Page 140 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

126.

gave the residents canisters of it as presents at Chinese

New Year.

One prerequisite to success in the trade was the

ability to distinguish qualities of various lots of the leaf.

Every house at Canton had at least one tea-taster or inspector.

Each cargo of teas that left Canton was a mixture of various

kinds, so a tea-taster had to know all the varieties well.

The taster often went down to the Tea Hongs themselves to make

his choices. Here coolies were at work sorting and packing

the teas in chests, which were formed on the spot. There were

no scales, as the teas sold by volume. The business of

selecting teas also included the ritual of having Tea with the

46
Tea merchant in special apartments over the work area. Al-

though the American merchants often chose their teas in this
manner, the business transactions were made through the Hong

1
merchants. Some American merchants in the 1820 s had tried

to buy teas directly from the Teamen in the interior where teas

were grown. They had lost thousands of dollars in their experi-
47
ment.

At Canton the tea season began in November with the

first shipments allotted to the East India Company. The Company

contracted for its teas the previous year, as its charter re­

quired it to maintain a year's supply of teas in England as a

46
Letter, E. Carrington to S. Russell & Co., Jul. 22, 1820�
Russell & Co. MSS. For an interesting description of the Tea Hongs,
see Tiffany, The Canton Chinese, pp. 111-17.

47
some American merchants had advanced money to Teamen in
the interior for cheaper teas. After having received some of the
shipment, they sent the remainder of the money, only never to see
nor hear of the Teamen or their teas again. They lost approximately
$100,000 to $200,000 in their experiment. Americans did not try it
again. Letter, T.T. Forbes to T.H. Perkins, Nov. 1, 1824, Forbes MS