[CHAPTER XXXIV.]
MARKETS OUTSIDE GREAT BRITAIN.
I have forestalled a good deal on the above in the last chapter, so this will be short, but, I hope, cheering.
Australia.
This, from the correspondent of the Tea Gazette in Melbourne, as to the size of chests, should be attended to:—
If the planter wishes to get his Tea direct into consumption, the packages must be small, to suit buyers. In the Colonies a large trade is done in 38lb. half-chests. They are within the purchasing power of a numerous class, and are easy to handle.
A fierce fight has been going on in Melbourne between the advocates of China and Indian Tea. The latter say China Tea is often adulterated, but this is disputed by the former. Of course I cannot say which is right, but chemical analysis, to which China Teas have been subjected in Melbourne, would seem to prove that in some cases they are not pure. We all know China Teas in London have, in several instances, been pronounced unfit for consumption, so it is possible, of course, that similar Teas are sent to Australia.
The Tea trade in China has taken alarm at our attempts on the Australian market. This is what the North China Herald (an organ of the China Tea trade) said lately:—
There are no squeezing mandarins in India; there is European supervision in the packing and firing of the leaf, and the plantations are connected with civilisation by the railway and the telegraph. Everything is done to give India an unfair advantage over China. Consequently, India tea of the same quality is far cheaper in London than the ill-regulated produce of Hankow and Foochow, and it is only the conservatism of the consumer, who is not yet entirely habituated to the Indian flavour, that prevents our losses being much heavier than they are. Every year this preference for the leaf that has been longer known is wearing away, and our buyers will soon have to reckon with its disappearance. As yet, Indian Tea is hardly taken on the continent of Europe at all; but here, too, it will penetrate sooner or later, as it is doing into America and Australia, and then there will be no corner of the earth where the sway of China Tea will be undisputed. Until foreigners can supervise the packing of the leaf in China as they do in India, the produce of the latter country will continue to have an unfair advantage. The time no doubt will come when we shall be able to go up and buy the raw leaf on its native hills, pack it by our own methods, and bring it down by railway to Shanghai for shipment; but for years yet we labour under the disadvantage of having to buy it just as the Chinamen choose to prepare it, without any real knowledge of the total crop at any time, or any immediate power to manipulate the Teas to suit the tastes of consumers.
Mark you, this is an enemy’s opinion. May his prognostications be accomplished to the letter!
The following is from the Tea Gazette lately received:—