164 
TEA TREE. 
Tea was first introduced into Europe about the 
year l6l0, by the Dutch East India company, and 
in 1666 a quantity of it was brought from Holland 
to this country by lord Arlington and lord Ossory. 
Soon after this period tea became a fashionable be- 
verage among the people of quality, and the use 
of it by degrees descended to all ranks. We must 
conclude, however, that tea was used in England 
before the period above mentioned, since it appears 
from an act passed in 1666, that a duty on tea, 
among other articles, was then settled on the king 
during his life. At this time a pound of tea sold 
for sixty shillings, and continued at this price till 
the year 1707. Since the year 1720 the demand 
for this article has been rapidly increasing. In the 
beginning of the last century the annual quantity 
imported by the East India company did not much 
exceed 50,000 pounds weight; in the year 1797 ) 
nearly twenty millions of pounds were sold at their 
public sales! This is an increase of four hundred 
fold in less than a century, and since the year 1797 
a still greater quantity has been annually imported. 
From the great demand which has long prevailed 
for this favourite article, the Chinese have found it 
necessary, or at least profitable, to adulterate it, and 
bad tea is now become an universal complaint : but 
unfortunately the mischief does not stop there ; for 
it appears from Mr. Twining’ s pamphlet, that many 
tricks are played with it in this country, some mil- 
lions of pounds of ash, sloe, and other leaves of trees, 
having been sold as tea, notwithstanding three acts 
