Written 1909
TEA (Chinese cha, Amoy dialect U), the name given to the leaves of the tea bush (see below) prepared by decoction
as a beverage The term is by analogy also used for an infusion or decoction of other leaves, e g. camomile tea;
and similarly for the afternoon meal at which tea is served.
Historical.The early history of tea as a beverage is mainly traditional. The lack of accurate knowledge regarding
the past of the Chinese Empire may possibly some day be supplied, as European scholars become more able to explore
the unstudied stores in the great Chinese libraries, or as Chinese students ransack the records of their country
for the facts of earlier periods. It may then be learnt who made the first qip of tea, who planted the earliest
bushes, and how the primitive methods of manufacture were evolved. In the meantime knowledge on the subject is
mingled with much that is obviously mythical and with gleanings from the casual references of travellers and authors.
According to Chinese legend, the virtues of tea were discovered by the Emperor Chinnung, 2737 B.C., to whom all
agricultural and medicinal knowledge is traced. It is doubtfully referred to in the book of ancient poems edited
by Confucius, all of which are previous in date to 550 B.C. A tradition exists in China that a knowledge of tea
travelled eastward to and in China, having been introduced 543 A.D. by Bodhidharma, an ascetic who came from India
on a missionary expedition, but that legend is also mixed with supernatural details. But it is quite certain, from
the historical narrative of Lo Yu, who lived in the Tang dynasty (618906 A.D.), that tea was already used as a
beverage in the 6th century, and that during the 8th century its use had become so common that a tax was levied
on its consumption in the 14th year of Tih Tsung (l93). The use of tea in China in the middle of the 9th century
is known from Arab sources (Reinaud, Relation des Voyages, 1845, p. 40). From China a knowledge of tea was carried
into Japan, and there the cultivation was established during the 9th century. Seed was brought from China by the
priest Miyoye, and planted first in the south island, Kiushiu, whence the cultivation spread northwards till it
reached the high limit of 39 N.
It is somewhat curious that although many of the products of China were known and used in Europe at much earlier
times, no reference to tea has yet been traced in European literature prior to 1588. No mention of it is made by
Marco Polo, and no knowledge of the substance appears to have reached Europe till after the establishment of intercourse
between Portugal and China in I517~ The Portuguese, however, did little to- wards the introduction of it into Europe,
and it was not till the Dutch established themselves at Bantam early in the 17th century that these adventurers
learned from the Chinese the habit of tea drinking and brought it into Europe.
The earliest mention of tea by an Englishman is probably that contained in a letter from Mr Wickham, an agent of
the East India Company, written from Firando in Japan, on the 27th June 1615, to Mr Eaton, another officer of the
company, resident at Macao, and asking for a pot of the best sort of chow. How the commission was executed does
not appear, but in Mr Eatons subsequent accounts of expenditure occurs this item three silver porringers to drink
chaw in.
It was not till the middle of the century that the English began to use tea, and they also received their supplies
from Java till in 1686 they were driven out of the island by the Dutch. At first the price of tea in England ranged
from 6 to 10 per lb. In the Mercurius Politicus, No. 435, of September 1658, the following advertisement occurs:
That excellent and by all Physitians approved China Drink called by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations Toy, alias
Tee, is sold at the Sultaness Head, a cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London. Thomas Garway,
the first English tea dealer, and founder of the well-known coffee-house, Garraways, in a curious broadsheet, An
Exact Description of the Growth, Quality and Virtues of the Leaf Tea, issued in 1659 or 1660, writes, in respect
of its scarceness and dearness, it hath been only used as a regalia in high treatments and entertai~~euts, and
presents made thereof to princes and grandees. In that year he purchased a quantity of the rare and much-prized
commodity, and offered it to the public, in the leaf, at fixed prices varying from i5s to 5os. the Ib, according
to quality, and also in the infusion, made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travellers
into those eastern countries. In 166o an Act of the first parliament of the Restoration imposed a tax on every
gallon of chocolate, sherbet and tea, made and sold, to be paid by the maker thereof, cightpence (12 Car. II.
c. 23).
Pepyss often-quoted mention of the fact that on the 25th September 1660, I did send for a cup of tee, a China drink,
of which I never had drunk before, proves the novelty of tea in England at that date. In 1664 we find that the
East India Company presented the king with 2 lb and 2 oz. of thea, which cost 4os. per tb, and two years afterwards
with another parcel containing 223/4 ib, for which the directors paid 5os per lb. Both parcels appear to have been
purchased on the Continent. Not until 1677 is the Company recorded to have taken any steps for the importation
of tea. The order then given to their agents was for teas of the best kind to the amount of 100 dollars. But their
instructions were considerably exceeded, for the quantity imported in 1678 was 4713 lb, a quantity which seems
to have glutted the market for several years. The annals of the Company record that, in February 1684, the directors
wrote thus to Madras: In regard thea is grown to be a commodity here, and we have occasion to make presents therein
to our great friends at court, we would have you to send us yearly five or six canisters of the very best and freshest
thea. Until the Revolution no duty was laid on tea other than that levied on the infusion as sold in the coffee-houses.
By I William and Mary, c. 6, a duty of 5s. per lb and 5 per cent. on the value was imposed. For several years the
quantities imported were very small, and consisted exclusively of the finer sorts. The first direct purchase in
China was made at Amoy, the teas previously obtained by the Companys factors having been purchased in Madras and
Surat, whither it was brought by Chinese junks after the expulsion of the British from Java. During the closing
years of the century the amount brought over seems to have been, on the average, about 20,000 lb a year. The instructions
of 1700 directed the supercargoes to send home 300 tubs of the finer green teas and 80 tubs of bohea. In 1703 orders
were given for 75,000tb Singlo (green), 10,000 lb imperial, and 20,000 lb bohea. The average price of tea at this
period was I6s. per lb.
As the 18th century progressed the use of tea in England rapidly increased, and by the close of the century the
rate of consumption exceeded an average of 2 lb per person per annum, a rate in excess of that of to-day of all
people except those of Mongol and Anglo-Saxon origin. The business being a monopoly of the East-India Company,
and a very profitable one, the company at an early stage of its development endeavoured to ascertain whether tea
could not be grown within its own dominions. Difficulties with China doubtless showed the advisability of having
an independent source of supply. In 1788 Sir Joseph Banks, at the request of the directors, drew up a memoir on
the cultivation of economic plants in Bengal, in which he gave special prominence to tea, pointing out the regions
most favorable for its cultivation. About the year 1820 Mr David Scott, the first commissioner of Assam, sent to
Calcutta from Kuch Behar and Rangpurthe very districts indicated by Sir Joseph Banks as favorable for tea-growing
certain leaves, with a statement that they were said to belong to the wild ,tea-plant. The leaves were submitted
to Dr Wallich, government botanist at Calcutta, who pronounced them to belong to a species of Camellia, and no
result followed on Mr Scotts communication. These very leaves ultimately came into the herbarium of the Linnean
Society of London, and have authoritatively been pronounced to belong to the indigenous Assam tea-plant. Dr Wallichs
attribution of this and other specimens subsequently sent in to the genus Camellia, although scientifically defensible,
unfortunately diverted attention from the significance of the discovery. It was not till 1834 that, overcome by
the insistence of Captain Francis Jenkins, who maintained and proved that, called by the name Camellia or not,
the leaves belonged to a tea-plant, Dr Wallich admitted the fact of the genuine tea-plant being a native of our
territories in Upper Assam as incontrovertibly proved. In the meantime a committee had been formed by Lord William
Bentinck, the governor-general, for the introduction of tea culture into India, and an official had already been
sent to the tea districts of China to procure seed and skilled Chinese workmen to conduct operations in the Himalayan
regions. The discovery and reports of Captain Jenkins led to the investigation of the capacities of Assam as a
tea-growing country by Lord William Bentincks committee. Evidence of the abundant existence of the indigenous tea-tree
was obtained; and the directors of the East India Company resolved to institute an experimental establishment in
Assam for cultivating and manufacturing tea, leaving the industry to be developed by private enterprise should
its practicability be demonstrated.
In 1834 the monopoly of the East India Company was abolished and an era of rapid progress in the new industry began.
In 1836 there was sent to London I lb of tea made from indigenous leaves; in 1837 5 lb of Assam tea were sent;
in 1838 the quantity sent was 12 small boxes, and 95 boxes reached London in 1839. In 1840 there were grown, and
offered at public auction in Calcutta early the following year, 35 packages, chiefly green teas, stated to have
been manufactured by a chief of the Singpho tribe aided by the government establishment. In the same auction catalogue
were included 95 packages, the produce of the Government Tea Plantation in Assam, many of which bore the Chubwa
mark, one well known to this day. This auction is most interesting as being the first of British-grown tea, and
it included about 6ooo lb. It is of interest also for the reference to the Singpho tribe, who are even now in small
numbers in the same district, where they still produce in a primitive manner tea plucked from the indigenous trees
growing in their jungles.
In January 1840 the Assam Company was formed to take over the early tea garden of the East India Company, and this,
the premier company, is still in existence, having produced up to 1907 no less than 117,000,000 lb of tea and paid
in dividends fI,360,000 or 730 per cent. on capital. It is no longer the first company in extent of yield, as the
Consolidated Tea and Lands Company produced in 1907 about 15,000,000 lb of tea, besides other products. The introduction
of Chinese seed and Chinese methods was a mistake, and there seems little reason to doubt that, in clearing jungle
for tea planting, fine indigenous tea was frequently destroyed unwittingly in order to plant the inferior China
variety. The period of unlearning the Chinese methods, and replacing the Chinese plants, had to be lived through.
Vicissitudes of over-production and inflation came to interfere with an. even course of success, but the industry
developed and has increased enormously. From its point of origin in Assam, it has gradually spread to other districts
with varying commercial success. The aggregate total of capital of the tea-producing companies in India and Ceylon
now amounts to about 25,000,000.
The Dutch were rather earlier than the English in attempting to establish tea growing in their eastern possessions.
A beginning was made in Java in 1826, but probably because of the even more marked influence of Chinese methods
and Chinese plant, the progress was slow and the results indifferent. Of late years, however, by the introduction
of fine Assam seed and the adoption of methods similar to those in use in India, a marked improvement has taken
place, and there seems little reason to doubt that, with the very rich soil and abundant cheap labor that the island
of Java possesses, the relative progress there may be greater in future than in any other producing land.
Somewhere about i86o the practical commercial growing of tea was introduced into the island of Formosa. The methods
)f cultivation and manufacture followed there differ in many ways from those of the other large producing countries,
but the industry has been fairly successful throughout its history.
Attempts were repeatedly made to introduce tea culture in Ceylon, under both Dutch and British authority. No permanent
success was attained till about 1876, when the disastrous effects of the coffee-leaf disease forced planters to
give serious attention to tea. Since that period the tea industry has developed with marvellous rapidity, and now
takes first rank in the commerce of the island.
Several plantations have been. successfully put out both by the Russian government and private enterprise in the
Caucasus, but it is doubtful whether they could exist long but for the high rate of duty on tea entering Russia
from foreign countries. Natal has now about 5000 acres under tea giving a fairly large yield, but of quality not
highly esteemed outside of South Africa, where it benefits to the extent of 4d. per pound of protection in the
tariff. A small plantation exists in South Carolina under circumstances not conducive to financial success on a
large scale of production. Attempts at tea growing have been made in the West Indies, Brazil, Australia, Nyassaland,
Mauritius, the Straits Settlements, Johore, Fiji and at San Miguel in the Azores without marked success. In addition
to favorable conditions of soil and climate, abundant cheap labor is an absolute necessity if satisfactory commercial
results are to be obtained.
Botany.The tea bush or tree is a member of the natural order Ternstroemiaceae and is closely allied to the well-known
ornamental shrub the camellia. As cultivated in China it is an evergreen shrub growing to a height of from 3 to
5 ft. The stem is bushy, with numerous and very leafy branches; the leaves are alternate, leathery in texture,
elliptical, obtusely serrated, strongly veined and placed on short channelled footstalks. The flowers are white,
axillary and slightly fragrant, often two or three together on separate pedicels. The calyx is small, smooth and
divided into five obtuse sepals. The corolla has from five to nine petals, cohering at the base. The stamens are
short, numerous and inserted at the base of the corolla; the anthers are large and yellow, and the long style ends
in three branches. The fruit is a woody capsule of three cells, each containing one large nearly spherical seed,
which consists mainly of two large hemispherical cotyledons.
As is commonly the case with plants which have been long under cultivation, there has been some doubt as to specific
distinctions among the varieties of tea. The plant was originally described by Linnaeus as one species, Thea sinensis.
Later Linnaeus established two species, viz. Thea Bohea and Thea viridis, and it was erroneously assumed that the
former was the source of black teas, while Thea viridis was held to yield the green varieties. In 1843, however,
Mr Robert Fortune found that, although the two varieties of the plant existed in different parts of China, black
and green tea were produced from the leaves of the same plant by varying the manufacturing processes.
Sir George Watt (Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, vol. xxxii.) describes with ample illustrations the
recognized varieties, placing all of them under Camellia Thea, with the following subdivision:
1. Assam Indigenous.
2. Lushai.
- 3. Naga Hills.
4. Variety Viridis .r~ces 4~ Manipur.
5. Burma and Shan.
6. Vunnan and Chinese.
B. , Bohea.
C. ,, Stricta.
D. ,, Lasiocalyx.
Of the foregoing, the teas of commerce are derived almost entirely from the varieties Viridis and Bohea. The Assam
Indigenous, in its two sub-races of Singlo and Bazalona, and the Manipur, originally found wild in the jungles
of the native state of that name, have, with various intermixtures and crossings, been used to cover the greatest
areas of all the more modern planting in India, Ceylon and Java. The great size of leaf when fully developed (4
to 9 ins, in length and 2 to 31/2 in breadth) has made them in demand because of the heavy yields. From the variety
Bohea, or from hybrids of descent from it, came the China teas of former days and the earlier plantings in India
grown from imported China stock. Tile Fio. I.Bohea variety.
leaves of this variety are generally, roughly speaking, about half the size of those of the Assam Indigenous and
Manipur sorts. The bush is in every way smaller than the Assam types. The latter is a tree attaining in its natural
conditions, or where allowed ,o grow unpruned in a seed garden, a height of from 30 to 40 ft. and prospering in
the midst of dense moist jungle and in shady sheltered situations.
The Bohea variety is hardy, and /~$J,~\ capable of thriving under many differ ~ ent conditions of climate and situation,
~ while the indigenous plant is tender and difficult of cultivation, requiring ) ~ for its success a close, hot,
moist and equable climate. In minute structure it presents highly characteristic appear ances.
The under side of the young leaf is \ S - .~ densely covered with fine one-celled thick-walled hairs, about I mm.
in length and .o15 mm. in thickness.
-- ~ These hairs entirely disappear with ~ ~ ( ~y ,, increasing age. The structure of the ~.~ ~/ J epidermis of
the under side of the leaf, with its contorted cells, is represented in fig. 3.
N- A furt~ier characteristic feature of the cellular structure of the tea-leaf is the abundance, especially in
grown leaves, of lalge, branching, thick-walled, F1o. 2-Bohea Tea- smooth cells (idioblasts) which although leaf,
full size.
they occur in other leaves, are not found in such as are likely to be confounded with or substituted fe.r tea.
The minute structure of the leaf in section is iliustrated in fig. 4.
Constant controversy has existed as to what is the actual original home of the tea-plant, and probably no one has
given t~ the subject more careful study than Professor Andreas Krassnow, of Kliarkoff University. By order of the
Russian government, he visited each of the great tea-growing countries, and the results of his observations were
published in a book entitled On the Tea-producing Districts of Asia. He holds the opinion that the tea-plant is
indigenous, not to Assam only, but to the whole monsoon region of eastern Asia, where he found it growing wild
as far north as the islands of southern Japan. He considers that the tea-plant had, from the remotest times, two
distinct varieties, the Assam and Chinese, as he thinks that the period of known cultivation has been too short
to produce the differences that exist between them.
Chemistry.What may be termed the chemistry of production, viz., that relating to soils, manures, manufacturing
processes, &c., has of recent years received great attention from the scientific FIG. 3.Epidermis of Tea-leaf
(under side).
experts appointed in India and Ceylon to assist and guide the tea planters. The chemistry of the completed teas
of commerce does not appear to have been subjected to adequate scientific study. There cannot be said to be any
standard or recognized analysis. Many such have been made, and they may be found in chemical text-books of high
authority, but they are defective because of the lack of commercial knowledge in association with the chemical
skill. More attention seems to have been given to the matter in the United States of America and in Germany and
Russia than in England, but the infinite variety of samples known to the commercial expert, and the impossibility
of standardizing those in such a manner as to make readily recognizable what the chemist has treated, renders most
of the recorded analyses of uncertain value. There seems to be no relationship between the commercial value and
the analysis, the arbitrary personal methods of the expert tea-taster being controlled by factors that chemistry
does not appear to deal made of tea liquors pro- ~. - - -
duced by distilled water, ~-, ~ .. which is the very worst ~ ~ possible from the point of view of the commercial
- e~, - . expert or in domestic !t~c~ip~ chemical - - . -
~affeine, tannin and essential oil, on which depend FIG. 4.Section through Tea-leaf. respectively the physiological
effects, the strength and the flavour. The commercial value appears to depend on the essential oil and aroma, not
on the amount of caffeine, tannin or extract.
The following is suggested as a typical analysis of an average sample of black tea Per cent.
Albuminous matters . . . . . 24
Gummy matters . . . . . . 4
Cellulose - . . . . . . 20
Chlorophyll and wax . . . . - 2
Caffeine - - . . . . . . 3
Tannin - . . . . . . . 10
Essential oil . . . . . . . 0.75
Resin - . . . . . . . 3
Mineral matter (ash) . . - - . 6
Moisture - . . . . . . 7
Extractive matter . . . . . . 20~25
I 00
Also a trace (I to -2 per cent.) of boheic acid, a vegetable acid peculiar to tea. The amount of tannin found in
green, teas appears to be about half as much again as in black, and the former always yield less moisture, doubtless
because of the harder fibre produced by the method of manufacture and the frequent use of a facing medium. A large
percentage of moisture found in any sample would indicate improper condition. At the stage of final firing, tea
is supposed to be desiccated as completely as possible, and it is then sealed up to exclude air entirely. It is,
however, most liable to absorb moisture upon subsequent exposure. Caffeine (formerly known as theme) is the alkaloid
of tea, and is identical with that of coffee, guarana, mate and kola nut. It is closely allied to theobromine,
the alkaloid of cocoa, and also to uric acid. In large quantities it is a poison, but in smaller quantities it
acts as a stimulant. It exists in greater percentage in Indian and Ceylon teas than in those from Java, and is
lowest in China and Japan teas. lannin is a hardening and astringent substance, and in large quantities impairs
digestion. Prolonged infusion increases the amount extracted. The essential oil of tea is of a citron yellow color;
it is lighter than water and possesses the distinctive odour of tea. Extract varies from 26 to 40 per cent., and
is no guide to quality. Ash averages 57 per cent., about half of which is soluble in water. About 8 per cent. of
ash is proof of adulteration.
CommercialThere is probably no article of large consumption the commerce in which has been so revolutionized during
a single generation. In 1877, except to the initiated, tea meant China tea. India and Java were producing a little,
but practically for use only in Great Britain and Holland. Formosa and Japan were beginning to attract attention
in America, but China supplied the world, and almost entirely through the medium of the London market. The days
of sailing ships from China had not entirely passed, and the steamers of the period were built for rapidity of
transit to London. The Australasian colonies got their supplies direct, and part of the Russian supplies went by
the caravan routes.
By i9o7, however, the greatly increased production in India and Ceylon, with the willingness of many nations to
drink such teas, in prefeience to those of China, had left to her Russia as a customer for nearly half her export
of the article, a proportion rapidly diminishing, as that country too turned in the direction of using the stronger
varieties.
China and Japan have hitherto been regarded as the chief producers of tea, and the reputed large domestic consumption
of those Mongolian peoples has led to assumptions of vast internal productions. There exist absolutely no data,
and it is doubtful whether such can ever be gathered, for forming trustworthy estimates. In both of those countries
tea is grown principally in a retail manner, and much of it simply for family consumption. The country cultivator
has, as a rule, only a small areaperhaps a corner of his farm or gardenplanted with tea, the produce of which is
roughly sun-dried and cured in a primitive manner. Any surplus not needed for the family is sold in its sun-dried
state to the collector, who takes it to the hong, where it is fired, blended and packed for exportation. Excluding
therefore from any record the quantities produced for internal consumption in China and Japan (that from the former
alone has been estimated at a total of 2,000,000,000 Ib), the following are the acreage and production of the world
as taken from the latest recorded statistics available in 1908: Acreage under tea, Prductin.
China - . . ...i 188,371 000l (Brick tea for Tibet) 1 19,000,000 i quantities Japan - - - 121,2022 39,778,000 r-
exporteu Formosa - . 79,858 20,300,000 J OfliY.
India - - - - 531,808 24o,41I,000
,, (Burma) - 1,498 f 3,249,000
Shan States (mostly pickled tea) 1 16,000,ooo Ceylon . . . - 390,000 270,527,000
Java 45,000 26,215,000
Natal . . . . 5,000 2,750,000
726,601,000
The quantity from China includes about 16,000,000 lb imported from India, Ceylon and Java, and worked up with China
teas into bricks and tablets.
The modern developments of production and consumption have rendered the subject of China tea one of subordinate
interest, except Chin to students of commercial evolution. In several of the a. earlier editions of this work very
ample details are furnished regarding the same, with many interesting pictorial illustrations of the processes
of production. The conservative tendencies of the Chinese people haye prevented them adopting the modern methods
of extensive cultivation based on scientific principles, and the manipulation of crops by machinery in place of
hand labor. Consequently, their export trade has been for many years a China diminishing one. Of the exported quantity
referred to black tea above, only 81,000,000 lb were the ordinary black tea known to the English consumer (collectively
described in the United States of America and Canada as English Breakfast Iea ). Out of that total, Ureat Britain
consumed only about 5,000,000 lb against a consumption of 126,000,000 lb of China tea in 2879. Green tea is represented
by 28,000,000 ib, and this went chiefly to the United States of America, to Central Asia and to North Africa. The
remainder, 80,000,000 tb is brick and tablet tea sent entirely to Asiatic and European ~ Russia. The method of
compressing tea into tablets green ea. or bricks is unfamiliar in western Europe. It doubtless arose from the necessity
of reducing bulk to a minimum for conveyance by caravan across the great trade routes of Asia, and now fls~k d
that the railway and the steamship have supplemented tabIe more primitive methods of transit, the system is still
~ continued to meet the wants of the consumer who would not recognize his tea in any other shape. The preparation
of the tea in the requisite form has, however, largely left Chinese hands. The Russians have themselves established
several important factories at Hankow, which is the chief seat of this industry, and to which place they import
in large quantities tea-dust and small broken tea from India, Ceylon and Java. Those are freely used in the preparation
of small tablets, compressed to such a condition of hardness as to resemble wood or stone, and commonly passed
round as currency in certain districts of Russia. Of a somewhat different nature is the brick tea prepared chiefly
at Ya-chou in Bkk tea the province of Ssu-chuan for overland transit to Tibet, ~ TIb to investigate the commerce
in which Mr James Hutchi- or e. son, M.A., was sent in 1906 as a special commissioner for the Indian Tea Cess Committee.
This tea is mostly prepared from exceedingly rough leaf, including even bush prunings, which would not be plucked
for manufacturing purposes in India or Ceylon. It is panned, rolled, fermented and divided into various classes
or qualities. It is then steamed and placed in a moulding frame of wood to compress it into the size and shape
of brick wanted. The bricks are wrapped in paper bearing hong marks, or some writing in Tibetan. For transit they
are packed twelve together in hides sewn up while moist, which contract to make ~ strong tight package of 60 to
70 lb weight. These bales are carried on the backs of coolies for great distances across very high passes into
Tibet, and the trade is estimated at an average of 19,000,000 lb per annum, of which 8,000,000 is a subsidy from
the emperor of China to the Tibetan monasteries.
The Japanese production is almost entirely green tea for North American use. It is prepared in two distinctive
classes named by the final process of manufacture applied in each in- ,,, stance, viz, basket-fired, i.e. dried
over a hot stove in 8p~1I. a basket, and pan-fired, i.e. in machine-made pans. The industry is a declining one,
because of change in the American taste, and the area under cultivation has diminished by nearly 20 per cent, in
the ten years since I 896. The mulberry leaf for the more profitable silk trade has taken its place. The export
production Of the island of Formosa is limited to a particular class of tea termed Oolong, practically all produced
for the United States ormosa of America. It is scarcely known in England save by Oolong. experts. The Tea Cess
Committees of India and Ceylon have both sent representatives in recent years to study the manner of growth and
production, but in neither country has there been so far any successful attempt to produce commercially tea of
the class. A radical difference exists in connection with the method of growth, in that the plants are never grown
from seed, but are always propagated from layerings. Soil, situation and climatic conditions have doubtless much
influence on the peculiar character of the tea prodticed. The manufacturing methods are elaborate and careful,
and the produce has in its choicest qualities a particular delicacy and bouquet possessed by no other variety of
tea.
Tea ConsumplionThe following table gives particulars relative to the principal conslming countries, from which
it will be seen that Great Britain and ii~ English-speaking dependencies are the great consumers Tea Consumption
of Chief Consuming Countries in 1906.
China Unknown Japan Rate per Total Person Rate of Duty per Annum. of Popu- per lb.
rat ion United Kingdom - . . 269,503,000 6-17 5d.
Russia 135,400,000 0-94 Certain kinds free for Asiatic Rus sia or over Asiatic frontier others 2ld.
to is. 1f3/4d.
United States of America 84,842,000 0-89 Free.
Dominion of Canada. 23,969,000 4-34
Commonwealth of Aus tralia 27,959,000 6-88 ,,
DominionofNewZealand 6,141,000 6-5
Germany 6,354,000 0-Il (If British grown)
I -35d.
France 2,428,000 0-06 9d. (surtax 23/4d. if not direct im port).
Holland 7,874,000 1-45 23/4d.
South Africa 7,572,000 1-4 4d. (Natal tea free)
Argentine Republic - 2,870,000 0-49 41/2d.
Tibet 19,000,000 131/2 lb High,but uncertain.
India (estimatrl) - - 7,240,000 ? Free.
Burma (average about) 19,000,000 ?
Persia (average about) 6,ooo,ooo ? 43/4d. to 7d.
626,152,000
The countries of smallerconsumption absorbed about 25,000,000 ib, but there is a considerable excess in the returns
of production over those of consumption. This arises partly from the latter relating in certain instances to an
earlier period, and partly from the fact P:Rie 2J2~ ~ i/a that much of the yield of 1906 was afloat or undespatched
at the close of that year.
The following table gives the approximate rates of duty per English lb during 1907 in places not referred to above:
Austria and I 9ld. imported by Belgium Free.
Hungary sea, by land-ifd. Bermuda 63/4 % ad val.
Bahamas 6d. Brazil 50% ad val.
Barbados 3d. and 20% ad British E.
val. Africa 10% ad Val.
British Peru 65 % ad val. and Guiana - - - 8d. 10%.
Bulgaria 43/4d. plus 43/4d. cx- Portugal 2s. o3/4d.
cisc and octroi Rumania - - - - 33/4d. and 43/4d. ex 1~d cisc.
Chile 9d. Sierra Leone - 10% ad val.
Cyprus 4d. Spain 63/4d. (if tran Denmark - - - - 4d shipped in a Ecuador 21/2d European port Egypt 8 % ad val Is.
74d. cwt. ad- Fiji 6d ditional).
Gibraltar - - - - Free. St Helena - - - - Free.
Greece I3/4d. Straits Settle- Grenada 6d. ments Free.
Honduras. - - .23/4d. Sweden 3d.
Italy 1Id. Switzerland .In receptacles Jamaica Is weighing less Lagos Id than 5 kilos.
Malta Free 13/4d. over f -iod.
Mauritius - - - - 3d. Tobago and Mexico 6d. Trinidad. - 6d.
Morocco 1o%adval. Turkey II%. -
Newfoundland 33 % ad val. Uganda 10%.
Nigeria lod. Uruguay 53/4d.
Norway Is. Venezuela . . - 6d.
The rate per head of population within the United Kingdom has not increased much during recent years, and in the
Australasian colonies it has apparently fallen greatly as compared with recorded averages of 12 lb per head in
Victoria and ~ lb in New South Wales in 1884. The modern statistics of the commonwealth may be more accurately
kept, and there may be less waste in use, but it is not supposed that there is any diminution in the free use of
the beverage which has always characterized the antipodean colonist. One important factor in keeping down the amount
per person is the substitution in use, which for a generation has been in progress, of the stronger teas of India
and Ceylon for the old-fashioned weaker produce of China. The progressive increase in the consumption of tea in
Great Britain and Ireland during 50 years from 1836 to 1886 is shown in the table below. The dotted line represents
the average monthly consumption in each year; the fitictUations in price of good sound China congou are traced
by the ,black line; and the years in which reduced customs duty came into operation are indicated along the base.
From 1860 onwards, the amount of Indian tea entered for home consumption is shown in monthly average by a black
column. This column brings out the remarkable fact that the Indian tea alone consumed in 1886 equalled the consumption
of all kinds in 1860, and was double the quantity of all kinds in 1836. The table, however, shows merely the general
development of cone.
sumption, but a similar one on next page, bringing the figures tip to 1907,,shows the gradual and almost total
displacement of China tea by that grown in the English dependencies. In both, the price fluctuations and fiscal
changes are shown that their effect upon consumption may be judged. The prices below are the annual averages for
all Indian teas sold in the London public auction market during the years stated. Lowness of price has not been
the only factor in increasing the rate of consumption. The lean years and the fat years of the general labor market
always tell, and the low range of prices for sugar during recent times has undoubtedly assisted in increasing the
amount available for expenditure on tea. In Russia tea costs more to the consumer than in any country where modern
transit by railway and steamer exists. The reason is the enormous proportion of the retail selling price which
is exacted by the government by way of duty. But in return the government, with a paternal care for its people,
makes absolutely certain that the tea reaches their hands as pure and unadulterated as when it first entered the
country. Russian tea has always had a high reputationlargely a sentimental one, however. The quantity taken by
the country is very large, but when spread over the enormous population the rate of consumption per person is not
great. The extreme poverty of the great body of the people and the high price doubtless explain this. The method
of use differs much from that followed in England. The samovar, or urn for boiling the water, is always much in
evidence. Tea that makes a dark, strong liquor is preferrednot that such liquor is used, but that tile greatest
possible quantity of tea-colored water may be drained from the teapot by refilling it over and over again from
the samovar. The tea is generally drunk from glasses and while very hot, with a liberal addition of sugar and a
flavouring of lemon. The method of use is - - NT
0 -
I PER
50 - 40 ______ 8 6 _____
lPdian Tea Legion Tea China Tea ~ Java lea Ff0. 6.Diagram showing the alterations in the relative proportions of
different growths of tea consumed during the 21 years ended the 31st of December 1907; the variations in the London
average prices for Indian teas, and the changes in the English rate of duty. Vertical lines show the average monthly
consumption in Great Britain and Ireland in millions of pounds. The diagonal line shows the average price per lb
of all Indian tea sold in the London public auctions.
probably a more healthy one than that followed in many parts of the United Kingdom, where strong infusions of powerful
teas are indulged in too frequently.
The United States of America and the great colonial dependencies follow generally the English way of using the
beverage.
France, considering that it is Englands nearest neighbor, has a remarkably small tea consumption: 06 lb per person
per annum, or about 11/2fth only of the English rate. The increase in consumption there has been so small that
it probably arises mainly from the increasing number of English and English-colonial visitors that spend portions
of each year in the country.
Germany, and the Germanic peoples, take slightly more per person, but the statistics are rather indefinite. Holland,
in Europe, comes next to England, and tises principally the product of her dependency Java. The other nations of
Europe are very small consumers, Some of the peoples of eastern Europe take their tea with an admixture-of rum.
In Morocco and generally throughout North Africa there is a considerable demand for green tea, which is drunk hot
out of glasses, the liquor being almost saturated with sugar and strongly flavoured with mint, In China and Japan
tea is generally drunk without any other qiralifying or flavouring addition. Exceedingly delicate teas can therefore
be used unimpaired. In Japan the ceremony of serving tea has, among the better classes, been raised to a high art,
which the girls have to study at school for protracted periods.
In Mongolia and other parts of Central Asia tea is made into a kind of soup, somewhat on the lines of the following
written regarding tea in Tibet by Colonel Waddell in his book Lhasa and 111 Mysteries. Writing of the Tibetan he
states: As a beverage he drinks, all day long, cupfuls of hot buttered tea, which is really a soup or broth made
by boiling tea-leaves with rancid butter and balls of dough, and adding a little salt,and straininga decoction
which was invariably nasty to our taste, though no doubt it is wholesome; for it is not merely a stimulating hot
drink in the cold, but overcomes the danger of drinking unboiled water in a country where the water supply is dangerously
polluted.
Geography of TeaThe successful commercial production of tea on a large scale is confined to a strictly limited
area enclosed by about 40 of latitude (5 S. to 35 N.) and about 730 of longitude (67 to 140 E.), while the consumption
shows itself to a large extent to have strictly geographical limitations. The southern hemisphere ranks lightly
in the matter of consumption, the only other country worth mentioning there besides the Australasian and Cape dependencies
being Argentina. A straight line of latitude runs through all of these. In the northern hemisphere (excluding the
races who consume their own produce) the material consumi?tion of tea is in regions lying 40 N. and above it, but
here there is an interesting subdivision to be made. In the United States of America and Canada, in some portions
of Europe and of Asia, and along the north of Africa, there is a free use made of green or unfermented teas with
pale, pungent infusions. The demand for such, as a general rule, lies principally in lower latitudes, while the
farther north the consumer lives he seems to require more of the black or fermented tea of India, Ceylon or China,
with the dark, thick, heavy liquor its infusion produces.
Trans portation.In the early part of the 19th century the tea shipped to England was destined to supply many countries,
as London was then, and until comparatively recent times, the common warehouse and central market for the world,
and England the common carrier. Throughout that century fairly steady and rapid progress was shownespecially in
its earlier periodsin the trade from China, which reached its maximum in 1879. And it is here that some of the
romance of commerce comes in. As the trade grew in importance, the advantages of rapid transit for the tea of new
seasons production began to be ap~eciated, and the slow and stately progress of the old East Indiaman became out
of date. A type of vessel, specially designed for the rapid carrying of tea from China to England via the Cape
of Good Hope, was introduced, known as the China Clipper, and the competition was always keen as to which ship
should make the most rapid passage. This culminated in the year 1866, when nine ships sailed almost simultaneously
from Foochow, three of them crossing the bar in company. These three were all built by the same builders in Greenock,
and came in ahead of all the others, making the long voyage of fully 16,000 m. in 99 days. They each docked in
a separate dock in London upon the same day, and all within two hours of each other. The two leading ships had
not seen each other for 70 days and met off the Lizard, from which point they ran a neck-and-neck race before a
strong westerly wind, with every rag of canvas set.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 soon changed the course of all trade with the East. and in a few years the
sending of tea per sailing ship round the Cape of Good Hope was a thing of the past. Romance was no more, although
there was extreme competition in building steamers with great power and speed to land their cargoes rapidly by
the new route. This reached its height in I882, when the s.s. Stirling Castle made the phenomenal run, for those
times, of 28 days from Woosung to London.
But England, which formerly supplied almost everything to her own colonies and to many foreign countries besides,
has, under the modified conditions of abundant steam tonnage everywhere, become less and less of a distributive
country. Consequently, direct shipments are made now from the countries of production to those of consumption.
America gets its tea largely through its western seaboard from China, Japan, Ceylon and India, while not a little
is reaching it of recent years by steamers running direct from those countries via the Suez Canal to New York.
The Australian demand is fed by steamers from Calcutta and Colombo, with some additions direct from China and Java.
The extensive Russian trade is now largely conducted over the Siberian railroad, and this, next to the transit
to London, represents the largest volume of tea traffic passing in one channel. This route has displaced much of
the protracted caravanbusiness through Manchuria and Mongolia. A most interesting and adventurous episode in connection
with Russian trade was the effort Fepeated over several successive years by the late Captain Wiggins to convey
tea entirely by sea from Chinese ports around the North Cape and through the Kara Sea to the Obi and Yenisei rivers.
When successful, the journey, although about seven times the mileage of the old direct caravan route, took four
months instead of eighteen. and was of course much less expensive.
The only protracted camel or mule caravan journeys remaining in connection with the tea trade are those in Persia
and Morocco, where the conservatism of race delays the intioduction of even wheel roads, not to mention railways. |
