THE HANKOW STEAMER TEA RACES
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tea merchants on the one hand and the London market on the other. As the River rose the ocean fleet sailed up the Yangtsze. As many as sixteen or seventeen vessels made up the London fleet with the addition of a few vessels for Odessa or other Black Sea ports (Table 1). Of this fleet only two or three vessels were regarded as in the race and received higher rates of freight than the rest. Until the very end of the period the race was usually between the "Castles" of Thos. Skinner & Co. and the "Glens" of McGregor, Gow & Co. and the rivalry of the leading ships was intense. A special lottery was drawn.
Rates of freight were always high for the most likely winners and varied between £6.10.0. and £4.0.0. per space ton during the period. Slower vessels and later departures secured lower figures, usually between £3 and £4, although in one year the rate was down to £2.10.0. and less. The tradition of the Clipper races thus remained although the economic justification a very considerable difference in transit time which affected the quality of the tea was no longer as valid as it had been. Nevertheless the race carried on, partly by its own momentum and sentiment, until the ship owners realised the costliness of building expensive, fast vessels for one voyage a year, and costly losses on the market convinced the tea merchants that low freights were more essential to the continuance of the trade than fast passages.
Rivalry between the various tea buyers led to chaotic conditions which favoured the Chinese tea merchants. In 1879 the North China Daily News wrote:
"The supply of tea in China had already been in excess of European demand, and exports had only been checked in each case by the arrival of news of an overstocked market on the arrival of the first crops. But such a rush for hurrying teas to a glutted market was never cooled down. Why? In most professions there was a recognised etiquette which kept up the character of the profession and came to the help of each member. Unfortunately in China the absence rather than the presence of this etiquette has been the rule. Under this principle of everyone for himself there was exhibited an anxiety to get the better of each other rather than to purchase at remunerative rates. Each sought to raise the market on his neighbour, and a chasze might frequently be heard of boasting of how he had got a chop to which he had a fancy out of the hands of a brother chasze."