Hanway, Jonas
(Portsmouth 1712-1786 London ?) : Reisender, Philanthropist
Subjects
Index of Names : Occident
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Travel and Legation Accounts
Chronology Entries (1)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1757 |
Johnson, Samuel. Review of 'A journal of eight days's journey'. = Review of Essay on tea by Jonas Hanway (1757) [ID D27045]. … He begins by refuting a popular notion, that bohea and green tea are leaves of the same shrub, gathered at different times of the year. He is of opinion, that they are produced by different shrubs. The leaves of tea are gathered in dry weather; then dried and curled over the fire, in copper pans. The Chinese use little green tea, imagining, that it hinders digestion, and excites fevers. How it should have either effect, is not easily discovered; and, if we consider the innumerable prejudices, which prevail concerning our own plants, we shall very little regard these opinions of the Chinese vulgar, which experience does not confirm.When the Chinese drink tea, they infuse it slightly, and extract only the more volatile parts; but though this seems to require great quantities at a time, yet the author believes, perhaps, only because he has an inclination to believe it, that the English and Dutch use more than all the inhabitants of that extensive empire. The Chinese drink it, sometimes, with acids, seldom with sugar; and this practice our author, who has no intention to find anything right at home, recommends to his countrymen… He then proceeds to enumerate the mischiefs of tea, and seems willing to charge upon it every mischief that he can find. He begins, however, by questioning the virtues ascribed to it, and denies that the crews of the Chinese ships are preserved, in their voyage homewards, from the scurvy by tea. About this report I have made some inquiry, and though I cannot find that these crews are wholly exempt from scorbutick maladies, they seem to suffer them less than other mariners, in any course of equal length. This I ascribe to the tea, not as possessing any medicinal qualities, but as tempting them to drink more water, to dilute their salt food more copiously, and, perhaps, to forbear punch, or other strong liquors… Hot water is also very hurtful to the teeth. The Chinese do not drink their tea so hot as we do, and yet they have had teeth. This cannot be ascribed entirely to sugar, for they use very little, as already observed; but we all know, that hot or cold things, which pain the teeth, destroy them also. If we drank less tea, and used gentle acids for the gums and teeth, particularly sour oranges, though we had a less number of French dentists, I fancy this essential part of beauty would be much better preserved… Green tea, when made strong, even by infusion, is an emetick; nay, I am told, it is used as such in China; a decoction of it certainly performs this operation; yet, by long use, it is drunk by many without such an effect. The infusion also, when it is made strong, and stands long to draw the grosser particles, will convulse the bowels: even in the manner commonly used, it has this effect on some constitutions, as I have already remarked to you from my own experience… He affirms, that one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, in silver, are paid to the Chinese, annually, for three millions of pounds of tea, and, that for two millions more, brought clandestinely from the neighbouring coasts, we pay, at twenty-pence a pound, one hundred sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds… The author allows one slight argument in favour of tea, which, in my opinion, might be, with far greater justice, urged both against that and many other parts of our naval trade. "The tea-trade employs," he tells us, "six ships, and five or six hundred seamen, sent annually to China. It, likewise, brings in a revenue of three hundred and sixty thousand pounds, which, as a tax on luxury, may be considered as of great utility to the state." The utility of this tax I cannot find: a tax on luxury is no better than another tax, unless it hinders luxury, which cannot be said of the impost upon tea, while it is thus used by the great and the mean, the rich and the poor. The truth is, that, by the loss of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, we procure the means of shifting three hundred and sixty thousand, at best, only from one hand to another; but, perhaps, sometimes into hands by which it is not very honestly employed. Of the five or six hundred seamen, sent to China, I am told, that sometimes half, commonly a third part, perish in the voyage; so that, instead of setting this navigation against the inconveniencies already alleged, we may add to them, the yearly loss of two hundred men, in the prime of life; and reckon, that the trade of China has destroyed ten thousand men, since the beginning of this century… |
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Bibliography (2)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1754 |
Hanway, Jonas. Herrn Jonas Hanway zuverlässige Beschreibung seiner Reisen, von London durch Russland und Persien; und wieder zurück durch Russland, Deutschland und Holland, in den Jahren von 1742 bis 1750 worinnen die Grossbritannische Handlung über die Caspische See, und überhaupt das Handlungswesen von Russland, Persien, von der Tartarey, Türkey, von Armenien, China etc. mit den benachbarten und entfernten Nationen umständlich beschrieben; Wie auch das Merkwürdigste von den Reichen, Provinzen und Städten, durch welche der Verfasser gereiset ist, und von der Lebensart, Landesbeschaffenheit, den Sitten, der Religion und ausführlich erzählet wird. Nebst einer unparteyischen Historie des grossen Eroberers Nadir Kuli oder Kuli Chans, und aller Staatsveränderungen und Rebellionen, welche in diesem Jahrhunderte in Persien vorgefallen sind. (Hamburg : Grund, 1754). http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11062314_00005.html. = Hanway, Jonas. Zuverlässige Geschichte der Englischen Handlung durch Russland über die Caspische See nach Persien, der Tartarey und Türkey, Armenien und China : samt einer Beschreibung der Landesbeschaffenheit dieser Laender. T. 1-2. (Leipzig : Holle, 1769). http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/resolve/display/bsb10479603.html. |
Publication / Hanw1 |
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| 2 | 1757 |
Johnson, Samuel. Review of A journal of eight days's journey. In : The Literary Magazine ; 2, no. 13 (1757). = Review of Essay on tea by Jonas Hanway (1757). http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/tea.html. |
Publication / JohS4 |
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