Tea Threats

On a foggy afternoon 100 years ago last week a horse cart rattled from the murky London docks to Mincing Lane with eight deodar chests containing 350 Ibs. of tea. This was the first consignment of tea grown in the British Empire and Auctioneer William J. Thomson knocked it down at a record price of 25 shillings a pound to a patriotic Captain Pidding.

One foggy day last week three sandaled elephants, followed by Cinemactor ("Elephant Boy") Sabu in a Rolls-Royce, ambled from St. Katherine's Docks to Mincing Lane with 37 silver and chromium chests of tea. Auctioneer William J. Thomson, grandson of the 1839 William J., knocked them down at prices ranging from $6,000 for the silver to $100 for the chromium to bigwig tea merchants, brokers and producers. Thus celebrated was the Empire Tea Centenary; thus furthered was a publicity drive to spur Britain's great tea trade.

Although tea was first sold in England in 1657,* tea gardening remained a Chinese monopoly until 1834. That year, fearing invasion, China threatened to close her ports to foreigners and East India Company merchants promptly began tea cultivation in Assam. The wily Chinese foiled the first attempt by selling tea seeds which had been boiled. Even after cultivation got under way, it was not successful until an Englishman named Robert Fortune disguised himself as a Chinese and spied out the methods used in the famed Chinese tea gardens. Today Britain has -L-120,000,000 invested in the tea industry, produces 800,000,000 Ibs. a year, of which it exports over 500,000,000 Ibs., 62% of the world's tea exports--which, in turn, form 1% of total world trade.

British tea tycoons are nonetheless unhappy. When depression brought a worldwide price war, they formed a Tea Marketing Bureau which stabilized the trade until the Government began slapping on increasing duties. This brought an immediate 5% decline in British consumption, though it remains the highest in the world--over five cups a day per person. Then, from the Orient came the most serious threat since China closed her ports 100 years ago.

China regularly produces 50% of the world's annual 2,000,000,000 Ibs. of tea, but has exported only about 100,000,000 Ibs. because native consumption is so large. With the Japanese now in control of the tea provinces, Chinese tea exports have been jumped, prices cut sharply under that of Empire tea. And Empire prices may soon be forced up if India's Congress President Subhas Chandra Bose succeeds in his current campaign to jack up tea laborers' wages, now 15 shillings a month for men, ten for women, three for children.

To combat these threats, the Tea Marketing Bureau launched a big advertising and publicity barrage, of which last week's celebration was a part. Other stunts include a new tea blend presented to the King and a series of advertisements (see cut) which presumably amuse the British.

In the U. S. a similar propaganda campaign was begun after U. S. imports dropped to 76,400,000 Ibs. in 1934 from 96,600,000 Ibs. in 1933. With the governments of the major tea-growing nations (except China and Japan) putting up $1,000,000 annually for promotional activities handled by a Tea Bureau, U. S. imports were boosted back to 95,000,000 Ibs. in 1937--about four-tenths of a cup a day per person.

* TIME last week erroneously reported it as 1857.

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