FOREIGN  TRADE  291

China.  As  has  been  stated,  the  fragrant  leaf  formed  the
main  part  of  the  outward  lading  of  ships,  vessels  which
could  take  a  thousand  tons  or  more  of  tea  being  restricted,
in  theory  and  by  law,  to  140  piculs,  less  than  ten  tons  in
weight,  of  the  other  staple  export,  silk.  This  preponderance
continued  in  the  new  regime,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1867
tea  contributed  three-fifths  of  the  value  of  all  exports.
In  the  two  seasons  1848-9  and  1849-50  the  average  of
shipments  of  tea  to  England  was  335,920  piculs,  of  which
249,660  piculs  were  shipped  from  Canton  and  87,260  piculs
from  Shanghai  ;  and  shipments  to  the  United  States
averaged  26,600  piculs,  from  Shanghai.  Tea  shipments  from
China  increased  in  actual  volume  until  the  culminating
year,  1886,  when,  with  a  quantity  the  highest  on
record,  the  value  contributed  but  43  per  cent,  of  all
exports  ;  thereafter  both  quantity  and  price  fell  off,  until
in  1905  tea  gave  little  over  a  tenth  of  the  value  of  all
exports.  With  a  reduction  in  quantity  there  has  been  a
still  greater  decline  in  value,  notwithstanding  the  reduced
exchange  value  of  the  unit,  the  tael  of  silver  ;  and,  with  a
restricted  market  for  tea  of  the  finer  qualities,  there  is  a
distinct  falling  off  in  the  proportion  of  tea  leaf  to  brick  tea,
made  of  refuse  leaf,dust,  and  stalks,  as  shown  in  the  following
table  :—

1867
1886
1905

Quantity

Tea  Leaf.
Value.

Piculs.
1,248,256
1,846,989
839,173

Tls.
33,838,423
31,246,063
21,013,687

Brick  Tea.

Quantity.

Piculs.
65,3H
370,212
530,125

Value.

Tls.
717,665
2,258,757
4,431,965

This  change  is  the  more  significant  when  it  is  remembered
that  tea  leaf  goes  to  Europe  and  America  to  be  infused  and
provide  the  beverage  we  know,  while  the  brick  tea  is  for

taining  it  by  the  northern  frontier,  called  it  tchai,  from  the  northern
Chinese  name  cha-yeh,  “  tea-leaf.”