the most weight is laid, is the tea which is brought in from Prussia.
In no country is the consumption of tea so great as in Poland and
Russia. That smuggled in from Prussia, being imported from China by
ship, can be sold ten times cheaper than the so-called caravan-tea,
which is brought directly overland by Russian merchants. This overland
trade is one of the chief branches of Russian commerce, and suffers
serious injury from the introduction of the smuggled article.
Accordingly the government pays in cash, the extraordinary premium of
fifty cents per pound for all that is seized, a reward which is the
more attractive to the officers on the frontiers for the reason that
it is paid down and without any discount. Formerly the confiscated
tea was sold at public auction on the condition that the buyer should
carry it over the frontier; Russian officers were appointed to take
charge of it and deliver it in some Prussian frontier town in order
to be sure of its being carried out of the country. The consequence
was that the tea was regularly carried back again into Poland the
following night, most frequently by the Russian officers themselves.
In order to apply a radical cure to this evil, destruction by fire was
decreed as the fate of all tea that should be seized thereafter. Thus
it is that from 20,000 to 40,000 pounds are yearly destroyed in the
chief city of the province. About this the official story is, that it
is tea smuggled from Prussia, while the truth is that it is usually
nothing but brown paper or damaged tea that is consumed by the fire.
In the first place the Russian officials are too rational to burn
up good tea, when by chance a real confiscation of that article has
taken place; in such a case the gentlemen take the tea, and put upon
the burning pile an equal weight of brown paper or rags done up to
resemble genuine packages. In the second place, it is mostly damaged
or useless tea that is seized. The premium for seizures being so
high, the custom-house officers themselves cause Polish Jews to buy
up quantities of worthless stuff and bring it over the lines for the
express purpose of being seized. The time and place for smuggling it
are agreed upon. The officer lies in wait with a third person whom he
takes with him. The Jew comes with the goods, is hailed by the officer
and takes to flight. The officer pursues the fugitive, but cannot
reach him, and fires his musket after him. Hereupon the Jew drops
the pack