EXTORTIONS OF THE EAST INDIA MONOPOLISTS, PROVED BY THEMSELVES.

WHEN the prices of tea in the New York market or elsewhere have been pointed to, in proof of the enormous overcharges of the Fast India Company, the answer has always been, that the dif- ference in price is more than compensated by the difference in quality. The Company, it has been asserted, have the pick and choice of the Canton market, while other nations have nothing but the refuse. This notion-which has absurdity stamped on the very face of it-seems really to have deceived the people of Leadenhall Street themselves ; and, in an evil hour, they consented, at the suggestion of Lord ELLENBOROUGH, to submit their cause to the experimeniiim cruces-a comparison of the teas of the foreign market with their own. It has been remarked, by those who have treated of Eastern warfare, that though " the noble animal of India" be a useful auxiliary against irregulars, yet when it comes in contact with troops that are disciplined, its awkward friendship is commonly fatal to those that trust in it. The East India Company will long rue the rash confidence which, in their day of battle, they reposed in the skill and enterprise of the President of the Board. of Control-he has proved a ‘` wild ele- phant " with a vengeance to them. On the 13th June 1829, Lord ELLENBOROUGH, as President of the Board of Control, wrote to the Chairman and Deputy Chair- man-" It appears to me to be a subject of some interest to the East India Company, to ascertain, as far as it is practicable, what relation the tea impoi'ted into the Continent of Europe and into the United States of America actually bears, in quality and in price, to that imported by the East India Company into the United Kingdom." The letter concluded by requesting the Com- pany to furnish the necessary funds ;-which they, vood simple souls ! proud of the sagacity and power of their great friend, at once consented to do. Circulars were in consequence sent to the British Consuls at Hamburg, Rotterdam, Frankfort, St. Peters- burg, New York, and Boston, requesting them to transmit to the India Board " fair samples of the several sorts of tea sold at those places ; these samples to embrace the highest, middle, and lowest qualities in most general use ; each sample to be not less than 201bs., and the price to be annexed to each, together with a statement of the duty paid thereon per lb." It was found impos- sible to comply with one part of this request; for there were no chests of 201bs. each to be procured (as any one but a Govern- ment employe must have known) either in Europe or America, unless in retail shops, and even there no such small quantities could be procured in the original packages. The Consuls, however, obeyed the mandate as they best could. From Hamburg 26 eighth and quarter chests were transmitted ; from Rotterdam, where they were purchased in retail, 35 samples were transmitted ; 6 samples, also purchased in retail, were transmitted from St. Petersburg ; 10 from Frankfort ; 14 from New York ; and 12 from Boston; in all 103 samples. The samples having been re- ceived on the 5th of February, the very respectable tea-brokers, Messrs. STYAMS. VARNHAM and CO., BROOKE and CO., KEMBLE and Co., LAYTON and Co., THOMPSON and Co., WATKINS and Co., Giuns and Co., and, at a subsequent date, VENN and Co., were requested each to name an individual of their respective firms to examine the samples and to rate them. On the 15th March, nine gentlemen, pArtners of these houses, accompanied by Mr. GOOD- HALL, the East India Tea Warehouse-keeper, attended at the India Board, and drew samples from the various packages ; which they submitted to the tests ordinarily used in the trade. On the 6th of April they gave in their report ; in which-after stating ge- nerally that two of the samples of Bohea were inferior to any im- ported of late years into Great Britain, and that the samples of Congou were not so numerous as would have been desirable,- they go on to estimate the price which each sample would fetch in the London market, or, more correctly, at the quarterly sales of the East India Company. It will be recollected, that in the course of the present session we drew up some elaborate tables on the tea trade, in one of which the London and New York prices were compared. In that table, we were obliged to have recourse to computation and hypothesis to ascertain the prices of certain teas 'which are not found in the New York-market ; and however irre- fragable the general argument deducible from the table, there was still room for cavil to matter-`of-Taot-reasoners. The table which we now give cannot be so assailed. It is extracted from one which was made up by Dr. KELLY, under the direction of the Company themselves, and given in on oath to the Lord's Com- mittee. We exclude the Russian, the Frankfort, and, with two exceptions, the Rotterdam samples, for reasons which we shall give by and by.

Table showing the cost per lb. of Samples of Tea received by the Commis- sioners for the Affairs of India from his Majesty's Consuls abroad, and the value affixed to the respective samples by the London tea-brokers : the foreign weights reduced to English avoirdupois, and the foreign monies reduced to sterling, according to the par of exchange computed in silver, at 5s. 2d. per ounce, British standard, by Dr. Kelly. Ex- tracted from the Report of the evidence taken by the Select Committee of the House of Lords.

Description of Tea. Whence imported. Number of Sample.

Cost Prise abroad. Value affixed by London Brokers.

Bohea . .

Congo"u .

Campiii .

Souchong

ng

If JI f f

PP IP

PS

Pekoe . .

ft

Hyson''Skin

PP PP PP

SP

PP Twankly .

3P PP PP Hyson . .

"

JP

PP

1

PP Gunpowder

JP

PP Rotterdam Harriburg

PP II

,i

PP

York York

JP

Boston .

Hamburg

PP ft JP PP

New York PP Boston .

Ham"burg PP PP

Boston . PP Hamburg " .

New York PP PP Boston . .

PP PP PP PP Hamburgh IP New York ,, 27 28 3 4 5 6 8 9 85 86 87 93 94 10 11 12 13 14 15 83 84 95 96 16 17 18 92 98 21 , 22 23 78 79 80 99 100

101

102 103 25 26 90 91

s. d.

91 .55 111 .56 1 01.42

1 41.30

1 01.42

1 34.8

1 0 .54 1 8.85 2 71 .27 2 04.29 1 21.96 2 14.35

0 111.54

3 04.70 4 7f.66

5 111 .96

0 71 .54 0 111 .42 1 31.19 1 71 .65 1 01.75 1 11.90 0 101.47 0 101 .20 1 31.30 1 41 .52

0 111.5-1

'1 21 .96 2 .31.96 2 71.60 3 1 .92 2 11/.22 2 31.71 2 01.29 2 41 :86

2 04.32 1 81: .80

1 llx .15 2 11 .05 3 3 .14 3 81.24 3 41 .46 2 9 .48

s. d.

1 51 1 5 2 11 2 6 2 1 2 01 2 01-, 2 3 2 2 2 0 1 10

3 4

2 01 3 10 4 0 .

5 6 2 1 2 21 2 3 2 8 2 1 2 3 2 2 2 4 2 11 2 9 2 2 2 2 3 10 4 2 5 0 4 4 3 9 3 7 3 8 3 9 3 8 3 9 3 9 5 3 5 8 5 2 5 0

The Russian teas are brought to Petersburg from Kiachta, the frontier town, which is the grand mart of the commercial inter- course between Russia and China, by a land carriage of some four thousand miles.

To compare caravan teas with sea-borne teas, is about as fair and rational as it would be to institute a comparison between the price of Chinese silk in Europe in the reign of AUGUSTUS, and what it has become after all the economy and improvement which have followed the discovery of the route by the Cape of Good Hope. Of caravan teas the supply is limited ; the charges are enormously enhanced by the mode of importation ; the price is not determined by the wants and means of a numerous population, but by the taste and caprice of a few wealthy and luxurious individuals.* The brokers have rated the Russian teas much lower than they cost at St. Petersburg, evidently confounding them with sea-borne teas, the dearest of which are cheap in comparison with the prices that caravan teas fetch, not in Petersburg merely, but in all the cities on the Continent where they are to be found. Rotterdam teas we have excluded, for two reasons. In the first place, it is impossible to separate the Netherlands' duties from the price, be- cause no drawback is allowed ; on the contrary, there is an export duty of some 2d. per pound. In the second place, the teas trans- mitted by the Consul were purchased in retail, and are charged at retail prices. There is a third reason why they and all such ought to be excluded. We hold it quite unsound to argue on the prices whether of the Rotterdam market, or any other, provided the same teas can be purchased cheaper elsewhere. It would be no answer to our complaint of the Company's monopoly, to tell us that tea was dear here or clear there. England, by the Company's own showing, has more facilities for procuring tea than any other country. We ought to have, and will have, our teas cheaper than they are in the cheapest foreign market in Europe or America- not cheaper than i in the dearest: We have, however, included the

* In the case of the Russian teas, too, the whole duties are included, and in the case of the Company's teas excluded.

t One of the witnesses examined before the Committee of the Commons, an American gentleman of great intelligence, and a partner in the house of Barings, Brothers, and Co. stated it distinctly as his opinion, that such were the 'facilities possessed by England for currying on the Chinese commerce, that in the event of the overthrow of the monopoly, she would beat all competitors out of the market, and, as he expressed it,. absorb the whole tea-trade of the Continent of Europe. two samples of Boheatransrnitted.from Rotterdam, because they are the only samples acknowledged to be good enough for English palates.; The Frankfort teas are not in point. They are pur- chased in France and Holland. The town does not import a box. There is one other remark that we feel called on to make. The staple teas of England are Congou, Twankay, Bohea.. These three constitute fourteen-fifteenths of all the tea imported into Great Britain—the Conon alone amounts to two-thirds of the whole. In one sense, tea is not drunk in any country out of Asia but England, for nowhere else is it the beverage of the mass of the people. But whether drunk partially or generally, the black and coarse teas are nowhere else the staple article of consumption. In the Netherlands, Twankay forms the half of an assorted cargo ; in England, about the seventh part only. In America, Bohea is little used, and Cougou scarcely known at all. From all this it follows, very naturally, that in England these teas are propor- tionally cheaper than in any other market ; . and when we measure the overcharge of the Company by the difference of the existing prices of these teas at home and abroad, we underrate it very greatly. Probably a number of our readers will think that the amount is sufficiently great without any exaggeration ; but, great as it is, we have no doubt that the first year of free trade would show that it had been very much under-estimated.

Table, showing, according to the accounts given in to the Committee by the East India Company, the sums paid for Tea in the years 1828.9, be- yond what would have been paid had the trade to India been free.

riga- ;eta! Namber of iamp:es Average Cost Price.

S. d.— 14 1 21 f

1 7+ 1 1 I- #

112 I 2 :31 * i 3- 4,

London Differ- Brokers ence In Aver- .favour of age ' Free Price. Trade. lbs. of Tea Excess of Monopoly Imported over Free Trade in MD. ; Prices.

lotterdam lamburg

Imo

Do. New York

and Boston Do. do. do.

Hamburg and Boston Do. do. N. Y. Ham. N. Y. 2 2

2

7 7 5 11 4 s. d. s. d. 1 5( , 62 2 32 11 1- e 01 1 101 .1% i 2 21 #1 61 *

2 24 i' 1 11 :

2 3( 1 12 i

3 114 1 7+ +

5 3i 12 0- + 1 2- 42

X s. d.

3,778.512 101,256 11 9 20,142,873.1,096.317 16 61 284,181; 12,507 3 9 i

601,739 17,237 6 14 213,993! 12,315 15 10*

4,101,845 235,357 11 11(

1,014,923 81,669 11 81

645, 64 13 4(

Average Price of all kinds :

Foreier. Home. Difference.

1 71 2 8f I

General total :

Tea Imported. Excess of Price.

30,138,217 lbs. L1,656,726 11

Thus, it appears, for every pound of tea that Englishmen buy of the Company, they pay thirteenpence-halfpenny, or seventy per cent more than they would do were they allowed to trade to china in the same way as every body else is. And be it recollected, for every penny paid to the Company, another penny is paid in the shape of Government taxes ; so that, in reality, the sixteen hun- dred and fifty thousand pounds paid to the Company costs the tea-drinkers of England three millions three hundred thousand pounds a-year! There is a degree of apathy among our contemporaries on this great question, which, considering the many trifling subjects that they daily swell into importance, is quite unaccountable. We hope they will at length shake it off, and, as they claim to them- selves the high praise of public instructors, consent to instruct the public a little on a subject that so deeply concerns them.

The reader is not to imagine, from what is above stated, that a comparison of the Company's prices even with the Dutch retail prices, duty included, would be favourable to the former: on the contrary, there is such a difference in favour of the latter, as to amount upon the consumption of 1828-29 to upwards of 1,300,000/. ! Description of

Teas.

Bohea Concon Campo! Souchoug Hyson Skin Twankay *Tyson Gunpowder