In England, particularly, the increase in the consumption of tea in late
years borders on the marvelous, the figures for 1890 reaching upwards of
195,000,000 pounds, which, at the present rate of increase, will, in all
probability, exceed 200,000,000 in 1892, as in the quarter of a century
between 1865 and 1890 the consumption rose from 3½ to 5 pounds _per
capita_ of the population. But as in the latter half of that period
strong India teas were more freely used, being increased appreciably by
the similar Ceylon product in the closing years of that time largely
displacing the lighter liquored teas of China, a larger consumption is
indicated by the number of gallons of liquid yielded. This is calculated
on the moderate estimate formed in a report to the Board of Custom to
the effect that if one pound of China leaf produces five gallons of
liquor of a certain depth of color and body, one pound of India tea will
yield seven and a half gallons of a similar beverage. Then by allowing
for an apparent arrest of the advancing consumption when the process of
displacement was only commencing, the increase in the consumption of tea
in the British Islands has not only been steady but rapid; thus, from 17
gallons per head in 1865 to 24 in 1876, 28 in 1886, reaching 33½ gallons
per head per annum in 1890, the figures of last year almost exactly
doubling that of the first year of the series, so that in consequence of
the introduction of the stronger products of India and Ceylon the people
of Britain have been enabled to double their consumption of the
beverage, although the percentage of increase in the leaf has been only
from 3½ to 5 pounds during the same period. Ceylon tea, which a decade
ago was only beginning to intrude itself as a new and suspiciously
regarded competitor in the English market with products so well known
and established as the teas of China and India, has recently made such
rapid progress that its position in the British market in 1890, rated by
home consumption, occupying third place on the list. India teas 52 per
cent., China 30 per cent., Ceylon 18 per cent.
TABLE 4.
Showing relative positions of kinds of Tea consumed in England, and
increase in pounds of same since 1880:—
Kind. 1880. 1885. 1890.
China, 126,000,000 113,500,000 60,000,000
India, 34,000,000 65,500,000 95,000,000
Ceylon, 3,000,000 24,000,000
In 1868, when the price of tea was reduced in England to an average of
36 cents per pound, the consumption increased to the heretofore
unprecedented figures of 107,000,000 pounds, while in 1888, when the
average price was again reduced to 20 cents, owing to the enormous
increase in the production of India and Ceylon teas, the total
consumption became augmented to 185,000,000 pounds, comprised as
follows, in round numbers:—
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