Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/307

Rh production, and so create a demand which China is well fitted to supply.

Meantime, to those who have not made themselves acquainted with the volume of China's direct exportation of tea to foreign countries, and are unaware of the multiplicity and nature of her customers, the following abstract from the Imperial Maritime Customs returns will reveal information of peculiar interest.

As has been stated above, the total export in 1907 was 214,683,333 lbs., which was distributed as follows:— It is very difficult to trace the destination of teas exported from Hongkong and Macao, nearly 14,500,000 lbs., but the presumption is that the bulk of it goes to America, and limited quantities to Australia, South Africa, and England.

Figures and facts have been adduced to show sufficiently that China is still a great tea producing country, and a factor to be reckoned with in the future production of the article. It is unfortunately true that the great markets of England and Australia have been lost to her, the latter, perhaps, irrecoverably, for India and Ceylon supply exactly the article that the Commonwealth requires—something dark and strong and cheap. With England the prospect is more hopeful, and there are those who do not hold with Sir Alexander Hosie that "the English taste has become so perverted and insensible of the delicacy and cleanness of flavour characteristic of China tea, that the market can never be recovered even by reduced price."

THE DECLINE OF THE TRADE WITH ENGLAND.

The decline has come entirely from the competition with India and Ceylon. Not only has the English market been almost entirely lost to China, but that of Australia, with the largest per capita consumption in the world, has become hopelessly so. China tea no longer presents a fair mercantile risk. Formerly it was dealt with in the London market by merchants in the same manner as other products which require from importers a knowledge of markets. The merchant could find reasons for holding or selling as the case might be, but as he discovered year after year that his knowledge was of no avail he gradually withdrew from the trade and allowed it to pass into the hands of the dealers, who, through their special agents, have become importers themselves, as also to those who have special outlets for certain teas, and conduct their business almost entirely by telegraph. This giving London "firm offers" or "refusals" for a certain time has reduced the trade, as far as China is concerned, to a very poor commission business. Although finest China tea is returning fair profits at the time of writing, it is only because it is not in over supply and is being judiciously managed. Last year finest China tea was in rather too full supply, with the consequence that the importer who had not his special outlet and had missed his chance of sale on arrival had finally to put up with fabulous losses of 50 per cent. or more. To attempt to hold China tea nowadays is fatal, even the very commonest and cheapest kinds. In a booklet written by the agent in China of the "Pure China Tea Importing and Distributing Company," appears the following brief but very informing view of the present position of the article, with the causes that have brought it about:—"It is but a few years since Indian, Ceylon and Java teas took up the leading positions in the world's markets, and whilst to the casual observer it might appear that this position has been attained solely by their superior merits, it is a well-known fact in the tea trade that this is not the cause. The advent of Indian, Ceylon and Java teas found the existing method of disposing of shipments to be too slow, and the crops from these countries continuing to arrive practically throughout the whole year, it was necessary to dispose of the product quickly at auction at the best price it would fetch, the direct result being that the article has been literally forced into consumption. In this manner the merchant was bound to sell because other shipments were following close upon the one in hand. The broker who bought in the auction sale was compelled to get rid of his purchases immediately to the large wholesale dealer, who in turn was compelled to let go to the exporter and small dealer who again were forced to get rid of their holdings to the blender and shopkeeper. Every pound bought had to be paid for in a very short time, and this fact, coupled with the fear of a falling market, has continuously forced the pace and driven the tea into the consumer's teapot. The demand from the masses for strong tea was met by the extra strength from the British-grown varieties. This demand exists mainly from English tea drinkers of middle and lower classes, who have always insisted that all their beverages should be pungent, strong and stimulating, whether it be porter, ale, coffee or other liquor, regardless of the effect upon the nervous system. The increased demand for other than China tea is entirely due to this and not to any desire for quality or flavour, but merely for strength in the cup." That strength is kept in the leaf by the foreign method of rolling. In China the sap is expressed in the native efforts to get curl and twist in the sun-dried leaf by their mode of manipulation, and consequently much of the real strength of the tea is lost. To retain that sap without the aid of machinery is a question which may yet be solved by native genius when once properly centred upon the great advantage to be gained by the effort. At present this sap, the life-blood of the leaf, is almost entirely lost. It is not difficult to imagine that it is quite possible to save some of this natural and much desired strength and return it to the leaf before the final firing.

As for the Chinese process being a dirty one, as so strenuously urged by the Indian planter to the detriment of China tea, the objection to the manipulation of tea by hand (and by feet) instead of by machinery has about the same logic on its side as has the objection to the grape being trodden under foot before the wine is produced. No one gives much thought to the fact when drinking a favourite claret. Machinery has been tried in China, both at Foochow and at Hankow, but has not proved successful owing to the lack of a continuous supply of leaf to keep it going. Nor is it obvious that machinery can ever be made use of in China, save perhaps in the thickly planted green tea districts of Chekiang, for, "owing to the peculiar nature of the Chinese laws as to inheritance and probably also, in some degree,