For &sive a century and a half the solo object of the East India Company's trade with China was to provide tea for the consumption of the United Kingdom. Tho Company enjoyed this trade to the exclusion of all other parties, and were bound from time to time to send orders for tea, and to provide ships to import the same, and always to have a year's consumption is their warehouses. The teas were disposed of in London, where only they could be imported, at quarterly sales ; and the Company was bound to sell them to the highest bidder, provided an advance of one penny per lb. was made on the price at which each lot was put up. This price was determined by adding together the prime cost at Canton and the bare charges of freight, insurance, interest on capital, and certain charges on importa tion; but by the mode of calculating these items, and the heavier expenses which always attend every department of a trade monopoly, the upset prices were greatly enhanced. The prices realised at the Company's sales were however in still greater proportion beyond the upset prices; a result easily produced by a body who monopolised the sole supply; as it was only necessary that the quantity offered for sale should not be augmented in proportion to the growing demand of a rapidly increasing population. The 13 Geo. II., c. 20, passed imme diately after a large reduction of the duty had taken place, provided for such a contingency as this, by enacting that if the Beet India Com pany failed to import a quantity sufficient to render the prices as low as in other parts of Europe, it should be lawful to grant licences, to other persons to import tea. This would have constituted a very efficient check if it had been acted upon ; but eventually the mode of levying the duty gave the government almost the same interest in a restricted supply as the East India Company. The duties were col lected ad ra/orem on the amount realised at the Company's sales; and thus the very circumstance which enhanced the price raised the total amount of duty. The duty, at that time, was nominally 90 and 100 per cent. ad valorem, but being charged on a monopoly price, the difference on the cheaper teas consumed by the working and middle classes amounted to above 300 per cent. on the cost price of the same teas at Hamburg; and in 1830 the difference between the prices realised at the Company's sales and the Hamburg prices amounted to a sum of 1,8S9,9751. The sales in the hat year of the East India Com pany's monopoly are shown in the following table : An Account of the Quantity and Prices of several sorts of tea sold in England from May 1st, 1333, to May let, 1831:— lb., according to price and quality. is 1830 it was reduced to 2s. Id. per lb. for all qualities : and in 1540 an additional 5 per cent. was imposed. During the existence of the Excise duty, it was very vexa. tious to the retailers. Each of the hundred thousand tea-dealers in the United Kingdom were vlaited once a month by the officers of excise, who took an account of their stock ; and no quantity exceeding clx pounds could be sent from their premises without a permit, of which above 800,000 were required in a year. In short, this system of supervision was very troublesome, costly, and answered no useful pur pose. The number of tea-dealers in 1839 was 82,71/1 in England ; 13,611 in Scotland; 12,774 in relaud : total, 109,179. Tim is now sold by the importing merchants by public auction and private sales.
The revenue which the tea duty yielded from 1805 to 1841 was singularly uniform, never rising above 4,700,00u/. and never falling below 3,100,000/. Within the last twenty years, the rate of duty and the amount received have varied much. In 1351 the duty was fixed at 2.1., plus 5 per cent. In Mr. Gladstone's tariff' of 1853, the duty was intended to undergo successive diminutions, bringing it to ls. 10e. in 1354, Is 3d. in 1855, and Is. in 1856 and later years,—plus 5 per cent. A warlike expenditure so far interfered with this plan, as to prevent the lowering going beyond Is. 5d. plus 5 per cent. in 1857
the average price of all kinds of tea in bond was exactly equal to the duty, each being about Is. 6d. The actual prices iu bond ranged from 5d. to 4s. 6d. per lb. Mr. M'Culloch supposes that all the Chinese tea brought to England costs on an average about Ir. per lb. when on board 'ship in Chinese ports, all charges included; and that this is raised to the retail consumer to 38. 4d. by the following steps — freight, insurance, and interest lid., duty Is. Gd., wholesale and retail profits M. The average price in bond, between 1850 and 1S60, varied from Is. 21d. to Is. 61d.; and the dutyrealiseil varied from 4,800,0001. to upwards of 6,000,0001. The actual trade in 1860 is represented in the following figures :— This consumption is about 21 lb. per annum for each individual of the whole population.
On a recent occasion (May, 1361) the House of Commons consented to a renewal of the present tea duty (Is. 5d., plus 5 per cent.) for the financial year 1861-62; supporting Mr. Gladstone in an abolition of the paper duty instead of a reduction in that on tea.
The usual net weight of a chest of tea is 13S lbs. for Bohea, 49 lbs. for Pekoe and Hyeon, and 64 lbs. for Congon. So greatly does the proportion of Congon excel that of the other kinds, that 64 lbs. is con sidered a fair average of all the chests ; this will afford an approximate rule for converting chests into lbs., in the commercial lists of imports and deliveries. The Chinese weights and moneys are of course very different from the English ; but it may be convenient to know that 30 tads per pied of tea is about equal to ls. 3d. per lb. , More than nine tenths of all the tea brought to the United Kingdom in 1859 entered the port of London; and the preponderance is still increasing. The great increase iu the use of tea has not checked that of coffee. The following table shows the average annual consumption of tea, coffee, and cocoa, in the last four decennial periods : The Company's sales were in March, Juue, September, and December, the latter being the largest. About 2,00U,000 lbs. were offered belong ing to the officers of the Company, who were allowed to import a cer tain quantity of tea on their own account. In 1839 there were only 122,312 lbs. offered for sale by the East India Company ; and the change effected by the 3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 93, which, on the 22nd of April, 1834, opened the trade to China, is now complete. The im portation of tea is no longer confined to the port of London. In the four years ending 1534, the average annual number of ships entered inwards from China at the ports of the United Kingdom was 23 ; in the four following years the average was 60; other commodities besides tea have since been extensively imported, and a corresponding increase in the quantity and variety of the exports to China has taken place. The exports of tea from the United Kingdom, which formerly did not exceed 250,000 lbs. annually, amounted to 4,347,432 lbs. in 1811, and have gradually much increased. The quantity retained for home consumption has also considerably increased, although awom panic(' l'y an extraordinary increase in tho use of coffee.
The tea duty has long constituted an important item in the English revenue. it has varied greatly in amount at different times. in 1725 there was a Customs' duty of 13/. 18t. 71d. per 1001. of value, and an Excise duty of 4s. per lb. Sometimes, during the next period of a hundred years, the Customs' duty was raised, sometimes lowered, and on a few occasions repealed altogether ; and precisely the same may be said of the Excise duty. In 1834 the Excise duty was finally repealed, and at the mine time the Customs' duty was rated at Is. 0d. to 34. per Bringing in a more modern article of consumption, chicory, the figures for 1859 were—tea 76 million lbs, coffee, 34 million lbs , chicory, 30 million lbs., and cocoa 3 million lbs. Tho proportion of black to green tea consumed in the United Kingdom is about 6 or 7 to 1 ; in the United States the use of green tea is greater than that of black.