Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/510

 the ferment or enzyme, and renders it possible to conserve the tea in what is really nearer its natural form than the black tea that is so well known to the consumer.

Tea Consumption.—The following table gives particulars relative to the principal consuming countries, from which it will be seen that Great Britain and its English-speaking dependencies are the great consumers:—

Tea Consumption of Chief Consuming Countries in 1906. China. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unknown Japan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   ,,

The countries of smaller consumption absorbed about , 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 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 during 1907 in places not referred to above:—

. 5.

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 per head in victoria and  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 fluctuations 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 consumption, but a similar one on next page, bringing the figures up 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 labour market always tell, and the low range