HISTORY OF THE TEA TRADE.
In 1658, the Honourable East India Company directed to be “sent home by
their ships one hundred pounds weight of the best Tea they could get,”
this doubtless being considered a pretty large supply. The company had
previously presented to Catherine of Braganza, on her birthday, a chest
containing twenty-two pounds--a notable gift commemorated by Waller.
In 1671 came the Ty-wan present from the Ruler of Bantam. During the
three subsequent years, the company bought of Mr. Thomas Garway and
others 562½ lbs. of Tea, which was either given away or consumed by
the Court of Committee. From 1675 to 1677, no record exists of either
purchases or imports. Hence, it is evident that Tea was not regarded
as a source of private revenue at that period. Who could have fancied
the marvellous change that a century or two would effect? Who could
have thought that the Tea trade was destined to become one of the most
important branches of our commerce, and not only so, but to occasion
several wars, lead to the extension of our Eastern possessions, and
precipitate the great Chinese exodus, which threatens such important
results to the Pacific States of America, to Australia, the Polynesian
Islands, and possibly to the world at large?
There is nothing in the history of commerce so marvellous as the
growth and development of the trade in Tea. In 1675, the importation
of this commodity rose to 4,713 lbs. But this enormous quantity
manifestly overstocked the market for seven years afterwards. In 1685,
the importations amounted to a little over 12,000 lbs. Four years
later, 25,000 lbs. arrived, which caused the market to be glutted for
a lengthened period, giving rise to considerable depression in that
special branch of commerce. About this period the duty was taken off
the “made” Tea, and a regular impost of five shillings per pound
imposed. During the first twelve years of the eighteenth century, the
total quantity of Tea imported was 1,102,070 lbs., showing an average
of 91,922½ lbs. This result is the more remarkable as it exceeded the
previously unheard of quantity imported in 1700. Yet we find that
in the eleven years succeeding, this amount became nearly doubled,
probably owing to a reduction of duty to four shillings a pound, in
addition to a Customs’ impost of 14 per cent. The Tea trade, still
ever augmenting, received a further impetus in 1746, when the duty was
reduced to one shilling a pound, the Customs’ duty being fixed at 25
per cent. During the following twelve years the average importation
amounted to 2,558,080 lbs. Another period of eight years (1760–67)
gives an average of 4,333,267 lbs. Then taking an additional ten years
to complete the century, the first really commercial importation of
4713 lbs. in 1778, had grown to an average of 6,948,238 lbs., and
this, notwithstanding that besides the 25 per cent. Customs’ duty and
the one shilling per pound Excise impost, there had been imposed an
additional Excise 30 per cent. Further, in the concluding six years of
the century, the Tea importations had further augmented to 21,706,718
lbs., the 91,183 lbs. of 1700 having become a century later upwards of
_twenty-five million pounds_.
In 1784 the Commutation Act passed the Legislature. By its provisions
the East India Company were compelled to make quarterly sales of
Tea, to sell even as low as one penny a pound above prime cost, and
to keep a sufficient quantity for one year’s consumption always on
hand. The same year Mr. Pitt reduced the duty to 12½ per cent., to
which act is ascribed the enormous increase in the trade. Although in
1795 the duty was raised to 20 per cent., still the consumption of
Tea increased. Early in the nineteenth century other fiscal changes
occurred. The Customs’ duty, for example, was fixed at 6 per cent., and
the Excise duty 90 per cent. in value; while in 1819 the former impost
was repealed, and the latter made cent. per cent. However, nothing
that statesmen or financiers could effect seemed to check the growing
fondness of English people of all social grades for their cherished
beverage. Accordingly we find that during the first twenty-seven years
of the present century--a period which completes the third fifty years
of the Tea trade--the average annual consumption amounted to about
_twenty-nine million pounds_.
Since 1827, the intervening half century has witnessed several fiscal
changes in the Tea trade. The first and most important occurred in
1834, when the Excise duty became removed, differential Customs’ duties
were imposed, and the long-existing monopoly of the East India Company
was abolished. In 1835, practically the first year of free trade, the
imports exceeded by 30 per cent. any previous period. The following
year, at the request of the Tea dealers and brokers, the differential
duties were repealed, and a fixed impost of two shillings in the pound
imposed, the result being an increase of importation to the extent of
fifty million pounds. In 1840, a rate of 5 per cent. was charged, thus
raising the duty to 2s. 2¼d. per pound.
[Illustration: DRYING.--A basket frame, wide at both ends and
contracted towards the centre, containing the tea, is placed over hot
embers of charcoal.]
Although the war with China, coupled with the simultaneous distress in
the manufacturing districts, caused a temporary check to importation,
still the conclusion of peace and the repeal of the Corn Laws had their
due effect in an opposite direction. Hence, in 1849, the quantity
imported reached very nearly fifty-three and a half million pounds,
while in the year of the first Great Exhibition, the importation had
augmented to about seventy-one and a half million pounds. In 1853, an
Act was passed reducing the duty immediately to 1s. 10d., and gradually
to 1s. Owing, however, to the outbreak of the Crimean war, this measure
was not carried out. From April, 1855, until April, 1857, the duty
remained at 1s. 9d., being at this latter date reduced to 1s. 6d. Five
years later a reduction of 6d. took place, and again in June, 1865, a
further reduction. Since then no fiscal change has been effected. The
effects of these fluctuations have been sufficiently marked, probably
demonstrating that no further reduction, short of absolute abolition,
would prove much of a boon to consumers.
In 1861, the imports increased to ninety-six and a half million pounds;
the following year to close upon one hundred and fifteen millions, in
1863 to nearly one hundred and thirty-seven millions, in 1866 to one
hundred and forty millions, and in 1877, to the enormous figure of
nearly one hundred and eighty-eight million pounds (187,721,050 lbs.
actually). Thus in two centuries, since the time of Thomas Garway’s
handbill offering a few pounds of Tea to a select public, the trade
has grown with prodigious strides into a highly flourishing branch
of commerce representing value to the extent of some twelve millions
sterling, and an addition to the imperial revenue at even the existing
duty, of over four and a half millions, irrespective of the value of
the thirty-two million pounds re-exported from our shores.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]