Tea is such a universally-accepted friend and comforter to our mortal race that those us who have hitherto been accustomed to sip it morning and afternoon, without a thought, perhaps, ut the vastness of the {trade it represents, and the enormous capital involved therein, may be interested a few remarks on the subject. The position of the tea trade at the present time is well worthy of attention, not only by the outside public, but by those more intimately connected with its production, importation, and sale here and elsewhere. There hasbeen during the last few years a perfect revolution, vot only "in the public taste for tea, but in all that appertains to it, from the circum stances attending its plucking and manufacture to the time and manner of its being offered, either wholesale or retail, for sale on this market. The public taste has generally turned from the delicate-flavoured China teas to the more full-flavoured Bri grown Ceylon and the strong, pungent Tudian teas; for the latter are mostly of this description, although some fine, delicate invoices arrive from the Darjeeling districts. The general quality of the China teas has rapidly declined during the Inst five years, and the bulk of the imports remaining here, after the best chops have been selected for export, have been year by year more difficult. to dispose of at profitable rates, until, during this past season, China teas may be said to have received their final coup martel, and the average sales, especially of the medium and fine Teaf teas, have often shown very disastrous results to shippers. When last July and Aug imports have had to be realised, real losses of from 8d. (0 10d. per Ib. have not been uncumnion experiences. The finest teas from Hankow twenty or thirty years ago were of rich, full, Pekve flavour, and delicious to drink, but they could not be sold under 2s. and 2s. Gd. per Ib. in bond, and, being in limited quantities, ow! roached a certain portion of the public in their pure state, the price being prohil tive. "This class of tea has chiefly gone direct or been re-shipped from here to Russia, &c., the British public requiring a much stronger drink and at a less cost. At the present time they can easily obtain this, very good to tine blends of Ceylon only or of Indian and Ceylon teas being procurable at from 2s. 4d. per lb. downwards, duty paid.
There are three special sorts of Ceylon teas—broken Pekves, Pekoes,.and Pekoe Souchongs. The leaf of the former is generally too small and the liquor too strong to drink alone, and it is, therefore, used almost entirely for blending with the two other leafy kinds, and with similar Indian or China teas. The Pekoe Sou-chang is generally too bold in leaf and, like the mon and medium grades of Pekoes, too light in cup for separate use; but the finest Ceylon Pekoes, realising now in the Mineing-lane auctions from 1s. 14. to Is. 4d. per Ib. in bond, are mostly of delicate and choice Pekoe favour, similar to that of the finest China Ningchows of days gone by, but possessing more body in liquor. These, again, are in small supply, and the public see little of them in their pure imported state, the general call being for something stronger, a want which is met by buying them blended. In 1882 the home consumption of Chins teas was 114,462,000 Ib. and of In teas only 50,496,000 Ib. In 1886 the chief supply tea to this country was. still. from Chin; but sines 1887 the importation and consumption of China. teas, so far as this country is concerned, have stea-duy declined, und during last year (1891) the total consumption of al tea was 202,500,000 Ib., of which 150,000,000 Ib. were Indian and Ceylon, and only about 52,000,000 1b. China, In 1891 the consumption of Ceylon teas alone increased 50,000,000 Ib., while that of China showed a reduction of 40,000,000 1b. Whatever the cause, whether it is what has been termed by those only interested in China teas "'tle coarse taste of the average British consumer," or, more probably, the natural requirement of something more stimulating, the cry is more and more pronounced for Indian and Ceylon teas—which is highly encouraging and satisfactory to our British tea industries in those colonies. The change in the customs duty in 1890 from Gd. to 4d. per Ib. has enabled grocers, and especially the principal blending firms, to give to the public by means of blending'a much more useful flavour tea than hey were a few years ago able to provide. Formerly, when little else but China tea was used, the fine and finest qualities were too expensive, and the poor could only obtain the inferior sorts. Now, by this blending system, which has become of late a large industry in itself, the working classes can buy" very superior tea at much less cost than they paid a few years since for a very inferior substitute. The quoted prices one generally sees now range from 1s, 2d. to 1s, 6d. per Ib. for good useful to medium, and from 1s. 9d. to 3s. per Ib. for better to finest blended te: When this fact, which is already attracting atten tion, is still more fully recognised, we shall, without doubt, see a further marked increase the consumption of an article which, being so largely produced by British enter-has the good wishes of all interested British industry.
To give an idea of the enormous extent of the tea trade here, it may be stated that about 1,250,000 packages of Indian (valued at £4,887,000), 756,000 packages of Ceylon (valued at £1,890,000), and 667,500 packages of China teas (valued at £1,223,000) were catalogued and sold last year under the ham in Mincing-lane over and above the very large quantities sold by private contract. The auctions of Indian, Ceylon, and China teas are held, as a rule, in separate halls in the Commercial Salerooms, and a stranger entering during one of these s would be scared by the thundering noise caused by some dozen or more men shouting at the very top of their voices all at once, each endeavouring to secure the attention of the selling broker to his bid first. Where a lot of low-priced tea is put up, the exact value of which is well known, the unanimous shout is like the report from a cannon, and the stranger might well come to the conclusion that the very last lots of tea available in this world were being competed for. These scenes, however, are of almost: daily occurrence in Mincing-lane. It is not at all unusual in the busy seasons for some 15,000 to 20,000 chests and half-chests of a particular growth to be sold in one day, the sales generally lasting from twelve to three o'clock, or later. The imports from June 1 to March 31, 1891-2, were of China tea 59,975,000 Ib., Indian 107,861,000 Ib., Ceylon 52,105,000 Ib., and Java 2,538,000 1b., as against, during the same period in 1889-90, China tea 89,171,000. Ib., Indian 96,384,000 1b., Ceylon 26,775,000 1b., and Java 2,412,000 Ib. The total tea delivered for home consumption in 1891-92 was 150,971,000 lb., against 129,581,000 1b, in 1889-90.
The Chinese for so many years had the monopoly of our tea trade that they became utterly careless of the preparation or proper maintenance of their Plantations, thinking anything they sent to this country, so long as it paid them well, would do for us. They regarded the rumour of competition from other countries with ridicule,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.