292  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
the  inhabitants  of  Siberia  and  Central  Asia,  who  make  of
it  a  soup.  The  decline  in  the  China  tea  trade  has  come
from  the  competition  with  India,  which  learned  its  lesson
from  China  and  has  improved  upon  the  instruction  given.
The  first  experiments  were  made  in  India  in  1838,  in  which
year  500  lbs.  were  shipped  to  England  ;  it  took  over  twenty
years  for  shipments  to  reach  a  million  pounds,  but  then
the  trade  advanced  by  leaps  and  bounds.  In  1867,  when
China  shipments  were  one  and  a  quarter  million  piculs,  the
export  from  India  was  40,000  piculs  ;  in  1886,  shipments
of  all  kinds  from  China  were  2,217,201  piculs,  and  from
India  565,690  piculs.  Ceylon  came  into  the  market  m
1883,  and  under  the  influence  of  heavy  shipments  from
Ceylon  and  from  India,  the  English  market  was  gradually
lost  to  China  tea,  until  in  1905  the  quantities  withdrawn
from  bond  for  consumption  within  the  United  Kingdom
were  as  follows  :—
China  ..  ..  6,658,966  lbs.  =  49,142  piculs
India  ..  ..  150,530,446  „  =  1,128,978  „
Ceylon  ..  ..  89,385,901  „  =  670,394  „
Other  countries  12,513,284  „  =  93,850
Fifty  years  ago  China  supplied  practically  all  the  tea  infused
in  the  United  Kingdom,  and  to-day  she  supplies  just  onefortieth.
  The  United  States  is  not  one  of  the  great  teadrinking
  nations,  its  per  capita  consumption  being  about
one-fifth  that  of  the  British,  and  since  the  opening  of  Japan
the  American  tea-drinkers  have  taken  rather  to  tea  from
that  country  ;  in  1867  shipments  to  the  United  States  from
China  amounted  to  194,153  piculs,  being  65  per  cent,  of
the  American  import  of  that  year  ;  in  1905  the  corresponding
  quantity  was  182,123  piculs,  which  was  23^  per  cent,
of  the  American  consumption.  Russia  has  always  been
an  important  customer  for  Chinese  tea.  Sea-borne  tea  fot
Russia  in  early  years  cannot  be  distinguished,  since  so
much  was  bought  on  the  London  market.  Direct  shipments
declared  for  Russia  have  been  as  follows  :  in  1867  leaf'
I 3.25i  piculs,  brick,  53,123  piculs  ;  in  1886,  leaf,  239,086