied that in cases where old cofifee plantations 
were converted into tea estates, the soil does want 
fortifying, and so with some of our older estates opened 
in forest. But we are persuaded that a forcing 
and damp climate was, more than defective soil, 
the cause o£ the deterioration in quality of our teas 
exported early in this year. The meteoro- 
logical conditions favoured quantity at the 
exppnca of quality. — Of Indian tea sent to 
the United States direct, the account is as "beggarly" 
as in the case of the Ceylon product, the quan- 
tity being only 79,000 lb., against over five 
millions to Australia. We do not know what 
quantity of Indian and CeyloQ tea reaches the 
United States from Britain, but it cannot be 
much, in view of unfavourable fiscal laws. Tea is 
passed f ee of duty, we believe, only when imported 
from its source of production. It is amusing to 
find that while China tea is still imported into 
lodia (chiefly for consumption beyond the bounds 
of the empire), Indian tea to the amount of 
61,000 lb. went to China in 1890. an exactly 
equal quantity being taken by Canada. Of the 
tea sent to the Persian Gulf, to which some CeyloD 
tea also goes, all is not consumed in Turkish or 
Persian districts. The foolish as well as iniquitous 
exactions by the Amir of Afghanistan as well as 
the prohibitive policy of the Kussians has diver- 
ted much of what was formerly an important 
trans-frontier trade. Mr. O'Conor thus notices the 
export trade of India with Persia; — 
"Exports of foreign goods to Persia are very mush 
larger than those of Indian goods. 
Foreign. Indian. 
Kx. Ex. 
1889 60 ... 1,225,603 497,102 
1890-91 ... 1,319,957 420,986 
The increase under the first of those heida was 
mainly duo to an expansion iu tlie tea trade, Chinese 
