Chinese tea is the substance of legend, but it has not been without some upheaval and trouble along the way. The early history of Chinese tea and how it traveled to the world is the substance of rich history and cultural influence. Learn more about the early roots of the Chinese tea trade.
Trade throughout the continent of Asia and the sub continent of India was essential to the financial well being of the English Empire. The primary moving force in this trade was the East India Company, which controlled the growth of tea, cotton, spices and dozens of other goods. The transportation and sale of those goods throughout Europe changed the fabric of political life throughout the world. When tea was brought to India by the English in an attempt to undercut the Chinese tea trade, the success created a rise in English control of tea.
Tea was a staple of life in every corner of the English Empire. It would be considered highly dishonorable if tea was not served to family and guests daily. At several points in the 18th and 19th century there were actual movements to have the popular tea houses closed as they were perceived by some to be disruptive and harmful to moral strength. Obviously, these movements were ill conceived, misinformed and failures from the start. Tea was as much part of the English world as it was part of China and Japan.
The trade in tea was so important that it was used as a bargaining point with the Chinese during the increasingly unbalanced commerce between the English and Chinese empires. When the English began to sell more tea from their plantations in India than they bought form the Chinese, the financial imbalance began to create economic instability throughout China. As English power grew, the imposition of trade requirements in Indian opium into China became a major point of contention.
Ships owned and operated by the East India Company could use tea as a credit against trade in opium. Tea would be purchased in Canton on credit. That balance would be checked by using opium bought at Calcutta and smuggled into China to be sold against Chinese law. All of this book keeping, smuggling and trade benefited only the British merchants, and by taxation, the British government. The fact that Chinese law was being broken was ignored by everyone except the Chinese. The English parliament and crown went as far as to give a monopoly in opium trade to the East India Company.
Tea took a back seat to the sale of opium in China. When the ruling dynasty of China, the Qing, issued edicts putting Chinese drug trader to death, and then the local commissioner of trade had British warehouses and ships raided to prevent the drug from being brought to the underground markets of southern China.
The escalation of tensions continued until June of 1842 when the British sent warships and seized the Canton Provence and later sailed up the Yangtze river to cut commerce with the interior. This eventually caused the Chinese court to sue for peace, which was dictated by the English. The English control over the city of Hong King lasted from 1843 until 1997 was part of these negotiations.
Tea trade from China through England again increased, but the financial gains were tipped heavily in favor of the English. When the economic preasures created social unrest, the Qing Empire was overthrown not by invasion or conquest by external forces, but by civil war and rebellion. Tea, which had been instrumental in opening China to the world, had been used as a pawn in the importation of opium and that lead to the end of the last vestiges of Imperial rule from China in 1912.
Tea remained in China, but the effects of the Opium Wars had left the trade more dispersed throughout the world. Chinese tea trade would take decades to return to being the major supplier to the world.
Steve Green writes for Unity Teapots - providing high quality Cast Iron Teapots.
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