TARTAR. See ARGAL.

TATTA, a town in the territory of Sinde, situated about 60 miles in a direct line from the sea, at a short distance from the western bank of the river Indus, in lat. 24° 44′ N., lon. 68° 17′ E. Population uncertain, probably about 10,000. The streets are narrow and dirty; but the houses, though built of mud, chopped straw, and timber, are superior to the low huts seen in the adjoining towns and villages.

Trade.-Being situated a little above the part where the Indus divides into the two great branches by which its waters are poured into the Indian Ocean, it might be supposed that Tatta would be a place of great trade. But, owing to the unwholesomeness of the climate, the barbarism of the tribes on its banks, and other causes, its commerce has never corresponded with what might have been anticipated, looking at its position on the map. It had probably attained the acme of its prosperity in the beginning of the 16th century. In 1555, the Portuguese, by way, as they stated, of avenging the treachery of the king of Sinde, inhumanly massacred 8,000 of the inhabitants, and burned the town.(Conquêtes des Portugais, tome iv. p. 183.) It is probable that Tatta never fully recovered from this dreadful blow; but Mr. Hamilton mentions, that in the 17th century it was extensive and populous, possessing much commerce, with manufactures of silk, wool, and cabinet ware. The decayed state in which we now find it, has been a consequence of the misgovernment and rapacity of its present rulers, the Ameers of Sinde, under whose sway it fell more than 40 years ago.

In 1635, the English established a factory at Tatta, in the view of facilitating the disposal of woollens and other goods in the countries traversed by the Indus; and the building occupied by the factory, though far from magnificent, was recently, if it be not still, the best, not in Tatta only, but in the whole country of Sinde.

The chief exports are rice, shawls from Cashmere, opium from Malwah, hides, ghee, cotton, goats' wool, carpets, drugs, &c. Putchock, an article largely consumed in China, is a peculiar export of Sinde. The imports comprise a variety of articles, but the quantities are trifling; they consist principally of spices, dye stuffs, hardware, tin, iron, &c., broad cloths, English cottons, silks, &c. But at present the trade is quite inconsiderable; and no one could believe à priori, that the natural emporium of so noble a river as the Indus, traversing many rich and extensive countries, would cut so insignificant a figure in the trading world.

Indus. Its navigation by Alexander the Great has conferred on the Indus a classical celebrity not to be matched by any other river of the East. Its magnitude, too, is worthy of its fame. It may be navigated by flat-bottomed boats as far as Attock; and its tributary stream, the Ravee, one of the Punjab rivers, is navigable as far as Lahore; both places being fully 1,000 miles from the sea. Unluckily its mouths are much encumbered by sand banks; and, owing to the violence of the bore or tide, their navigation is attended with considerable difficulty and danger. This is no doubt the reason that at present the navigation through the delta of the Indus is quite deserted: all the products brought down the river destined for exportation by sea, being conveyed from Tatta over-land to Curachee, a sea-port a little to the north of the most northerly mouth of the river, about 60 miles in a direct line from Tatta. Above this city the current of the river is not rapid. The boats by which it is navigated are called doondies, seldom exceeding 50 tons burden; and drawing, when laden, about 4 feet water. They have two masts, and, with a good wind, make their way against the stream at the rate of about 3 miles an hour. They are a sort of floating houses; resembling in this respect the Chinese junks. There would seem to be no river in the world where steam navigation might be applied more advantageously than the Indus. But until the country near its embouchure fall under the sway of some more enlightened and less rapacious rulers than those by whom it is now possessed, little improvement need, we are afraid, be expected. But should Sinde be conquered by some civilised people, or should its present rulers learn to respect the right of property, and to encourage industry, it would not be easy to exaggerate the importance of the Indus as a commercial highway. The navigable rivers of the Punjab that fall into it, lay open a vast extent of rich and fruitful country, with great commercial resources. It is not, indeed, possible to estimate the extent of the trade that would be carried on by the channel of the Indus, did security and good order prevail on its banks; and there is reason to think that some progress is making towards their establishment.

The delta of the Indus has little in common with the delta of the Nile, except its shape. Not a fourth part of it is cultivated, and its few inhabitants principally lead a pastoral life. It is overgrown with tamarisks and other wild shrubs; and, though intersected by the numerous mouths of the river, its surface is dry and arid, and it is in a great degree destitute of fresh water. The unfavourable appearance of this tract of country does not, however, generally speaking, depend on any infertility of soil, but on the neglect of cultivation arising out of the oppression under which the people live. Mr. Burnes says, that in most places it requires little or no labour on the part of the husbandman to prepare the land; and the seed, scattered without care or attention, yields a plentiful harvest. But where property is insecure, even this little labour is not expended. (See a Memoir on the Indus, by Lieut. Burnes, in the 3d vol. of the Journal of the London Geographical Society; Hamilton's East India Gazetteer, articles, Indus, Tatta, &c.)

Money, Weights, and Measures.-Accounts are kept in rupees
carivals, and pice: 12 pice = 1 carival; 50 carivals 1 rupee.
Cowries are current in Sinde, 48 cowries 1 pice.
Small Weights.-24 Moons = 1 Ruttee,

6 Ruttees 1 Massa, 12 Massas = 1 Tolah.

1 Guz; but i guz cloth = 34 inches at Taita.

Long Measure.- 1 Garce

= 2 inches.

16 Garces Grain Measure. 4 Puttoes

4 Twiers = 60 Cossas

Twier.

1 Cossa.

Carval of wheat; or 22 Pucca maunds, or 21 Bombay parahs. Diamonds and pearls are sold by hubbas and ruttees-8 hubbas = 1 ruttee, about 2 grs. Troy.-Milburn's Orient. Commerce.

TEA (in one dialect of Chin. Cha; in another Te; Du. Te; Fr. Thé; It. Te, Rus. Tchai; Hind. Cha; Malay, Teh), the leaves of the tea tree or shrub (Thea viridis Lin.). I. DESCRIPTION OF THE TEA PLANT.-TEA TRADE OF CHINA.

II. RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE BRITISH TEA TRADE.-CONSUMPTION of Tea.
III. EAST INDIA COMPANY'S MONOPOLY.-INFLUENCE OF, ON THE PRICE OF TEA.-CON-
DITIONS UNDER WHICH IT WAS HELD.-ABOLITION of.

IV. DUTIES ON TEA.-CONSUMPTION OF, ON THE CONTINENT AND IN THE United
STATES, ETC.

I. DESCRIPTION OF THE TEA PLANT.-TEA TRADE OF CHINA. Description of the Plant.-Places where it is cultivated.-The tea plant ordinarily grows to the height of from 3 to 6 feet, and has a general resemblance to the myrtle, as the latte

is seen in congenial situations in the southern countries of Europe. It is a polyandrous plant, of the natural order, Columniferæ, and has a white blossom, with yellow style and anthers, not unlike those of a small dog-rose. The stem is bushy, with numerous branches, and very leafy. The leaves are alternate, on short, thick, channelled footstalks, evergreen, of a longish elliptic form, with a blunt, notched point, and serrated except at the base. These leaves are the valuable part of the plant. The Camellias, particularly the Camellia Sasanqua, of the same natural family as the tea tree, and very closely resembling it, are the only plants liable to be confounded with it by a careful observer. The leaves of the particular camellia just named are, indeed, often used in some parts of China, as a substitute for those of the tea tree.

The effects of tea on the human frame are those of a very mild narcotic; and, like those of many other narcotics taken in small quantities,-even of opium itself,—they are exhila rating. The green varieties of the plant possess this quality in a much higher degree than the black; and a strong infusion of the former will, in most constitutions, produce considerable excitement and wakefulness. Of all narcotics, however, tea is the least pernicious; if, indeed, it be so at all in any degree, which we very much doubt.

tor.

The tea shrub may be described as a very hardy evergreen, growing readily in the open air, from the equator to the 45th degree of latitude. For the last 60 years, it has been reared in this country, without difficulty, in greenhouses; and thriving plants of it are to be seen in the gardens of Java, Singapore, Malacca, and Penang; all within 6 degrees of the equaThe climate most congenial to it, however, seems to be that between the 25th and 33d degrees of latitude, judging from the success of its cultivation in China. For the general purposes of commerce, the growth of good tea is confined to China; and is there restricted to 5 provinces, or rather parts of provinces, viz. Fokien and Canton, but more particularly the first, for black tea; and Kiang-nan, Kiang-si, and Che-kiang, but chiefly the first of these, for green. The tea districts all lie between the latitudes just mentioned, and the 115th and 122d degrees of East longitude. However, almost every province of China produces more or less tea, but generally of an inferior quality, and for local consumption only; or when of a superior quality, like some of the fine wines of France, losing its flavour when exported. The plant is also extensively cultivated in Japan, Tonquin, and Cochin-china; and in some of the mountainous parts of Ava; the people of which country use it largely as a kind of pickle preserved in oil!

Botanically considered, the tea tree is a single species; the green and black, with all the diversities of each, being mere varieties, like the varieties of the grape, produced by difference of climate, soil, locality, age of the crop when taken, and modes of preparation for the market Considered as an object of agricultural produce, the tea plant bears a close resemblance to the vine. In the husbandry of China, it may be said to take the same place which the vine occupies in the southern countries of Europe. Like the latter, its growth is chiefly confined to hilly tracts, not suited to the growth of corn. The soils capable of producing the finest kinds are within given districts, limited, and partial. Skill and care, both in husbandry and preparation, are quite as necessary to the production of good tea, as to that of good wine. The best wine is produced only in particular latitudes, as is the best tea; although, perhaps, the latter is not restricted to an equal degree. Only the most civilised nations of Europe have as yet succeeded in producing good wines; which is also the case in the East with tea; for the agricultural and manufacturing skill and industry of the Chinese are there unquestionably pre-eminent. These circumstances deserve to be attended to, in estimating the difficulties which must be encountered in any attempt to propagate the tea plant in colonial or other possessions. These difficulties are obviously very great; and, perhaps, all but insuperable. Most of the attempts hitherto made to raise it in foreign countries were not, indeed, of a sort from which much was to be expected. Within the last few years, however, considerable efforts have been made by the Dutch government of Java, to produce tea on the hills of that island; and having the assistance of Chinese cultivators from Fokien, who form a considerable part of the emigrants to Java, a degree of success has attended them, beyond what might have been expected in so warm a climate. The Brazilians have made similar efforts; having also, with the assistance of Chinese labourers, attempted to propagate the tea shrub near Rio de Janeiro; and a small quantity of tolerably good tea has been produced. But owing to the high price of labour in America, and the quantity required in the cultivation and manipulation of tea, there is no probability, even were the soil suitable to the plant, that its culture can be profitably carried on in that country.

It might probably be successfully attempted in Hindostan, where labour is comparatively cheap, and where the hilly and table lands bear a close resemblance to those of the tea districts of China; but we are not sanguine in our expectations as to the result.

Species of Tea-Manner in which they are manufactured.-The black teas usually ex ported by Europeans from Canton are as follows, beginning with the lowest qualities:Bohea, Congou, Souchong, and Pekoe. The green teas are Twankay, Hyson skin, young Hyson, Hyson, Imperial, and Gunpowder. All the black teas exported (with the exception of a part of the bohea, grown in Woping, a district of Canton) are grown in Fokien-a

66

hilly, maritime, populous, and industrious province, bordering to the northeast on Canton. Owing to the peculiar nature of the Chinese laws as to inheritance, and probably, also, in some degree, to the despotic genius of the government, landed property is much subdivided throughout the empire; so that tea is generally grown in gardens or plantations of no great extent. The plant comes to maturity and yields a crop in from 2 to 3 years. The leaves are picked by the cultivator's family, and immediately conveyed to market; where a class of persons, who make it their particular business, purchase and collect them in quantities, and manufacture them in part; that is, expose them to be dried under a shed. A second class of persons, commonly known in the Canton market as "the tea merchants," repair to the districts where the tea is produced, and purchase it in its half-prepared state from the first class, and complete the manufacture by garbling the different qualities; in which operation, women and children are chiefly employed. A final drying is then given, and the tea packed in chests, and divided, according to quality, into parcels of from 100 to 600 chests each. These parcels are stamped with the name of the district, grower, or manufacturer, exactly as is practised with the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, the indigo of Bengal, and many other commodities; and, from this circumstance, get the name of chops, the Chinese term for a seal or signet. Some of the leaf-buds of the finest black tea plants are picked early in the spring, before they expand. These constitute pekoe, or black tea of the highest quality; sometimes called white-blossom" tea, from there being intermixed with it, to give it a higher perfume, a few blossoms of a species of olive (Olea fragrans), a native of China. A second crop is taken from the same plants in the beginning of May, a third about the middle of June, and a fourth in August; which last, consisting of large and old leaves, is of very inferior flavour and value. The younger the leaf, the more high flavoured, and consequently the more valuable, is the tea. With some of the congous and souchongs are occasionally mixed a little pekoe, to enhance their flavour; and hence the distinction, among the London tea dealers, of these sorts of tea, into the ordinary kinds and those of a "Pekoe flavour." Bohea, or the lowest black tea, is partly composed of the lower grades; that is, of the fourth crop of the teas of Fokien, left unsold in the market of Canton after the season of exportation has passed; and partly of the teas of the district of Woping in Canton. The green teas are grown and selected in the same manner as the black, to which the description now given more particularly refers; and the different qualities arise from the same causes. The gunpowder here stands in place of the pekoe; being composed of the unopened buds of the spring crop. Imperial hyson, and young hyson, consist of the second and third crops. The light and inferior leaves, separated from the hyson by a winnowing machine, constitute hyson skin,—an article in considerable demand amongst the Americans. The process of drying the green teas differs from that of the black; the first being dried in iron pots or vases over a fire, the operator continually stirring the leaves with his naked hand. The operation is one of considerable nicety, particularly with the finer teas; and is performed by persons who make it their exclusive business.

Tea Trade in China.-The tea merchants commonly receive advances from the Hong merchants and other capitalists of Canton; but, with this exception, are altogether independent of them; nor have the latter any exclusive privilege or claim of pre-emption. They are very numerous; those connected with the green tea districts alone being about 400 in number. The black tea merchants are less numerous but more wealthy. The greater part of the tea is brought to Canton by land carriage or inland navigation, but chiefly by the first it is conveyed by porters; the roads of China, in the southern provinces, not generally admitting of wheel carriages, and beasts of burden being very rare. A small quantity of black tea is brought by sea, but probably smuggled; for this cheaper mode of transportation is discouraged by government, which it deprives of the transit duties levied on inland carriage. The length of land carriage from the principal districts where the green teas are grown, to Canton, is probably not less than 700 miles; nor that of the black tea, over a more mountainous country, less than 200 miles. The tea merchants begin to arrive in Canton about the middle of October, and the busy season continues until the beginning of March; being briskest in November, December, and January. Tea, for the most part, can only be bought from the Hong or licensed merchants; but some of these, the least prosperous in their circumstances, are supported by wealthy outside merchants, as they are called; and thus the trade is considerably extended. The prices in the Canton market vary from year to year with the crop, the stock on hand, and the external demand, as in any other article, and in any other market. After the season is over, or when the westerly monsoon sets in, in the month of March, and impedes the regular intercourse of foreigners with China, there is a fall in the price of tea, not only arising from this circumstance, but from a certain depreciation in quality, from the age of the tea; which, like most other vegetable productions, is injured by keeping, particularly in a hot and damp climate.

Foreign Trade in Tea.-There seems to be little mystery in the selection and purchase of teas; for the business is both safely and effectively accomplished, not only by the supercargoes of the American ships, but frequently by the masters; and it is ascertained from the sales at the East India House, that there is no difference between the qualities of the teas

An

purchased by the commanders and officers of the Company's ships, without any assistance from the officers of the factory, and those purchased for the Company by the latter. unusual degree of good faith, indeed, appears to be observed, on the part of the Chinese merchants, with respect to this commodity; for it was proved before the select committee of the House of Commons, in 1830, that it is the regular practice of the Hong merchants to receive back, and return good tea for, any chest or parcel upon which any fraud may have been practised, which sometimes happens in the conveyance of the teas from Canton on board ship. Such restitution has occasionally been made even at the distance of 1 or 2 years. The Company seem to enjoy no advantage over other purchasers in the Canton market, except that which the largest purchaser has in every market, viz. a selection of the teas, on the payment of the same prices as others; and this advantage they enjoy only as respects the black teas; for the Americans are the largest purchasers of green teas. We subjoin a Table for calculating the cost of tea :—

Comparison of the Cost of Tea per Picul (1333 lbs. Avoirdupois), with the Rate per Pound and Ton, at 9 Cwt. or 1,008 Pounds per Ton.

Exchange 48. per Dol.

Exchange 4s. 3d. per Dol. Exch. 4s. 4d. per Dol. Exchange 4s. 5d. per Dol. Exch. 4s. 6d per Dol.

Per Picul.

Thus, at 4s. 3d. per dollar, one tael per picul is equal to 1-2d. per pound.

Usual Nett Weight and Measurement of a Chest of different Descriptions of Tea.

II. RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE BRITISH TEA TRADE.-CONSUMPTION OF Tea. The late rise and present magnitude of the British tea trade are among the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of commerce. Tea was wholly unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and even to our ancestors previously to the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century. It seems to have been originally imported in small quantities by the Dutch; but was hardly known in this country till after 1650. In 1660, however, it began to be used in coffee houses; for, in an act passed in that year, a duty of 8d. is laid on every gallon of "coffee, chocolate, sherbet, and tea," made and sold. But it is abundantly evident that it was then only beginning to be introduced. The following entry appears in the Diary of Mr. Pepys, secretary to the Admiralty :—“ September 25, 1661. I sent for a cup of tea (a China drink), of which I had never drunk before." In 1664, the East India Company bought 2 lbs. 2 oz. of tea as a present for his Majesty. In 1667, they issued the first order to import tea, directed to their agent at Bantam, to the effect he should send home 100 lbs. of the best tea he could get !-(See the references in Milburn's Orient. Com. vol. ii. p. 530.; Macpherson's Hist. of Com. with India, pp. 130-132.) Since then, the consumption seems to have gone on regularly though slowly increasing. In 1689, instead of charging a duty on the decoction made from the leaves, an excise duty of 5s. per lb. was laid on the tea itself. The importation of tea from 1710 downwards is exhibited in the following Tables.

The great increase that took place in the consumption of duty paid tea in 1784 and 1785, over its consumption in the preceding years, is to be ascribed to the reduction that was then effected in the duties. In the nine years preceding 1780, above 180,000,000 lbs. of tea were exported from China to Europe, in ships belonging to the Continent, and about 50,000,000 lbs. in ships belonging to England." But from the best information attainable, it appears that the real consumption was almost exactly the reverse of the quantities imported; and that, while the consumption of the British dominions amounted to above 13,000,000 lbs., the consumption of the Continent did not exceed 5,500,000 lbs. If this statement be nearly correct, it follows that an annual supply of above 8,000,000 lbs. was

clandestinely imported. It was well known, indeed, that smuggling was carried on to an enormous extent; and after every other means of checking it had been tried to no purpose, Mr. Pitt proposed, in 1784, to reduce the duties from 119 to 12 per cent. This measure was signally successful. Smuggling and the practice of adulteration were immediately put an end to, and the legal imports of tea were about trebled. In 1795, however, the duty was raised to 25 per cent.; and after successive augmentations in 1797, 1800, and 1803, it was raised, in 1806, to 96 per cent. ad valorem, at which it continued till 1819, when it was raised to 100 per cent. on all teas that brought above 2s. per lb. at the Company's sales.

I. A Return of the Quantities and Prices of the several Sorts of Tea sold by the East India Com. pany, in each Year during the present charter (1st of May to 1st of May).

The following statements show the progress of the consumption of tea in this country from a very remote epoch down to the present time :—

II. Account of the Quantity of Tea remaining for Home Consumption in Great Britain from 1711 to 1786, obtained by deducting the Quantity exported from the Quantity sold at the Company's Sales.

N. B.-We have extracted this account from that given from the Company's records in Milburn's Oriental Commerce (vol. ii. p. 534.). There is an account, furnished by the Excise, of the quantities of tea retained for home consumption from 1725 to 1832, in the Appendix to the First Report of the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry. It appears, however, to involve some very material errors. Thus, it represents the consumption from 1768 to 1772, both inclusive, as under 200,000 lbs. a year, at the same time that it makes the consumption, in the immediately preceding and subsequent years, above 4,000,000 A statement of this sort is obviously inaccurate; and yet it is not accompanied by a single remark or explanation of any sort.

lbs.!