CO129-027 - Public Offices - 1848

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# Appendix

## Report on the Tea Trade

In September 1828, after the sale which supplied the market until the ensuing spring, there were on hand

Lbs. } 685,000

516,000 129,000

The consumption, therefore, for four years was

Or yearly

There was, consequently, in 1828 sufficient tea in Denmark for nearly five years' consumption. It is a marked indication of the indispensable necessity of carefully attending to the importation of a foreign, and indeed an artificial article, such as that of tea, that in some countries in Europe the use of the tea was formerly considerable, even when its price was great and the difficulty in procuring it enhanced; but now, when freight, insurance, &c. is low, and tea exceedingly cheap, that the importation is so extraordinarily lessened. Sweden offers a confirmation of this remark, as the following Table demonstrates; at present, I believe, there is very little tea imported.

The Swedes perhaps thought as the poet did in the two concluding lines of the following extract from the "Dessert," a poem published in 1819:

Enlivening, mild, and sociable tea!
Scandal compelling Green, Pekoe, Bohea;
Without thee once Philosophy could write,
And Wisdom's pen the moral indite;
Without thee Themostetes their laws enacted;
Without thee thought, and taught, and dreamt, and acted:
With this celestial gift, how strange that we
Should neither better eat, nor drink, nor think, nor see."

It is observed that there is no government duty to enhance the cost, and the prices given by the consul are for Hyson Skin 2s. per lb., and for Souchong 2s. 9d.

## Appendix

## Report on the Tea Trade

"The consumption of tea in this government is so insignificant as to warrant the assertion, that it is scarcely to be considered as an object of trade. It is used more as a medicine than as a necessary article of subsistence, or an agreeable beverage, except by the English families here resident, and a few others in the higher circles.

"The importation in British vessels is limited to small parcels brought by masters of ships, and I am credibly informed has not amounted to 1,000 lbs. during the last nine years, the period I have been in office. A more considerable quantity (about 3,000 lbs.) was imported some years ago in an American ship, and left in commission with an English house here, but the greater part, notwithstanding the extreme lowness of the prices, still remains unsold, and I am assured that it is very doubtful whether wholesale buyers could be found for it at a reduction of 30 per cent.

"In the city and liberties of Trieste, which is a free port, and also in Istria, as being beyond the line of customhouses, there are no duties on tea or any other articles of merchandize. There was, indeed, till lately, a duty of one half per cent. ad valorem, which has now ceased, the object for which it was levied, viz. to pay the debts contracted by the municipality during the war, being accomplished***

The consul at Leghorn states that the consumption of tea in Tuscany is chiefly confined to foreigners who reside in Florence and Leghorn, the natives only using it medicinally. In Genoa the consumption is a few hundred pounds weight.

In Mr. Money the consul-general's return, I find the following statement of the total importation into the Austrian ports of the Adriatic:

TOWNS QUANTITIES OF TEA IMPORTED Venice Have not averaged more than two cwt. per annum in the last 10 years. Trieste About five cwt. per annum, being little in use except by British residents. Fiume Do not exceed from 100 to 150 lbs. per year. Ragusa Very inconsiderable.

In the foregoing mentioned States tea is cheap; there are little or no duties. From Palermo the consul-general writes, "The consumption of tea in the island of Sicily is very trifling, about 20 chests per annum; the Sicilians seldom make use of it except in illness as a medicine, and that of a very inferior quality; it is chiefly imported from the United States of America."

In the kingdom of Naples, it appears from the two years' returns forwarded by the consul-general, there has been a decrease:

YEARS QUANTITY YEARS QUANTITY 1767 3,066,143 Lbs. 1787 2,890,900 Lbs. 1768 3,186,220 1788 2,589,000 1769 1,494,509 1789 1770 3,076,642 1790 1771 2,984,361 1791 1772 2,746,800 1792 1,591,330 1773 1,489,700 1793 1,559,730 1774 4,088,100 1794 1775 2,562,500 1795 756,130 1776 3,049,100 1796 2,759,800 1777 2,851,200 1797 1778 3,258,000 1798 1,406,200 1779 2,626,400 1799 1,408,400 1780 4,108,900 1800 444,800 1781 3,267,300 1801 2,022,400 1782 4,265,600 1802 1783 4,878,900 1803 1,427,067 1784 1804 2,852,666 1785 6,212,400 1805 1786 1,747,700 1806 Total 60,960,475 Lbs. Total 21,208,423 Lbs. 1826 5,961 1827 3,419 Decrease 2,542

The following is a return of the quantity of tea exported from Canton, by the Prussians, at the end of the last and beginning of the present century:

Exportation of Lbs. First Period 60,960,475 Last Period 21,208,423 Decrease 39,752,052

Trieste presents a still more conclusive fact. During the latter part of the last century there was comparatively a large importation of tea into Trieste from Canton, as follows:

Year Lbs. 1783 3,329,800 1787 499,300 1791 5,070 1800 802,400 1802 1,756,000 1803 1,073,733

After 1803 there is no further regular account of exportations, and I only find casual shipments, decreasing in quantity. In 1829, the consul-general at Dantzic regrets it is not in his power to get any information of the tea trade there, or in Berlin; that in fact there is no wholesale trade in teas.

At Frankfort, the consul-general observes, "The quantity of tea cannot exactly be ascertained, as no consumption duty is levied, 10d. per cwt. not deserving that denomination."

Year Cwts. 1779 1,375,900 1780 317,700 1782 933,300 1783 3,428,400 1792 393,870 1817 380 1826 112 Decrease 268

The following letter from the British Consul at Trieste, in 1828, to the Foreign Department, relates to the consumption of tea there, and shows the effect of American speculation, to the extent of 3,000lbs., some years ago, which still remain unsold. Let it be also observed *Consular Returns, House of Lords' Select Committee, Appendix (B.), p. 1259. † Select Committee, House of Lords, Appendix (B.), p. 1245.

The only two years given in the Consular Return,

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