To the Editor of the Shanghai, 4th Jan., 1869.
Srm,—I was glad to read the able review you published a few days ago, of the course of the tea trade during the past season, and hope that this expression of opinion, going home with the weight carried by a public journal—and backed up as it no doubt will be by private letters—will tend to open the eyes of importers to the real condition of the trade.
The course of the trade during the past six months, adds another season's experience to the many similar ones of dis appointment which have gone before, and leads to the conclusion that, for many reasons, this state of things must be regarded as the normal state of things, until some radical changes are established in China or England, in the purchase or selling of this article of produce.
We find this large and important trade conducted annually at a ruinous loss to shippers from China, or Importers to England; and the questions for consideration
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.