Wikipedia)
In my last post, “Assam vs. Darjeeling” I said this. “So, what is the Chinese variety of tea doing in the mountains of India? It was stolen.”
Let me tell you some of the most intriguing and appalling events in tea history. Settle in.
In 1836 John Barrow wrote in the British Quarterly Magazine, “It is a curious circumstance that we grow poppy in our Indian territories to poison the people of China in return for a wholesome beverage which they prepare almost exclusively for us.” You’ve heard of wars fought over oil, did you know that there were two wars fought over tea?
In a nutshell, at the beginning of the 18th century virtually no one in Britain drank tea, by the end of the century almost everyone did. The only place to get tea then was in China (all the tea in China!). China didn’t trust the ‘barbarians’ outside their borders and history proves their reticence was well-founded. Rather than accept textiles and other commodities offered in trade for tea, China insisted that payment be made only in silver. That wasn’t a problem at first, but soon enough there wasn’t enough silver to pay for all the tea in demand. Now Britain needed tea and silver.
So British ships sailed to areas just off the coast of China and traded opium for silver and then sailed into limited access Chinese ports and used that same silver to buy tea. By the end of the 1830s there were 2 million opium addicts in China.
That’s not the worst of it. When the Chinese government balked at this, Britain started a war, confident in their superior naval power. The First Opium War (1839-42) resulted in China being forced to open five more ports to trade, to cede Hong Kong and to pay millions to cover war costs. Hong Kong ceded in 1842 was not handed back until 1997. There’s more, much more.
In 1848, fed up with their dependence on China for this vital product a new plot was hatched. A Scottish botanist and agent of the powerful East India Company who was used to gathering flora for the Horticultural Society was given an extraordinary new mission. Robert Fortune was to assume an alias, “Sing Wa” a businessman from beyond the Great Wall. He was told to shave his head and to wear a topknot and traditional attire. His task? To steal tea plants, tea seeds and sneak into the interior, off limits to foreigners, to see just how the Chinese cultivated this plant. He was also to convince “experienced Chinese tea manufacturers” to accompany him back to India to teach their techniques. Those who left China illegally could be flogged and tortured, along with their families, yet perhaps due to the generously paid three year contracts 8 workers were persuaded to agree. I highly recommend Jeff Fowler’s book “Darjeeling” where you can read about Wardian cases and the fascinating life of Robert Fortune. When he died in 1880, Robert’s family burned his diaries, letters and personal effects. Those purloined Chinese tea plants today produce exquisite Darjeeling tea in the mountains of India.
Britain wasn’t done. In 1856 a Second Opium War was launched with expanded ends, this time demanding that all ports be opened, opium legalized, British goods exempt from import duties, foreigners allowed to travel all over China, missionaries unrestricted in spreading Christianity, and an embassy to be established in Peking. To quote Prime Minister William Gladstone, “A war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace I know not of…the flag is become a pirate flag to protect the infamous traffic.”
Tea history may be fascinating, but it is also deeply disturbing. Tea’s past reveals the unbroken lineage to current heinous treatment of other peoples and nations. actions sickeningly justified by those with the power to make demands with no regard for human costs. However, as today’s second most popular beverage around the world, tea is also our common ground. Tea can be our starting place for cultivating respect and interest in those who are not and never have been, ‘other’.