grape, are very limited. The black teas for exportation
are all produced in the north-west part of
the province of Fokien, and the green in that of
Kiangnan, in the neighbourhood, and to the west
of the city of Whe-chu-fu. Both Fokien and
Kiangnan are maritime provinces, and two of the
richest of the empire. Fokien is, in a manner,
isolated from the rest of the empire by a chain of
mountains, which surrounds it in every way on the
land side. It is among the vallies of the portion
of these mountains, called Bu-ye, * that the black
teas are grown. A very small portion of them
only is brought to Canton by sea, and the rest is
transported by porters over the mountains, and generally
without the advantage of internal navigation.
The distance, in a straight line to Canton,
from the black tea districts, cannot be less than
320 miles, and, by the usual calculation for the
winding of the roads, not less than 360. Wherever
land-carriage must be resorted to in China,
it is attended with peculiar disadvantage, from
the total absence of wheel carriages, good roads,
and beasts of burthen. The green tea districts
in Kiangnan cannot be less than 700 miles from
Canton in a straight line, or 800 miles following
the direction of the road, although, perhaps,
from the advantage of internal navigation, the cost
* Of which the word Bohea is a corruption. We apply the
term erroneously to the worst description of black which we
import.
of transport is not proportionally enhanced, so
much as in the case of the black teas. *
The natural and obvious channels by which the
teas of China would be exported to foreign countries
are wholly different from that to which the
Chinese force it. Black teas, instead of being conveyed
by a land journey of about 360 miles, to
Canton, are readily conveyed to the maritime city
of Fou-chu-fu by an easy voyage on the river
Min, of four days, in the most favourable season,
and by a voyage of twice that length in the
least favourable. The green teas are still more
easily transported to the coast on the Yan-che-
kiang, one of the greatest and finest rivers in
China, which runs through the province of Kiangnan,
and brings the teas from the spot on which
they are produced, direct to the coast. The marts
to which they are brought are exactly those places,
especially those in Fokien, where the natives are
the most remarkable for. their maritime enterprise,
and from which, in fact, by far the largest
portion of the native foreign trade of China is
conducted. Including the province of Che-kiang,
which produces the greatest quantity of the raw
and manufactured silk of China, the provinces of
Fokien and Kiang-nan are the great marts for distribution
to the more northern provinces, of the
* I am indebted for many of the facts here adduced to a little
printed tract by Mr Ball of our factory at Macao.