March  i,  i8;7.]  TtlK  TROPICAL  AGRICaLTURIS f. 
6or 
China  Tea  you  make  a saviny  of  thirty  per  cent  in  the 
drinkiny  the  former  on  the  licL  (small)  those  to  be 
distributed  as  X’uiaa  presei:ts,  through  my  own  maga- 
zines and  by  my  agents  throughout  the  rrovinces, 
followed  by  an  advertisement  as  per  enclosed  litho- 
graphed print  of  a Tea-pot  with  the  words 
d 
o 
d 
d 
>-i 
H 
o 
o 
> 
d 
tU 
.9 
£ 
30  o/o 
Economy 
Ceylon  Tea 
M.  Rogivue,  Moscow 
Maroseika,  House  Lebedief. 
2 'd 
o 
12  if 
U - 
Representative  of  the  Ceylon  Planters’  Association 
to  appear  during  December  and  January  3 times  in 
54  of  the  best  newspapers,  magazines  and  illustra- 
ted papers  of  Moscow,  St.  Petersburg  and  the  Pio- 
vince,  and  ot  which  the  “ Mswo,”  anil hrstrated  fa,mily 
Journal  has  alone  a circulation  of  175,000  weekly. 
I had  news  from  Mr.  Stramberg  who  has,  as  men- 
tioned in  my  last  letter  to  the  Chairman  of  the 
“ Thirty  Committee  ” since  th  29th  October  visited 
many'  places,  he  is  now  in  Riga  and  will  return  here 
by  the  end  of  the  year.  So  far  as  I can  judge  by 
his  letters  he  has  been  pretty  well  successful  in 
assembling  people  together  in  order  to  listen  to  his 
lectures  and  taste  Ceylon  Tea  and  a proof  that  this 
first  tour  has  had  a good  effect  is  that  I have  re- 
ceived from  some  places  he  visited,  where  Ceylon 
Tea  was  not  or  little  known,  orders  for  over  5,000 
lb.  of  my  tea  in  packets.  Hut,  here  again  I am 
placed  in  a difficult  position  for,  nearly  all  of  these 
orders  being  on  the  credit  principle  for  3 to  6 months 
and  my  business  being  established  and  based  on  the 
Cash  system — -I  arn  not  in  position  to  execute  them 
and  have  had  therefore  to  refuse  the  greater  number. 
It  is  certain  that  if  I had  been  willing  to  adopt  the  for- 
mer. (Credit)  system  and  to  give  my  tea,  on  the  terms 
generally  asked  to  every  recommendable  merchant 
who  sent  me  orders,  I would  have  disposed  during 
the  past  six  years  on  account  much  larger  quantity 
of  Ceylon  Tea  and  increased  also  the  General  Im- 
port in  Russia  to  a considerable  extent.  This  makes 
me  think  that  a good  method  of  increasing  the  dis- 
tribution of  pure  Ceylon  Tea  through  Russia  would 
be, — in  order,  to  enable  myself  or  any  other  Ceylon  or 
London  merchant  selling  pure  Ceylon  Tea  in  packets, 
and  credit  without  too  great  a risk, — to  establish  a fund 
or  guaranteed  sum  of  say  R25,000 — £2,000  or  about 
to  s.and  as  Delcredere  for  sales  at  3,  4,  or  6 months 
term  rer.ommendahl.e  merchants  wishing  to  buy  pure 
Ceylon  Tea,  to  sell  and  push  it  in  their  shops,  this 
same  to  cover  any  eventual  losses  accruing  from  the 
kind  of  business.  The  actual  losses  should  not  be  very 
great  after  all  if  the  scheme  were  judiciously  managed 
because : — 
.1. — By  only  allowing  credit  on  Promissory  Notes 
and  to  merchants  of  good  standing  (as  far  as  their 
solvency  can  be  ascertained)  the  bulk  of  invoices 
would  be  paid  and  the  losses  a very  small  peicentage. 
2. — .Merchants  thus  ordering  Tea  at  first  never 
give  larger  orders  than  for  50  on  100  lb.  at  a time 
and  each  invoice  seldom  amounts  higher  than  80  to 
100  Rubles  so  that  the  risk  is  pretty  well  divided 
amongst  many. 
This  I feel  certain,  would  still  more  spread  the 
know'ledge  of  Cbylon  Tea  in  Russia,  and  allow  it  to 
be  sold  to  the  public  in  many  thousand  shops  all 
over  the  country  in  places  hitherto  unreached  ; I felt 
very  often  annoyed  when  1 was  compelled  to  re- 
fuse this  chance  to  Ceylon  tea  in  declining  the  sale, 
on  credit,  to  many  merchants,  perhaps  very  good 
and  solvent,  who  were  willing  to  buy  it  and  push  it 
I wish  the  “Thirty  Committee”  would  give  this 
suggestion  its  earnest  consideration  for,  I think,  it 
is  worth  it,  and  I will  here  mention  confidentially 
the  reason  why  I do  not  adopt  myself  the  credit 
system.  They  are  as  follows: — 
1 2-3.  * * * 
I notice  from  the  last  “Times  of  Ceylon”  that  the 
direct  export  of  Ceylon  Tea  from  Coloipbo  to  Russia 
shows  a diminution  in  1896  of  45,500  lb  for  the  corres- 
pouding  period  from  1st  January  to  17th  November 
— in  1895,  which  is  however  largelv  counter  balanced 
by  the  increase  of  export  from  United  Kingdom  to 
countries  in  Europe,  (Russia  receiving  the  bulk)  as 
shown  by  the  figures  given  in  Messrs.  Gow,  Wilson 
and  Stanton’s,  London  Tea  Report  of  the  llth 
December,  1896  being  very  nearly  half  a million  more 
in  this  year  for  the  five  months  of  June  to  November 
than  in  1895.  But  it  may  perhaps  interest  Ceylon 
to  hear  that,  although  the  general  increase  is  quite 
noticeable,  it  wou'd  have  been  still  larger  had  the 
Russian  Government  (Custom’s  Department)  not 
issued  lately  a circular  from  the  Finance  Minister 
for  a project  to  come  in  force  on  the  1st  January, 
1897,  in  order  to  reduce  the  cost  of  control  neces- 
sitated in  every  tea  packing-room  that  no  merchant 
not  being  able  to  pack  with  the  obligatory  Banderoll 
at  least  200,000  lb  of  tea  in  a year  should  be  allowed 
to  pack  at  all  but  should  get  his  tea  already  packed 
and  banderolled  from  bigger  merchants. 
This  has  greatly  slackened  the  wnolesale  tea  trade 
in  general  for  the  small  merchants,  grocers  and  re- 
tailers who  are  now  packing  themselves,  fearing  the 
new  law  may  come  in  force  at  once,  have  for  the 
last  three  months  reduced  their  purchases  and  in 
many  instances,  stopped  them  altogether  and  will 
not  hold  any  stock  at  all,  the  wholesale  tea  trade 
suffering  thus  immensely  until  something  definite 
has  been  settled  by  the  Ministry  of  Finance. 
I was  the  other  day  very  much  interested  by  an 
article  reproduced  in  a Russian  paper  published  in 
German  in  St.  Petersbiu'g  ('The  Herald)  beaded 
“Russian  Trade  with  China”  emanating  from  the 
Russian  Consul  in  Fukshow  and  pointing  out  the 
fact  that  the  tea  trade  from  Fukshow  has  consider- 
ably decreased  during  the  past  years  on  account  of 
the  strong  competition  of  Indian  (Ceylon)  teas  which 
in  consequence  of  the  energetic  efforts  of  English  Tea 
Planters  and  Merchants,  fined  every  year  an  increased 
sale  on  all  the  European  markets.  The  article,  which  I 
herewith  enclose,  says  that  Ceylon  tea  is  very  much 
liked  by  the  Russian  Tea  Merchants  on  account  of 
its  strength  and  fine  taste  which,  without  altering 
their  qualities,  blends  very  advantageously  with  the 
lower  sorts  of  China  tea  and  consequently  the 
China  tea — fi'om  year  to  year  produced  in  decreas- 
ing quantity, — is  condemned  to  lose  its  most  im- 
portant markets. 
Therefore  the  Russian  Consul  in  Fukshow  is  of 
opinion  that  it  would  be  wise,  in  order  to  keep  up 
the  Russian  trade  in  China  to  protect  the  Chinese 
tea  cultivation,  thus  preventing  the  English  mer- 
chants from  monopolising  the  tea  trade  of  the 
world.  “ Unfortunately”  continues  the  Russian  Con- 
sul, “ we  must  place  against  it  the  want  of  enter- 
prising spirit  prevailing  in  Russia  where  our  tea 
merchants  do  not  possess  the  necessary  energy.  As 
a very  characteristic  example  of  this,  we  mav  men- 
tion the  unfortunate  experience  of  a Russian  firm 
in  China  who  tried  to  inroduce  on  Russian  markets 
some  of  '•'■chops"  Fukshow'  tea  particularly'  known 
for  their  fine  aroma.  The  tea  bought  by  this  firm 
was  sent  to  Moscow  and  was  condemned  by  the 
firm  for  whom  Is  was  bought  as  being  unsuitable 
whilst  the  next  season  the  very  same  quality  of  tea 
of  same  “Chops  ” was  bought  by  a Loudon  firm  and 
sent  with  a good  pn-ofit  to  a Russian  tea  merchant 
though  no  Moscow  tea  merchant  was  willing  to  buy 
it  direct  from  Russian  firm.  ^ 
I hear  that  the  Russian  Government  experiments 
of  tea  planting  in  Caucasus  (Batum)  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Klingen  who  visited  Ceylon  two 
years  ago,  have  not  y.-it  given  results  worthy  of 
mentiou  ; seven  China  men  have  been  engage  and 
a 10  years  contract  and  seedling  have  already  been 
planted.” 
I now  have  the  pleasure  to  enclose  my  accounts 
of  expenditure  made  up  to  30lh  November,  1896  and 
beg  to  advise  the  despmtcb  by  this  same  post  of  a 
small  reyistered  parcel  to  your  address  containing 
one  of  my  new  placards  and  two  photos  of  the 
Nijui  Pavilions  and  electric  train  advertisements 
