Tea

Four years ago, Russia, which drank half the world's tea production, was forced to forego luxuries. In consequence, the tea business entered a disastrous slump. About $225,000,000 British capital is invested in the tea industry; some 400 growers in India and Ceylon are financed in London; and about two-thirds of the world's crop is sold in the Mincing Lane market in London. The British made up their minds that if Russians could not buy tea, somebody else must. They subscribed $2,000,000 for publicity and advertising, to increase tea-drinking. Just now their persistence and foresight is being rewarded.

Tea is at present enjoying a boom in Mincing Lane. Russia is beginning to buy once more. British per capita consumption has increased 30% in ten years, and a heavier demand has sprung up in the U. S., Canada, New Zealand, India, Arabia and even along the Persian Gulf. Last year's tea-crop was 457,000,000 lb., 90% of it from India and Ceylon; yet demand threatens to outrun supply, and English stocks are weak. From the tea industry's standpoint, U. S. consumption is particularly interesting. In this country, the average family consumes only five pounds of tea--an eighth as much as is consumed by a British family. We can afford to buy tea--the problem remains to make us wish to. On the London Stock Exchange, shares of tea companies have enjoyed a lively rise, which threatens to continue. The tea planters are well organized and well financed.