From these estimates it will be observed that England ranks first in the list of tea-consuming countries, the United States second, and Russia third, the Australian colonies and Canada coming next in order, comparatively little tea being used in France, Germany and the other European countries. It is rarely used in some parts of the globe, and is practically unknown in a great many other countries. It is also apparent that 90 per cent. of the world’s supply is chiefly consumed by English-speaking people, fully 75 per cent. of this being used by England and her dependencies alone, the United States being next in importance as a tea-consuming country. And it may here be noted that while the world’s production of tea has been very largely increased during the last quarter of a century in greater ratio than that of any other of the great staples of commerce, the production of China and Japan having increased at least 50 per cent. in that period, to which must be added that of India and Ceylon, from which countries little or none was received until a few years ago. Yet it cannot be said that the consumption has increased in anything like the same proportion, which will account for the great decline in price in later years, and to prevent prices from going still lower it is evident that new markets must be opened up for its sale in other countries where it has not yet been introduced.
TABLE 3.
SUMMARY.
| World’s Production, | 1,377,600,000 |
| “ Consumption, | 1,307,130,000 |
| ————— | |
| Surplus, | 70,470,000 |
| or | |
| Quantity exported, | 503,100,000 |
| Consumption in non-producing countries, | 432,630,000 |
| ————— | |
| Surplus, | 70,470,000 |
In England, particularly, the increase in the consumption of tea in late years borders on the marvelous, the figures for 1890 reaching upwards of 195,000,000 pounds, which, at the present rate of increase, will, in all probability, exceed 200,000,000 in 1892, as in the quarter of a century between 1865 and 1890 the consumption rose from 3½ to 5 pounds per capita of the population. But as in the latter half of that period strong India teas were more freely used, being increased appreciably by the similar Ceylon product in the closing years of that time largely displacing the lighter liquored teas of China, a larger consumption is indicated by the number of gallons of liquid yielded. This is calculated on the moderate estimate formed in a report to the Board of Custom to the effect that if one pound of China leaf produces five gallons of liquor of a certain depth of color and body, one pound of India tea will yield seven and a half gallons of a similar beverage. Then by allowing for an apparent arrest of the advancing consumption when the process of displacement was only commencing, the increase in the consumption of tea in the British Islands has not only been steady but rapid; thus, from 17 gallons per head in 1865 to 24 in 1876, 28 in 1886, reaching 33½ gallons per head per annum in 1890, the figures of last year almost exactly doubling that of the first year of the series, so that in consequence of the introduction of the stronger products of India and Ceylon the people of Britain have been enabled to double their consumption of the beverage, although the percentage of increase in the leaf has been only from 3½ to 5 pounds during the same period. Ceylon tea, which a decade ago was only beginning to intrude itself as a new and suspiciously regarded competitor in the English market with products so well known and established as the teas of China and India, has recently made such rapid progress that its position in the British market in 1890, rated by home consumption, occupying third place on the list. India teas 52 per cent., China 30 per cent., Ceylon 18 per cent.
TABLE 4.
Showing relative positions of kinds of Tea consumed in England, and increase in pounds of same since 1880:—
| Kind. | 1880. | 1885. | 1890. |
| China, | 126,000,000 | 113,500,000 | 60,000,000 |
| India, | 34,000,000 | 65,500,000 | 95,000,000 |
| Ceylon, | 3,000,000 | 24,000,000 |
In 1868, when the price of tea was reduced in England to an average of 36 cents per pound, the consumption increased to the heretofore unprecedented figures of 107,000,000 pounds, while in 1888, when the average price was again reduced to 20 cents, owing to the enormous increase in the production of India and Ceylon teas, the total consumption became augmented to 185,000,000 pounds, comprised as follows, in round numbers:—
| Kinds. | Pounds. |
| China teas, | 80,000,000 |
| India and Ceylon teas, | 105,000,000 |
| ———— | |
| Total, | 185,000,000 |
The latter, for the first time on record, exceeding that of China teas, being an almost exact inversion of the figures of 1886 in favor of India and Ceylon teas, by which it will be seen that China is year by year becoming of less importance as a source of tea supply to English consumers. And as the demand becomes greater the importations from India and Ceylon are constantly expanding, prices being correspondingly reduced to an unprecedentedly low figure, being now so cheap in the United Kingdom as to be in daily use in almost every household. The relative positions of China, India and Ceylon teas in England at the present writing being