THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[June i, 1892. 
696 
in North-Oliina Uat year j which waa about Sb. Tla- 
29 per picul, instead of— as he puts it — Sh, TIs. 16. 
The cost to the teamen moreover must have been 
oonsiderably more than TIs. 29, as they are supposed 
to have lost heavily. As to the low exchange, etc , 
this of course benefits cur rivals equally with our* 
selves. — I am, eta., Ciua-sze, 
33rd March. 
2b the Editor of the Nortii.^hina Daily News. 
Sir, — It was with great pleasure I rend the article oom- 
municated to you underthe heading of “Sermo Sinensis.” 
If the “Sermo Sinensis” has done no other good, it 
has at least led people to talk over what will soon ho 
the “ business of the hour.” I think it would l)o a great 
pity to let the matter drop now, and some good may 
perhaps be expected from the great tesman's co- 
operation. The statistics in your correspoudent’s 
article were only too correct, and it is an indis- 
putable fact that, if the China export falls off this 
Mason, China as a tea producing country is irrevo- 
Mbly doomed. I noticed that your correspondent 
estimates the Ceylon export next year at 80,000,000 lb. 
I believe it will be nearer 100,000,000 lb., and if so, 
It makes the position so much the worse. The China 
lea trade has now come to a critical period ai d in- 
stead of as in former years meeting with no competi- 
tion, it has now to contend against British colonies 
with no taxation and is therefore handicapped. That 
internal levies are likely to be established I quite 
agree with the "Napoleon of the io.a trade” is 
most improbable, but that export duty must be 
done away with, there is no doubt, or otherwise tho 
China tea trade is finished.— I am etc., 
23rd March. Tea MKncHANT. 
To tho Editor of the Nouth-China Daily News, 
Sir,— The opinion ol tho “ Napoleon of tho ton 
trade ” iu China is doublleis of iuestimable vaine 
to would-be tea-buyers in forecasting tho “ ploipix ” 
of the coming season, but a mure important fsetor 
upon which to haso ouc's action is the opiniuii of tl c 
dealers at lioine. 
This, as far as my information goes, is unanimous 
that the British public does not want China tea at 
any price, an opinion, at first tight, hardly consonant 
with the fact that soveuty million pounds of Oliiiia 
lea were delivered in J;ondan Inst year, which, de- 
ducting the export of twenty-five million pounds, 
gives an actual home lousumpliun of forty-five million 
pounds or nearly one quarter of tlie total of the tea 
actually drunk iu Ureat Itiilain and Ireland. In tlio 
year of grace 1891, the total consumed, of all kinds, 
was 200,000,060 lb. Tho Homo oonsumplion of China 
tea in tho preceding year, 1890, Was fifty-five million 
pounds out of a total of 194,000,0f)0 Ih. or in per- 
oentage,s In 1891, 22J per cent of tho ron.-umplioii 
was China tea; iu 1890, 23 per cent; and in 1889, IU 
per cent. 
Tims roughly speaking, oiie-fonrlh of llio tea drunk 
in England is still China tea, and this appears lo liave 
been taken mainly on account of its oheapness for 
tho purpose ot ''blending.'' Messrs. Shepard k. Oo , 
the well-known Mincing Dane brokers, write in tbeir 
Annual Tea Circniar, poblished In January of Ibis 
yaar; — "As regards gcod oommon lo lumiinm Blacks 
received tho last few months, though laid iu on 
apparently favourable terms, the heavy supply aed very 
low level of prices current for good common to fair 
Indian and Ceylon Toas, especially the latter, liave 
weighed down tho vaine of anything in China Congous 
selling over OJ. per lb.” Messrs. Shepard further 
state “There has been a more general anil widesnroad 
effort 00 the part ot dealers thronghont the count y to 
revive ao interest in/«s China Congou, which is being 
pressed on the notice of consumors at and un^er 2s. 
Iier lb.” 
In tho face of such low prioes and ot such tm- 
precedsnted efforts tho only rosnlt we see is a atiadili/ 
dwindling oonsumplion. With an anticipated produc- 
tion this year in India and Ceylon of 200,000,000 lb. 
Mr. Awai’s anticipation of “ a very largo businossin 
all teas coating from TIs. 7 to TIs, 17 ” if realised, 
will, I hold, only resnlt in forcing down prices still 
lower in London. 
Happily for the native tea-man, the only one other 
largo hlack-tea oonanming country, It ussia, still sticks 
to iho Celestial leaf and, as long as that market re- 
mains as it is, the CMns’O may continne to pack tea 
for llnssinn oonsnmplioii nnder existing oonditions, bnt 
ns long as their trade is handicsppnd with differential 
imposts in favor of fndia of twenty-five per cent, (and, 
given the preference of the '' masses ” at home for 
strength with coarseness asagainst delicacy with weak- 
ness), no efforts of producers and shippers can succeed 
in plsoing China lea on tho Tjcndoo market in any 
qaantitv with the hope of a pri filablo result. 
The moral of wliioii is that, as long as the Export 
Duly remains in force, the China tea trade with 
England is doomed, and hence producers and shippers 
ehonld porseveringly devote all tlieir efforts to the 
removal ef this burthen. To pursue their trade under 
its weight is but to go on from year to year “flogging 
a dead horse ” until nothing of the carcase is left. — 
I am, etc. A. ,1. L. 
24th March. 
— y.-C. Herald, March 2nth. 
♦ 
THE COST OF CEYLON TEA. 
To the Editor of the NonTii-OiiiNA Da i.y News. 
Sir, — With reference to the rorrespoudenoo appe.vr- 
ing in this morniog'a issue of your paper on Iho 
rnbjcct of tho China Tea Trade, may I he permitted 
to make a few remarks, witll a view to cooiparison, 
touching the cost of prodnotiou of ten in Ceylon, 
having recently visited (be I«land, where I had an 
opporluoily of gainirg sn iniiglit into tho wirking 
of a tea estate. Asinming, as stated by 'Chaa-eza”, 
the average piico paid per pionl in North China last 
year to have been Slisngbai TIs. 29, and llie cost io 
the teamen 'Ms 30 as 1h''y uro ststed to have lost, 
tho coat per lb to the teaman would bo about 22J 
oenls* or lO.fd. sterling with oxchaigc at 4"., this being 
(he ao(iial coit of bringing the finished article inti 
Iho Maikot. 
Taking this into oonsidiraiion (he followinp figutes 
may bo of interest (o your reader.! as furnishing some 
idea of tho necessary expenses incurred by a tea 
plunter in Ceylon, in order (o ennblo liim to place 
ills tea on tho London inarte'. 
Cultivation cc . 't P*L lb. of made tea. 
riuckiig 5 „ „ „ 
Mauufactnro in- 
eluding fuel, tea 
makt i's’ pay, cost 
of packagea tea 
lead, etc 
t'i >1 
II 
Salar'ui and con- 
tingencies ... 
74 „ 
Repnira lo Factory 
4 .. 
tl 
tl 
Trniisporl to 
Colombo 
14 
It 
Freight and soiling 
charges 
10 „ 
«» 
t» 
Total ... 3(i cents at Kx. la 4d -6jd. 
Tbo cost of plucking varies, according t'j wholhcr 
the planter wiabea to pluck fine or cnarso; if the 
latter, which means plucking five or more leaves insti ad 
of three or lour, J tho cooliisare enabled to bring io 
a lery much largir quantity of leaf at the end of 
the day's work. "The manufaotnre being done entirely 
by machinery, tho ors‘, whatever the quantity of leaf 
to he imnnfacliired, r< mains the, same, acd as roughly 
speaking 4 lb. of green leaf— 1 lb. of made tea. it 
folloni that Iho larger the qnantitv of green le»L 
tile less is the cost per lb. of made tea, 
• Of a dollar.— E d. 7'. .4. 
t Ofa rupee.— Ed. T. A. 
I Ordinary piuckiog is confined to the bud pn« two 
leavey. — Ed. T. A. 
