ThE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[December i, 1891 . 
380 
knowledge of the basiness seems to be superSuous' 
when a passport to success is, that the vendor 
is well known as a purveyor of something else, 
and so ^uoh is this the caso, that sellers of 
tea boast upon every wall and hoarding that they 
are not grocers. In one iustance, we believe that the 
public have been assured that, after paying immense 
advertising expenses, tbo regular trade can be under* 
sold to the extent of Is per lb., without inclndiog 
free postage. Now, Is per ib. on a conaiimption of 
200,000,000 lb. of tea a year represents arithmetically 
£10,000,000 sterling— an extent of benevolence which 
the public can hardly expect, either as the voluntary 
surrender of proOt, or as the gift of the richest 
company. Further, as good tea is habitnally sold by 
grooers at Is 6d per lb., and to undersell this by Is, 
would mean a retail price of Od, cat of which (allow- 
ing nothing for tbo cost of tbo tea) the duty would 
come to 4d, while packing, advertising, and free 
postage would cost another dd per Ib. In fact, it does 
not require any aeknowtedgo of the tea trade to assert 
that few more fallacious statements could be made 
than that the grooers overohargo the public Is per 
Ib. fur their tea. Another strain on public credulity 
is the assertion that tea in leaden packets, which, 
with advertising, must add 3d per ib. to the cost, can 
possibly be cheaper or better, than tea offered fresh 
from the chest, withont this added cost and risk of 
deterioration. If all the tea marked Oeylou comes 
from the island, the tea trade is also more ignorant 
than its tiadnoers make it out to be. Nor should a 
trinmphaut suooo.ss in the retailing of butter or pork 
be muob of a passport to the favour of the tea-driuker. 
An older advertislug development, which has rather 
sunk into the background of lato, is the so-oallsd 
" present ” system. Under Ibis the trader gives a trip 
to the seaside, a grand piano, or what not, to the buyer 
of BO many lbs. of tes. If all these gifts come out of 
the superfluous profits hitherto enjoyed by the grooers, 
the strauge thing is that the latter ate not millionaires, 
instead of being, as many of them are, men struggling 
for eubsisteuoo. All these matters, however, concern 
the pnbUc, and, although the power of self-assertion is 
no doubt unlimited, our thirty odd million of people 
will, no doubt, draw the tine somewhere. The con- 
sumer, sooner or later, will realiso that the divisiou of 
labour, on which sll modern eocioty rests, applies to tea 
as well as to everything else. For a msn to attempt 
to grow the tea be sells by retail, is to ensuro its being 
as dear as our boots or hats would be if we made them 
ourselves, in order to save intermediate profits. 
A new development in advertising, to which we wish 
to draw the attention of the trade, is that those who 
are endeavouring to deprive them of their living are 
now andaoions enough to offer to supply them with 
tea. In fact, the despoiler now kindly offers to put 
the grooer on his feet again by offering him tea 
oheaper than it ciui he bought iu a market noted for 
the intensity of its compolitiou and for the immense 
capital embarked in tbewbolosale trade— of Iste years, 
at any rate— for less than a living profit. The grocers 
have shown a good deal of the qnietudo of doves 
under the turrent of meudscity that has been ponred 
upon their tea trade, but they have a reserve of the 
wisdom of the serpent left about them. The eudeavour 
to destroy one’s trade is surely a strange preface to 
an offer to supply you with goods, yet this is what 
is being dono in the most open way. Some firms are 
endeavouring to regenerate scoiety by under-selling the 
grooers, by whom they live- This may bo philanthropy, 
bnt it is eertaiuly of a one-sided character. Others, 
with doxens, or a hundred or more, of competing 
retail shops, are “ow appealing to the grocers for 
support, but in most oases nniler a different name 
from that iu which their shops are carried ou. Then, 
agaiu, packet tea advertisers— whose attack npon the 
grocers’ trade and profits is the most insidious of 
all— actually oftor to make them agerits, in aid in 
their own uostrootion, and the astounding feature in 
the case is, that grooers arc to be found ready to 
play info their hands. Further, so-called wholesale 
houses open shops, with various high-sounding mimes, 
all over a town, and, at the same time, by enticing 
statements and advortisomaats, endosvout topersuao 
the grooers to bny of them. In a similar way, in the 
wholesale trade, the merchants and brokers endeavour 
to supplant those by whom they live. In short, the 
tea trade at present consists in coveting and desiring 
other men’s business, and in expecting the victims 
to assist in their owu happy despatch. 
It is surety time that tue grooers sot to work to 
turn the tables oo their antagonists. Let them carry 
the war into the enemy's oonntry, expose the meuda- 
oions statements that are made, aud offer olieapur 
and bettor tea, as.thoy can very well do. rbere is no 
doubt that tbo grocers, as general distributors, not 
dependent on any one branch of their trade, can 
offer ten more cheaply than any other retailers, 
espsoially as they uuderstand the trade, aud have 
a knowledge of the commodity they sell. They have, 
perhaps, relied too much ou the public kuowiug 
their position, and have let their adversaries 
obtain a footbold. If, on the oontrary, tbo 
gruosrs once made up their miuds to “ out ” in 
tea, no one else ouuld live with them. Such au 
extreme step is probably by no means neoeseary at 
present, as the oompetidon is only serious when it is 
let alone. But it is clearly time for the tea trade to 
sot to work to expose the delusive statemoots by which 
it is Bought to mislead tbo publio. 
Till Betail FaoKi r on Tea, 
The Grocer, discussing the subject, says t— This 
subject is one which engages the careful attention of 
our readers, many of whom look back with feelings 
of regrot to the time when a profit of oiio shilling 
per pound was nut thought unreasonable upon the 
higher-priced canister, and when tbo margin ou even 
the lower or more popular-priced tea was sutUaient to 
cover a los.s ou tbo sale of sugar and still leave a fair 
profit for the retailer. Those days bavo, however, 
assed away. AVith the reduction in the duty aud by 
eener oompotiou the retail prioss have been brought 
down to a very low figure, and as the grocer hasciuoated 
tlio publio to pay prices ranging from one shilliog to two 
shillings per pound, it is not likely that the retail price 
will reach any higher figure, unjois wir or some other 
cause should at a fntiire time lead to an increase iu 
the duty. But, ss public opinion seems to bo in favour 
uf the abolilicu of the doty altogolbor, it is not probable 
that any Ohaucellur of the Kxuhcquet would attempt 
to raiso money by increasing the duty ou tea iinluss 
there were some pretsiug ueoessity. As regards ttie 
price of tea iu bond, the I'alling-otf in the supply from 
ouo part of tbo globe seems to bo more tbau oompen- 
sited by the importation from aiiotber, as evidenced by 
tbo decline iu China tea being amply compenealed by 
the rapid strides made by the i.sland of Coylon, so that 
there is little fear of there being any subetaotial in- 
crease in tbo price of this artiole. 
Under these oircumetances it may be assumed that 
there is no probabiliiy of a materisl change in the cost 
of ten to tbo grocer, and there should be uo further 
reduotiou in the soiling price to the public, who can now 
buy tea of fair quality at about one penny per ounce. 
Indeed, any further reduclioa in tbo retail price must 
involve a diminutiou in profit, which the trade can 
ill afford to bear at the present time. Iu our 
opinion the anecess of a grocer’s tea business depends 
in a largo measnre on the quality of the attiole 
sold, and its suitability for the water of the dis- 
trict in which it is made. We believe the iuterest 
taken by our readers in the purchase of the moat 
desirable aud eoonomioil teas for blending has 
decreaecd instead of increased as the margin of profit 
his from time to time declined j thus other obanuela 
have been opened for the sale of teas, and tbo com- 
petition thereby aggravated. There is still, however, 
room lor a rcasonablo rotuen being obtained ny re- 
tailing good tea, tbe lowest prioe of a leading store 
being now Is 4d for a pouud, or Is 2^d for balf-ohosti 
of fiity-(ix pouuds, tbo highest price beiug 2s Od, 
giving au average of 2s upon the whole range of prioos. 
This is, of course, a higher rate than many grocers 
can obtain, especially those who supply the wants 
of the poorer classes, but oven with the lowe.-t.pricei 
teas the poroeutage of profit is worth having, and might 
