and methods of trade.  He would have printed in the newspapers a statement that ’William Jones, assisted by a staff of experienced buyers, will attend the tea-sales of the East India Company, and will lay in parcels from the best Chinese Gardens, which he will retail to his customers at a profit of not more than five per centum.’  This, however, is an open appeal to the critical intellect, and by the critical intellect it would now be judged.  We should not consider Mr. Jones to be an unbiassed witness as to the excellence of his choice, or think that he would have sufficient motive to adhere to his pledge about his rate of profit if he thought he could get more.

Nowadays, therefore, such an advertiser would practice on our automatic and subconscious associations.  He would choose some term, say ‘Parramatta Tea,’ which would produce in most men a vague suggestion of the tropical East, combined with the subconscious memory of a geography lesson on Australia.  He would then proceed to create in connection with the word an automatic picture-image having previous emotional associations of its own.  By the time that a hundred thousand pounds had been cleverly spent, no one in England would be able to see the word ‘Parramatta’ on a parcel without a vague impulse to buy, founded on a day-dream recollection of his grandmother, or of the British fleet, or of a pretty young English matron, or of any other subject that the advertiser had chosen for its association with the emotions of trust or affection.  When music plays a larger part in English public education it may be possible to use it effectively for advertisement, and a ‘Parramatta Motif’ would in that case appear in all the pantomimes, in connection, say, with a song about the Soldier’s Return, and would be squeaked by a gramophone in every grocer’s shop.

This instance has the immense advantage, as an aid to clearness of thought, that up to this point no Parramatta Tea exists, and no one has even settled what sort of tea shall be provided under that name.  Parramatta tea is still a commercial entity pure and simple.  It may later on be decided to sell very poor tea at a large profit until the original associations of the name have been gradually superseded by the association of disappointment.  Or it may be decided to experiment by selling different teas under that name in different places, and to push the sale of the flavour which ‘takes on.’  But there are other attractive names of teas on the hoardings, with associations of babies, and bull-dogs, and the Tower of London.  If it is desired to develop a permanent trade in competition with these it will probably be found wisest to supply tea of a fairly uniform quality, and with a distinctive flavour which may act as its ‘meaning.’  The great difficulty will then come when there is a change of public taste, and when the sales fall off because the chosen flavour no longer pleases.  The directors may think it safest to go on selling the old flavour to a diminishing