36 
For the Monthly Magazines 
AView of the TEA TRADE of EUROPE. 
~'T the commencement of the pre- 
ceding century, and for feveral 
years fubfequent to that period, tea was 
2 beverage altogether unknown in Eu- 
rope, except from the narratives of a 
few travellers who had tafted it in China, 
er other Afiatic countries. Texeira, a 
Spaniard, who vifited the Eaft Indies 
about the year 1600, faw the dried tea- 
leaves firft in Malacca, and was there in- 
formed that the inhabitants of China 
prepared a drink from this commodity *. 
Olearius, a German, found the cuttom of 
drinking tea prevalent among the Per- 
fians anno 1633, and gives the follow- 
ing defcription: ‘* They drink a kind 
of black water, prepared from the de- 
coction of a certain fhrub called cha, or 
chia, which the Ufbeck Tartars import 
from China. The leaves are long and 
aper, meafuring nearly an inch, of a 
black colour when dried, asd welked and 
fhrivelled like worms +.’ In Ruffia, at 
the period alluded to, tea was totaily un- 
known, notwithftanding the Afiatic tri- 
butaries and allies of this empire had 
adopted the practice of drinking it from 
the Chinefe. Starkow, who in 1639 re- 
fided at the court of the Mogul Chan 
Altyn, in quality of Ruffian Ambafia- 
dor, and partook of this beverage, fays, 
s¢ T know not whether they are the leaves 
of a tree, or an hero. hey are boiled 
in water, with the addition or fore milk.” 
At his departure from the Mogul court, 
the Chan offered him 200 bacht{cha of 
tea, as a prefent for the Czar Michael 
Romanof; but the ambaffador declined 
the compliment, as it would only in- 
cumber him with a commodity for which 
he had no ufe {. 
By whom, and in what country of Eu- 
rope, the cuftom of drinking tea was firft 
introduced, is-at prefent a problem of 
dificult folution. Ets original confump- 
tion, however, could not have been very 
confiderable, as it was adminiftered 2e- 
dicinally §, till the potent recommendation 

* Relaciones del Origen de los Reyes de Perfia 
y de Hormuz. Amberes, 1610. p. To. 
+ Perfianifche Reifebefchreibung, p. 325. - 
¢ Fifcher’s Sibirifcbe Gefcbichte. Vol. i. 
p- 694—697.- , 
Ramufio, a writer who lived in the firit 
halt of the fixteenth century, informs us, in 
his ‘* Raccolte delle Navigazioni e Viaggi,” 
vol. iii. p. 15, that the Chinefe drank tea as 
an antidote againft the fever, headsache, and 
indigeftion. ‘This declaration is corroborated 
by the teftimony of the Arabs, to whem we 
= 
4 View of the Tea Trade of Eurepe. 
of Bontekoes brought it into general re- 
queit towards the clofe-of the feventeenth 
century. As the Dutch Eaf India com- 
pany engroffed, for a length of time, the 
greateft fhare of the Chineie trade, a re- 
ference to the company’s books in Am- 
terdam and other fa¢tories would con- 
fiderably affift in afcertaining the exact 
period at which tea began to be imported 
into Europe in large quantities. But, 
till this can be effeéted, we muft content 
ourlelves with partial information. Franz 
Valentyn, a native of the Netherlands, 
who poffefied extraordinary knowledge of 
Indian and Chinefe affairs, informs us, 
(in his ** Oud exnicuw Cofftudien,” ive 
Deel ii. Stuck, p. 18.) that in 1670, 
the ufe of tea was totally unknown in his 
native town of Dort. About this time, 
he adds, wan den Brouke and Doéfor de 
Leonardis (in all probability two phyfi- 
cians) introduced the cuftom of drinking 
tea, but with fo little fuccefs, that the new 
beverage’ was publicly ridiculed under 
the name of Aeuwafer (hay- water). It 
fhould feem, however, that in other towns 
and countries the cuftom muft have been 
become prevalent much earlier; for in 
1665, we find a treatife publifhed at 
Strafburg, by Simon Pauli, on the “¢ Abufe 
of Tobacco and Tea; whence it may be 
juftly inferred, that the confumption of 
thefe articles muft have increafed con- 
fiderably. 
From Hoiland tea was introduced into 
England by Lords Arlington and Offory, 
Anno 1666, but at fo high a price, that 
a pound of tea feild for 31. (Lettfom’s 
‘¢ Natural Hiftory of the Tea-Tree.”) A; 
long time, however, elapfed, before it 
became an article of extenfive trafic, 
though it was fubjected to a duty as 
early as 1695. Even fo recently as at 
the commencement of the prefent century, 
the Loncon Eaft India company were not 
in the habit of felling more than s0,oce 
pounds weight annually. In 1721, ac- 
cording to. Valentyn, (‘¢ Oud exkieuus 
Oofiindien,’” Deel iv. St. ii. p. 18.) the 
quantity of tea imported fyom China to 


ftand indebted for the fir accounts of the 
tea-fhrub, and its properries. Two Arabian 
travellers, whofe report has been handed 
down to us by Renaudot, in his. ‘* Anciennes 
Relations de la Chine ¢¢ des Indes,” Paris 1718. 
p- 31. and who vifited China about the 
year 850, related, ‘¢ that the inhabitants 
of that empire had a medicinal beverage, 
named chab, cr fab, which was prepared by - 
pouring boiling water on the dried leaves of a 
certain herb. This decoction was reckoned 
an efficacious reniedy in a variety of ma- 
ladies.” 
Holland, 
