No.459.

Custom House,

Hankow,28th November 1887.

Sir,

In accordance with the instructions contained in your Circular No.387, Second Series, I have made all possible inquiries here regarding the Tea trade, and I now lay before you a Report of what I have done and what information I have been able to get at.

I may say in the first place that the moment for such inquiries as I wanted to make is inopportune.The principal buyers for the English market only come here for a few months in the summer, and leave when the first crops have been disposed of. These are the men—and especially those of them who come from and go back to England every year—whom one would expect to be most in touch with the London market, and better informed as to the currents of public opinion in England.Not having any of these gentlemen to consult, I was obliged to make the best of the local sources of information. I addressed the so-called Chamber of Commerce here, suggesting that it might arrange a meeting between those of the Chamber interested in Tea and myself, at which we might discuss the general question. I thought by that course to best get at what I may call public opinion, and avoid accepting individuals, opinions as representing the general view. Though the Secretary replied that he should be happy to assist me in any way possible,I never heard anything more from the Chamber of Commerce.Later,finding that nothing was to be made of the Chamber,I drew up two sets of queries.Of the first of these I sent copies in a despatch to each of the three British merchants who now buy Tea at this port—to Mr.H.F.Ramsay,to Mr.A.R Greaves,and to Messrs.Drysdale,Ringer,& Co. (represented by Mr. Thomas Wood). I enclose you a copy of my correspondence with these gentlemen(Enclosure No.1).The first letter is my circular dispatch;then follow my queries,and below each query I give you the answer of Mr.Ramsay,the only one who has attempted to answer them categorically; next come in order the despatches I have received in reply. These queries have been privately sent to Shanghai, for submission to the Chamber of Commerce there,and it is possible that they will evoke fuller answers in Shanghai,and cause the Shanghai Commissioner to get some information which he will no doubt think worthy of embodiment in his Report.At the end of the correspondence I add an extract from a letter received from a well-known Tea merchant in Shanghai,Mr.Ringer,whose opinion I hold a high respect for.(www.daowen.com)

The second set of queries,Enclosure No.2,I drew up for submission to the Russian merchants. The substance of the answers, which they gave me vivâ voce, is appended to each query.

I called on the Chairman of the Native Tea Guild—Mr. Chang Tê-ming (张德明),better known by his hao Yen Pên, and asked him a number of questions, the answers to which come in in what I shall have to say later. We have had several interviews, during one of which he handed me the Chinese Memoranduma translation of which by Mr. Carl forms Enclosure No.3.

A very great difficulty I have found is that few Foreigners have ever seen Tea prepared—Mr. Greaves and Mr. Panoff are the only two I can find here, —and none have any idea of the rationale of the several processes of preparation, or the effect they produce or are meant to produce on the raw leaf. All seem to make light of the question of chemical composition, the knowledge of which I personally consider is an absolute necessity if one wants a really correct idea of wherein the difference between Indian and Chinese Teas consists,and how much of that difference is traceable to original quality of leaf and how much is due to the diverse processes of preparation to which each variety is particularly subjected. The answer I have invariably got to my query,“what is the fault you find with Chinese Tea?”is“it is badly prepared ”or“ its quality is deficient. ”When I follow up my inquiry by asking wherein the bad preparation consists, or, if it does exist, what better system of preparation can be adopted, or what makes the quality poor, I can never get a satisfactory answer. The only one I can get amounts in so many words to this,—the Foreigner does not care how it is prepared,and does not care to bother himself with questions as to the why and wherefore of the matter: he knows good prepared Tea when he sees it, and he generally sees what he does not consider good. He leaves it to the Chinamen to find the way which will produce the best article—the one best suited to English requirements,and therefore the most saleable.

Having said so much by way of preface,I shall now detail what I have been able to find out about Indian and Chinese Teas,their manner of production,preparation,marketing, and so forth, under several headings, expressing my opinion on each such point of difference as seems to me possessed of any particular significance. In the end I shall give my views on the suggestions made.