Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/510

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TEA
481

the ferment or enzyme, and renders it possible to conserve the tea in what is really nearer its natural form than the black tea that is so well known to the consumer.

Tea Consumption.—The following table gives particulars relative to the principal consuming countries, from which it will be seen that Great Britain and its English-speaking dependencies are the great consumers:—

Tea Consumption of Chief Consuming Countries in 1906.
 China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unknown
 Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   ,,

Total
per Annum.
Rate per
Person of
Population.
Rate of Duty
per ℔.
United Kingdom 269,503,000 6·17 5d.
Russia 135,400,000 0·94 Certain kinds free for
 Asiatic Russia or
 over Asiatic frontier 
 —others 23/4d.
 to 1s. 111/4d.
United States of America  84,842,000 0·89 Free.
Dominion of Canada  23,969,000 4·34 ,,
Commonwealth of Australia   27,959,000 6·88 ,,
Dominion of New Zealand 6,141,000 6·5 ,,
Germany 6,354,000 0·11 (If British grown) 1·35d.
France 2,428,000 0·06 9d. (surtax 21/2d. if
 not direct import).
Holland 7,874,000 1·45 21/2d.
South Africa 7,572,000 1·4 4d. (Natal tea free)
Argentine Republic 2,870,0000 0·49 41/2d.
Tibet  19,000,000 13 High, but uncertain.
India (estimated) 7,240,000  ? Free.
Burma (average about)  19,000,000  ?  ,,
Persia (average about) 6,000,000  ? 41/2d. to 7d.
626,152,000

The countries of smaller consumption absorbed about 25,000,000 ℔, but there is a considerable excess in the returns of production over those of consumption. This arises partly from the latter relating in certain instances to an earlier period, and partly from the fact that much of the yield of 1906 was afloat or undespatched at the close of that year.

The following table gives the approximate rates of duty per English ℔ during 1907 in places not referred to above:—

Austria and
Hungary
93/4. imported by
sea, by land 11d.
Mexico 6d.
Bahamas 6d. Morocco 10% ad val.
Barbados 3d. and 20% ad val.  Newfoundland 33% ad val.
Belgium Free. Nigeria 10d.
Bermuda 61/4 % ad val. Norway 1s.
Brazil 50% ad val. Peru 65% ad val. and 10%.
British E. Africa  10 % ad val. Portugal 2s. 01/2d.
British Guiana 8d. Rumania 31/4d. and 41/4d. excise.
Bulgaria 41/4d. plus 41/4d. excise 
 and octroi 11/4d.
Sierra Leone 10% ad val.
Chile 9d. Spain 61/2d. (if transhipped in a
 European port 1s. 71/2.
 cwt. additional).
Cyprus 4d.
Denmark 4d.
Ecuador 21/2d. St Helena Free.
Egypt 8% ad val. Straits Settlements  Free.
Fiji 6d. Sweden 3d.
Gibraltar Free. Switzerland In receptacles weighing
 less than 5 kilos,
 13/4d.over 1·10d.
Greece 13/4d.
Grenada 6d.
Honduras 21/2d. Tobago and
 Trinidad
6d.
Italy 11d.
Jamaica 1s. Turkey 11%.
Lagos 1d. Uganda 10%.
Malta Free. Uruguay 53/4d.
Mauritius 3d. Venezuela 6d.

Fig. 5.

The rate per head of population within the United Kingdom has not increased much during recent years, and in the Australasian colonies it has apparently fallen greatly as compared with recorded averages of 12 ℔ per head in victoria and 9 ℔ in New South Wales in 1884. The modern statistics of the commonwealth may be more accurately kept, and there may be less waste in use, but it is not supposed that there is any diminution in the free use of the beverage which has always characterized the antipodean colonist. One important factor in keeping down the amount per person is the substitution in use, which for a generation has been in progress, of the stronger teas of India and Ceylon for the old-fashioned weaker produce of China. The progressive increase in the consumption of tea in Great Britain and Ireland during 50 years from 1836 to 1886 is shown in the table below. The dotted line represents the average monthly consumption in each year; the fluctuations in price of good sound China congou are traced by the black line; and the years in which reduced customs duty came into operation are indicated along the base. From 1860 onwards, the amount of Indian tea entered for home consumption is shown in monthly average by a black column. This column brings out the remarkable fact that the Indian tea alone consumed in 1886 equalled the consumption of all kinds in 1860, and was double the quantity of all kinds in 1836. The table, however, shows merely the general development of consumption, but a similar one on next page, bringing the figures up to 1907, shows the gradual and almost total displacement of China tea by that grown in the English dependencies. In both, the price fluctuations and fiscal changes are shown that their effect upon consumption may be judged. The prices below are the annual averages for all Indian teas sold in the London public auction market during the years stated. Lowness of price has not been the only factor in increasing the rate of consumption. The lean years and the fat years of the general labour market always tell, and the low range