The tea imported into England in 1667 was only 100 lbs., while for the year ending June 30, 1851, the export from China to Great Britain was 64,020,000 lbs., employing 115 vessels in its transportation; and to the United States, during the same time, 28,760,800 lbs., in sixty-four vessels. Within the last five years, the export has increased 10,000,000 lbs. to the United States, and 17,000,000 to Great Britain. These statistics will show the immense importance of this article to commerce, and the vast amount of shipping it supports. But let us follow out the statistics a little more in detail.
The population of the Chinese provinces, as quoted by Dr. Morison, from an official census taken in 1825, was 352,866,012, and we may fairly conclude that during the last twenty-eight years this population has extensively increased. If we assume the annual consumption of tea at four lb. per head on the above population; and this is no unreasonable assumption in a country, where, to quote from Murray's valuable work on China, tea "is the national drink, which is presented on every occasion, served up at every feast, and even sold on the public roads;" we shall have a tolerably accurate result as to the total consumption in the empire. Indeed this computation falls short of the actual relative consumption in the island of Jersey, where, as we have seen, nearly five lbs. is the annual allowance of each individual.
If we multiply the population of China by four, we have—
| lbs. | |
| Total consumption of tea in China | 1,411,464,048 |
| Export of Great Britain and Ireland, for the year ending June 30, 1851. | 64,020,000 |
| Export to the United States, same period | 28,760,800 |
| Export to Holland, returned at 2,000,000 in Davis's "China" | 3,000,000 |
| Inland trade to Russia | 15,000,000 |
| Export to Hamburg, Bremen, Denmark, Sweden, &c., seven cargoes, about | 3,000,000 |
| Export to Sydney, and Australasian Colonies, at least | 6,000,000 |
| Export to Spain and France, four cargoes | 2,000,000 |
| Total lbs. | 1,533,244,848 |
The above is exclusive of the heavy exportation in Chinese vessels to all parts of the east where Chinese emigrants are settled, such as Tonquin, Cochin China, Cambodia, Siam, the Philippines, Borneo, and the various settlements within the Straits of Malacca. In comparison with such an enormous quantity, the 54 million lbs. consumed in the United Kingdom sink into insignificance.
| £ | |
| The cost of tea to America, at the ship's side in China, say 29,000,000 lbs., at an average of 1s. per lb., would be | 1,450,000 |
| The cost to England, 64,000,000, at the same price | 3,200,000 |
| The cost to other places, say 25,000,000 | 1,250,000 |
| Russia, 15,000,000 | 750,000 |
| Total | £6,650,000 |
It is therefore clear, that were the demand to be doubled from Great Britain, it would make very little difference in the Chinese market; since it would be only a question of letting us have six per cent, of their growth of the article, instead of three.
When we remember that the tea plant attains to maturity in three years, and its leaves are then fit for picking; and that there is a vast extent of country to which it is indigenous, growing in every climate between the equator and the latitude of 45 degrees, it is evident that, were there a necessity for it, the actual production of tea in China could be increased to an almost unlimited extent in the space of three or four years, an extent far more than compensating for the extra three per cent., which might be, in the first instance, required by the British.
The certainty of an increased consumption following upon a reduction in the price of tea to the actual consumers of it, is so obvious as to require demonstration to those only who have not considered the subject. The population of Great Britain and Ireland is, say in round numbers 30,000,000, the actual consumption of tea is only 54,000,000 lbs., or little more than one pound and three quarters for each individual. In the neighbouring island of Jersey, there are nearly five lbs. of tea consumed by every inhabitant yearly; and as we may fairly infer from analogy that similar results would arise from a similar cause, the consumption in the United Kingdom in the same ratio would amount to no less than 150 millions of pounds annually.