t for 6 months on L3,709,375 at 5 per cent. 92,734
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Total outlay in China L3,802,109
Profit to exporters in China,(about 12 per cent.) 445,116
Landing charges, &c., in England 39,000
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Cost price in bond in England L4,286,225
Duty received by government at 2s. 21/2. per lb., about 5,985,482
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L10,271,707
Profit divided among tea-brokers, wholesale and retail
dealers, &c 1,878,293
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Total outlay by British public for tea, at 4s. 6d. per lb. L12,150,000
The tea imported into England in 1667 was only 100 lbs., while for the
year ending June 30, 1851, the export from China to Great Britain was
64,020,000 lbs., employing 115 vessels in its transportation; and to
the United States, during the same time, 28,760,800 lbs., in
sixty-four vessels. Within the last five years, the export has
increased 10,000,000 lbs. to the United States, and 17,000,000 to
Great Britain. These statistics will show the immense importance of
this article to commerce, and the vast amount of shipping it supports.
But let us follow out the statistics a little more in detail.
The population of the Chinese provinces, as quoted by Dr. Morison,
from an official census taken in 1825, was 352,866,012, and we may
fairly conclude that during the last twenty-eight years this
population has extensively increased. If we assume the annual
consumption of tea at four lb. per head on the above population; and
this is no unreasonable assumption in a country, where, to quote from
Murray's valuable work on China, tea "is the national drink, which is
presented on every occasion, served up at every feast, and even sold
on the public roads;" we shall have a tolerably accurate result as to
the total consumption in the empire. Indeed this computation falls
short of the actual relative consumption in the island of Jersey,
where, as we have seen, nearly five lbs. is the annual allowance of
each individual.
If we multiply the population of Ch
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