The Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea

The blame ought not entirely to be laid upon the planter, however, for certain facts have come to our knowledge during the present week as regards the manner in which Indian Teas are bulked at some of the London warehouses, which somewhat explains how depreciation in quality comes about. We bought several breaks of Tea in the sales this week, which were stated to be bulked and ready for sampling six days before the sale; and yet we know for a fact that some of those very Teas were not put back into the chest till the day after the sale, if even then. More or less moisture is always to be found in the London atmosphere, particularly in rainy weather, and there can be no question that incalculable injury would be done to a fine Tea by seven days’ exposure on the floor of a warehouse. The damage and loss falls entirely on the buyer. The effects of it are not seen at once, but there can be little doubt that a gradual depreciation sets in, consequent on the absorption of moisture. No redrying process follows; the Tea is simply filled back into the chests when seven days of neglect have done what mischief is possible. Is it to be wondered at that samples drawn from such a break of Tea a few months after it has been bulked in London will have lost all their freshness and malty smell?

J. C. Taylor and Colman.

The loss of Tea by the mode adopted at the Custom House in England is great.

When Teas are sold at Calcutta, though the English Custom House regulations do not then affect us immediately, they do so indirectly. If purchasers in Calcutta gain by our Teas, they will bid more; if they lose, they will bid less. Besides, many Teas are sold in London.

To understand what follows, it is necessary to remember that—

Garden Invoices never go to Custom House. Custom House arrives at weight of Tea by weighing the package for “gross,” and then turning out Tea, weighing box, lead, nails, iron hooping, in fact all but Tea, for “tare;” gross weight, minus tare, is the weight of Tea they demand duty on, and the weight so found by Custom House is all the producer or importer gets paid for.[106] It follows, therefore, that the less Tea declared by Customs means a loss to producer and a gain to buyer. To the latter in two ways, viz., less Tea to pay for than is really there, and a saving of 6d. per lb. duty! But to show, now, how the loss occurs. When weighing for gross, the fractions of a pound are discarded; when weighing for tares, the pounds above the actual weight are written. The greatest loss that can occur by this method, on one package, is 1 pound 14 ounces of Tea. It (this greatest loss) must always occur when the gross is 1 ounce short of a pound, and the tare 1 ounce more than the pound.

No. 1 Example.

Gross and tare can be put at any figures as to pounds. It will always come out the same. Say, therefore,

By rule quoted the gross and tare weights are set down at Custom House—

The least loss that can take place (when ounces occur in gross and tare) is 2 ounces. To insure this the gross must be 1 ounce more than the pound, and the tare 1 ounce below.

No. 2 Example.

Say any figures in pounds.

But again, by rule quoted, it is written by Customs—

Therefore the loss on chest is 2 ounces only.

Now did weights turn out the same in London that they were on the garden, we could, by doing as in last example, insure only the above trifling 2 ounce loss. But it is not so. The wood dries and thus makes both the gross and tare less. The loss then comes out anything between 2 ounces and 1 pound 14 ounces.

I find the following simple rule will give the exact loss on each and every weight of both gross and tare.

Rule.—Add the ounces above a pound in the gross to the ounces short of a pound in the tare. The sum of the two, in ounces, will be the loss of Tea on the package.

To the Right Honourable the Earl of KIMBERLEY, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for India.

The Petition of the Indian Tea Districts Association sheweth—

That your Petitioners are a body representing the interests connected with the cultivation of Tea in British India, in which enterprise British capital to the extent of over fifteen millions sterling has been invested.

That the industry dates from the year 1838, when the first consignment of Indian Tea, consisting of 456 lbs., reached the London market.

That the imports of Indian Tea for the year ending 30th June, 1882, were 49,503,000 lbs., having a value of more than £3,300,000 sterling; while the estimated importation for the current season is upwards of 55,000,000 lbs., or fully one-third of the entire consumption of the United Kingdom for the year.

That the contribution to the Revenue accruing from Customs’ import duty on the above quantity of Tea will exceed a million and a quarter sterling.

That the whole of this large quantity is manufactured and packed on between 2,700 and 2,800 separate estates, situated on various parts of H.M.’s Indian dominions.

That the boxes in which the Teas are packed are in great part made of such wood as can be obtained on the several estates, or purchased from the neighbouring Forest Department, and it is very important on economic grounds, as also in the manifest interests of the districts, that this should be exclusively the case.

That it has been found, under these conditions, practically impossible to meet the imperative Custom-house standard of close uniformity of tare weight when the chests reach the Bonded Warehouses here.

That your Petitioners have reason to complain of the system of weighing the Teas in the said warehouses for the purpose of levying the duty.

That the present system of weighing is to weigh each package in the gross, then to turn out the contents, weigh the empty case, and thus arrive at the nett weight of the contents.

That the only exception to this rule is when the package, i.e., the empty cases, in a Break closely approximate in weight.

That by the said system of weighing, two serious injuries are inflicted on the grower and importer of Indian Tea, viz.:—

That the concession of this Petition, by rendering it unnecessary to turn out more than a small percentage of the chests to test the correct weight of contents, would admit of the Teas being bulked in India; and while it would free the industry from an injurious and vexatious restriction, and admit of the Teas reaching the consumer in a purer and sounder condition, it would also greatly simplify and reduce the work of the Customs.

That the foregoing statistics significantly demonstrate the importance of the Indian Tea industry to both England and India, and constitute a claim to the favourable consideration of both Governments, especially that of India, on the ground of the benefit accruing to the districts in which it is conducted, and the increment of State revenue to which it has directly and indirectly conduced.

That having regard to the existing close and hardening competition with China, Japan, and other Tea producing countries, your Petitioners naturally feel aggrieved that the important industry they represent should be hampered in the contest by the restrictive and superfluous impediment forming the subject of their petition.

That your Petitioners have unsuccessfully urged on the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Customs the adoption of this change of system, and therefore venture to address your Lordship.

That your Petitioners beg to refer to the accompanying copies of correspondence between the Association and the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Customs annexed to this Petition.

That the accompanying Memorial signed by the leading mercantile firms and others in Calcutta, interested in the growth and export of Indian Tea, is an illustration of the feeling in India on the subject of this Petition.

Your Petitioners therefore pray—

That your Lordship will kindly take such steps as may be necessary to secure for your Petitioners the relief sought for.

And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c.

T. D. FORSYTH,
Chairman of the Association.

ERNEST TYE,
Secretary.

India Office, S.W.,
28th February, 1883.

Sir,—I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of the Memorial addressed to the Earl of Kimberley by the Indian Tea Districts Association, respecting the method of weighing Indian Tea at the Custom House. In reply, I am to inform you that the Memorial has been forwarded to the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, with the expression of Lord Kimberley’s hope that whatever is practicable may be done to remedy the grievance complained of by the memorialists in the interests of the Indian Tea trade.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
(Signed) J. K. CROSS.

The Secretary, Indian Tea Districts Association.

Tea Bulking at the East and West India Dock Company’s Warehouses, in Crutched Friars.

It is not a little strange that the importance of effecting improvements in the present system of Tea bulking, which has exercised the minds of Tea growers and importers so much of late, should have hitherto been neglected or ignored by the proprietors of the various bonded warehouses in London wherein the Tea is bulked and stored. That Tea may be, and only too commonly is, bulked by an antiquated and unsatisfactory process is a fact which is well known to all who are interested in the matter. How this result is arrived at will be seen later on; at present we desire to show that at least at one warehouse the question has received the attention which it deserves, and to explain, so far as may be possible, the steps which have been taken in the matter.

It is, then, that old and powerful body, the East and West India Dock Company, who have taken up the matter. At the instance of Mr. Du Plat Taylor, the able and energetic secretary of the company, supported by the equally energetic warehouse superintendent, Mr. Robert Adams, the arrangements for bulking Tea at the warehouse of the Company have been very greatly improved. More than this; there has been invented and set up a special and very ingenious machine for the bulking of Tea in a manner which avoids all the failings of the old system. What this machine is, and what its peculiar merits are, will best, and perhaps only, be clearly understood by a brief description of the two systems as we lately saw them in operation at the warehouses of the company in Crutched Friars, which we may mention are nearer than any others to Mincing-lane, an advantage securing to planters and importers the certainty that their Teas will be sampled by the trade generally.

Under the old system, then, each chest of a break, after having been subjected to certain preliminary formalities, is opened, and the Tea turned out in a heap on the floor of the warehouse. When this is done the Tea is bulked by means of wooden spades, each spadeful being thrown to the top of the central heap, so that it falls over and on all sides. Here the Tea lies until it is placed back again in the chests after they are tared, there being a considerable interval at some of the London warehouses between the bulking and refilling. The refilling is thus accomplished. The Tea is first put into bags and weighed on a machine at the side of the bulk. The bag and chest are then taken off the weighing machine and the contents of the bag are emptied into the chest. The Tea, however, requires some pressure to force it into the chest, and this pressure is obtained by an expedient of a very primitive kind. When the chest is partly filled a man gets in and presses down the Tea by treading on it. So soon as the Tea is all in the chest the package is properly secured, and the operation is completed.

Now the serious faults of this plan are at once apparent. In the first place the Tea, being in heaps on the floor of the warehouse with a large surface exposed to the atmosphere, runs the risk of losing a great deal of its freshness and aroma, this risk being largely increased by the doors of the warehouse being kept open in order to discharge or to receive merchandise in all weathers. No atmospheric influences are calculated to benefit Tea. Then, again, the shovelling of the Tea by means of wooden spades, and the treading into the chests, can hardly do otherwise than injure the Tea—the filling in a minor degree and the treading to a more serious extent, the result being, of course, that the Tea is depreciated.

The East and West India Dock Company have made the best of this primitive method of Tea bulking. In the first place it is insisted on in their warehouses that previous to trampling the Tea into the chests, a cloth shall be placed over it to preserve it from the dirt of the man’s boots, and to some extent from injury—a precaution which, strange as it may seem, is not taken in every bonded warehouse. Then, again, Mr. Adams, the warehouse superintendent—who could hardly have the interests of planters and importers more at heart were he “in Tea” himself—uses his best endeavours to refill the boxes with as little delay as possible, and thus to prevent it from being injured by undue exposure to the atmosphere. He also keeps the floors of the warehouse as clean as practicable. But feeling that the best efforts, however well devised, and however strenuously carried out, must necessarily be attended with but partial success, the East and West India Dock Company have erected—as has already been mentioned—a Tea bulking machine, a device which is ingenious and meritorious, and which seems to be, so far as it has been tried, a great success.

This machine, designed by Mr. Tydeman, of the company’s engineering staff, and constructed under his supervision, consists, firstly, of a large hollow revolving drum weighing nearly two and a-half tons, and of sufficient capacity to thoroughly bulk about 50 chests of Tea. The drum is made to hold about 100 chests of Tea, which leaves ample space for the bulking of the above quantity. Inside this drum are frames fitted at intervals with iron rods, and extending at varying angles from the axle of the drum to its extremity. Externally the drum has two openings for the reception of the Tea, and two smaller ones for its discharge. In a line with the axle of the drum, some height from the floor, is a platform to which the chests are conveyed by a double lift which simultaneously ascends with a full chest and brings down an empty one. Adjuncts to the machine are a weighing machine, a presser, and four beaters—of the two latter the nature and object will be immediately apparent. The process of bulking as effected by this machine is briefly as follows: The drum being revolved till its receiving openings are level with the platform, a chest of Tea is raised, as before explained, and the contents examined on the door of the drum, which falls back into a horizontal position for that purpose, then by closing the tray or door the Tea is passed into the drum. The lift then brings up another full chest and takes down the emptied one, which is at once taken to a scale for taring purposes, and so the process is continued till the break is exhausted. This filling process can be carried on at both sides of a drum at once, as there are two openings and two lifts. The Tea being in, the drum is made to revolve, when the iron frames thoroughly mix the Tea in a very few revolutions—three would suffice.

The drum has now to be emptied, and this operation is effected in the following manner:—The revolution of the drum is stopped when the openings through which the Tea is released are brought over the weighing machines—there are two for greater expedition—on which are placed the chests ready to receive it. The delivery doors (worked by levers) being opened, the Tea is allowed to descend till the chest is about half full, when the presser and beaters are brought into play by hydraulic pressure. The presser is a piece of flat iron about an inch in thickness, removable at pleasure, and varies in size to fit either a chest or a box. The beaters are four pieces of the same metal, which support the chest so soon as it is on the weighing machine. When the chest is partly filled, the beaters are released, and, by the action of a wheel, are made to strike all four sides of the chest, and thus shake the Tea down. The presser is also brought down to press the Tea in. The action of both of these agents can be regulated to any required degree of force. Thus by degrees the chest is filled, and (the supporting beaters having been released and the presser raised) is weighed and ultimately removed. Such, in brief, is the action of the new Tea bulking machine. One or two points, however, remain to be mentioned. The power by which the machine is actuated is hydraulic. The presser will not injure the Tea. The beaters serve the triple purpose of holding the chest in position on the weighing machine, of supporting it should it be of weak construction, and of materially assisting the repacking of the Tea. The beating action does not in any way injure the chests. Our readers will also be pleased to know that certain very marked improvements even upon the above described are already in hand by this Dock Company—improvements which will greatly increase the value and usefulness of their machinery for bulking Teas.

To descant on the advantages over the old system of bulking which are possessed by the machine which has been described would be little better than a waste of time. Yet some few points may be briefly referred to. First, cleanliness is secured, for from first to last the Tea is never touched by hand or foot. Again, the Tea cannot be injured, nor can it lose its aroma, for it is never exposed to the atmosphere at all. Instead of being allowed to lie on the floor of the warehouse for any period, the entire process of bulking is completed without break or delay. The Directors of the East and West India Dock Company are not, of course, so sanguine as to imagine that the old system of bulking will be at once abandoned; indeed, they have, as has been mentioned, taken steps to improve that system; they do, however, think that it should be abandoned, and to that end have adopted the Tea Bulking Machinery as an alternative, and an immeasurably superior process. That they are justified in this view there can be no doubt in the minds of those who have witnessed both the systems in operation.

1. That the actual weight of Tea in each chest (discarding ounces) be recorded, and that thus the loss to the producer and the Customs, detailed above, be avoided.

2. That the lead at top of the Tea be carefully replaced and resoldered, so that every chest shall leave the Custom House in as good condition as it entered it.

The China Tea Trade.

The influence of the expansion of the Indian Tea enterprise on the trade in China is being felt. We have more than once adverted to the fact that the growing use of the well-flavoured Teas of India would diminish the consumption of the better grades of China Tea, and that the effect of the competition between the two countries would be first seen in the falling off in the demand for so-called fine China Tea.

The following letter, which appeared in the Times Money article lately, confirms this view, and refers to the present unsound condition of the China Tea trade:—

“Sir,—In view of the opening of the Tea season in China, a few remarks upon the present position and future prospects of this important trade may not be inopportune.

“It is no secret that for some years past the losses of merchants have been serious, and that while most of the wealthy firms so long known as connected with China have either entirely ceased to import Tea, or have reduced their operations to a very small compass, the trade has been carried on by new houses possessing but little capital, who are enabled, by the competition of the banks, to do a large business by drawing bills on China, not only for the whole cost of the Teas purchased, but also for their commissions on these purchases—that is to say, for an unrivalled profit of 3 per cent. The question, Who has so far paid the losses of the past two years? is one that greatly exercises the minds of the trade. Many suppose that large balances are being carried over in the books of some of the banks, or by the Chinese, and that it is the hope of recouping a portion of this loss that induces the banks or the Chinamen to support those who would otherwise be obliged to relinquish the trade. The Chinese have also a further inducement to support such firms, since it is partly through them that those high prices are established in China at the opening of the season which entail so much loss afterwards. As a result of these prices, about 30 per cent. more fine Congou is produced than (on account of the competition of the Indian growth) can be consumed except at the price of medium Tea. How large the excess is may be gathered from the fact that, although 5,000,000 lbs. of this class of Tea was lost last July in the ‘Moskwa’ and the ‘Fleurs Castle,’ yet stocks in Russia have increased by about 30,000 half-chests, and there is still so large a quantity on this market that it can only be realized at a loss of from 5d. to 6d. per lb. on the China cost; thus some Teas, said to have cost in Hankow 1s. 8d. to 1s. 9d., have been recently sold as low as 1s. 3d., and others costing 1s. 7d. in Foochow, have been sold at 1s. 1d. per lb.

“It is evident from the above that merchants as a rule do not realize the immense change that has been brought about in the conditions of the trade by the enormous increase in the use of Indian Tea, which now forms about one-third of the entire home consumption, and competes mostly with the finer qualities of China congou; nor the fact that all engaged in the trade are becoming year by year more averse to holding stock on account of the heavy charges involved, and the risk of deterioration in quality. Yet, as the whole twelve months’ supply of first crop Tea arrives within three months of the opening of the season, it is plain that some one must hold the balance, which can only be done with safety if the Tea be bought at a very low price.

“The one remedy for the present condition of things is that the great bulk of the so-called fine Teas should be bought in China at their present value on this market—viz., at about 5d. to 6d. below the prices given for them in recent years. With the large accumulated stocks in Russia, and consequently reduced orders from that country, the yearly-increasing supply of Indian Tea, and the present prices here, one would think that such a course would at once be adopted. Unfortunately, however, so much of the Tea is bought on commission, and the Russian agents seem so reckless as to the prices which they give, that any such prudent action can hardly be hoped for. It would, therefore, be wise for holders of shares in Eastern banks, as well as all who have been in the habit of intrusting orders to buying agents in China, to ponder the foregoing facts, which can be easily verified by a reference to any of the trade circulars lest their money should be lost in the crash which must certainly take place if the past policy of Tea buyers in China be continued.—I am, &c.,

“A. B.”

The weight of Indian Tea for duty may, if desired by the importers, be ascertained under the following regulations:—