Tea (15 page)

While the West was experiencing unprecedented and rapid changes and becoming more and more enamored with progress and the future, China's motto at this juncture was “change within tradition,” which meant a resistance to outside influences and a tendency to idealize the past.

The result was that China fell far behind the West in terms of warfare, technology, material culture, and economic and political organization. All of this set the stage for Western expansion into and domination of a China that could not fight back on equal footing, either physically or psychologically.

EUROPEAN TRADE ROUTES TO ASIA

In Europe, the sixteenth century dawned with great excitement over sea trade and exploration. Vasco da Gama, in
1497
, had rounded the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa and landed in India, opening up great possibilities for trade with the East—and paving the way for the flow of tea from Asia to Europe that would eventually follow. Before da Gama's epic journey, trade between Europe and the East had been limited to overland routes, with most caravans starting in Vienna. The journey eastward to Asia was long and dangerous, but there were great riches to be made by bringing back exotic luxury items such as silks and spices to wealthy Europeans. Tea, at this point, was not a trade item and did not appear in Europe until a century later.

As the sixteenth century progressed, Portugal, with her superior ships and navy, continued to develop sea trade routes and, for many years, held a monopoly on these ocean paths. In
1542
, the Portuguese began trading with Japan. Finally, in
1557
, after years of petitioning, they were granted permission from the Chinese government to set up trading posts, called “factories,” on the rocky point of Macao, where it juts into the Pearl River (now known as the Zhujiang River) as it joins the China Sea.

The first European to encounter tea and report back what he had experienced was the Portuguese Jesuit Father Jasper de Cruz, in
1560
. Father de Cruz was a missionary on the first commercial trading trip to China after Portugal was granted trading privileges

Many European missionaries were allowed to live permanently in China, for they were learned men who proved to be irresistibly interesting to Chinese scholars. In return, the Jesuits were greatly influenced by the Buddhist monks with whom they came in contact. They were particularly impressed with the large quantities of tea drunk by the monks for their use in their meditation practice. Once again, religion plays a major role in the story of tea, for as the Jesuit missionaries wrote about this marvelous, exotic beverage, their words spread throughout Europe, and many eagerly awaited their first taste of tea.

TEA IN EUROPE

The British were preoccupied with their expansion to the New World and were slow to enter the Pacific trade. But on December
31
,
1600
, Elizabeth I granted a charter to the John Company, which was eventually to be known as the British East India Company. The primary purpose of the formation of this company was the promotion of Asian trade “for the honor of the nation, the wealth of the people, the encouragement of enterprise, the increase of navigation, and the advancement of lawful traffic,” as the charter stated.

This chartered company functioned as a business under the direct control of the sovereign state of Britain. The company was able to combine a sharp business acumen with the political strength of the state to become a powerful organization. Its power would prove to be extremely lucrative for both the investors of the company and the British government, but for both the Indians and the Chinese it would prove to be a devastating power to confront.

The British East India Company lost no time in trying to carry out its mission. The first ships sailed to the Far East in
1601
, others followed in
1604
and
1607
, then every year until
1615
. The British established factories in India, Siam, Sumatra, Java, and Japan. In spite of persistent efforts, however, the British were unable to establish trading relationships with China for many years.

Portugal and Holland, which were closely associated politically during the sixteenth century, shared the profits and risks of their trading ventures. This partnership dissolved in
1602
, when Holland formed the Dutch East India Company—organized along the lines of the British East India Company—and continued in her Pacific trade alone.

In
1609
, the Dutch East India Company established trade with Japan and was allowed to build a factory in Hirado, in the southwest part of the country. From here, the Dutch not only bought Asian wares to take back to Europe, but also, for a while, supplied the Japanese with Chinese goods.

Even though Europeans had heard about tea for decades, it wasn't until
1606
that it first came to Europe as an item of trade, in the port city of Amsterdam. At this point, and for many years to come, tea in Europe was found only in apothecary shops. At first, it was nothing more than a novelty, but by
1610
–
1611
it had become a regular item of trade for both Holland and Portugal.

Tea acquired its first popularity in the Dutch capital, The Hague, even though it was quite expensive. In spite of the initial enthusiastic response, however, the demand for tea in Holland gradually declined, and by
1647
prices had begun to fall drastically.

But there was a ready and growing market elsewhere. For example, by the middle of the seventeenth century, it had become quite fashionable in Paris to drink tea. Tea's Parisian popularity was chronicled by Madame de Sévigné (
1626
–
1696
), whose letters paint a fascinating picture of Paris in the mid-seventeenth century. Madame de Sévigné is credited with starting the custom in Europe of drinking tea with milk.

TEA IN ENGLAND

The first twenty years of the British East India Company charter were not very successful in Asia, largely because Asian trade was dominated by Dutch, and to some extent still by the Portuguese.

It wasn't until
1657
that the Dutch first to brought tea to London. The first advertisement for tea appeared in the British weekly magazine the
Mercurius Politicus
, in September of
1658
: “That Excellent, and by all Physitians approved, China Drink, called by the Chineans, Tcha, by other Nations Tay alias Tee, is sold at the Sultaness-head, a Cophee-house in Sweetings Rents by the Royal Exchange, London.”

Although the British love affair with tea eventually became legendary, its popularity was not immediate. Paralleling the situation in The Hague, tea in London was at first considered a medicine, and it was found primarily at apothecaries. Soon, however, as the advertisement indicates, it was also available in coffeehouses, the small restaurants where coffee and tea were served, and people (mostly men) gathered for conversation. Samuel Pepys wrote in September
1660
, only three years from tea's first introduction to London, “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.”

Because the Dutch East India Company had such tight
control over the tea trade, no tea was imported by the British East India Company until
1669
. The result was that the price of tea remained quite high in England for many years. In
1664
a pound of tea cost about two pounds sterling. Considering that a footman only earned between two and six pounds a year, the cost of tea was steep indeed.

Catherine of Braganza

In spite of the high cost, tea's popularity took a giant leap forward when the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza and Charles II of England married in
1662
. Both Charles, who had grown up in the Dutch capital where tea was readily available, and his new Portuguese wife were confirmed tea drinkers, and they are credited with introducing tea to the royal court in England. Drinking tea quickly became associated with royalty and the upper class.

Before Catherine came to court, most people in England who were drinking tea were doing it for medicinal purposes, rather than for its taste. Even though the Japanese and the Chinese were finding tea delicious by the mid-seventeenth century, the teas brought to Europe from Asia were of inferior quality and taste, and most Europeans did not know how to brew them to extract the sweetest flavors. Catherine was to change all that, however, for she sought out the best teas available and taught the English ladies how to brew tea that was quite pleasurable to drink.

Catherine's influence on England was not only immediate and domestic, but long-lasting and far-reaching as well. Portugal was faced with great competition from the Dutch for trade in the East. Nevertheless, it was still a quite wealthy country, as reflected by Catherine's wedding dowry. Catherine brought five hundred thousand pounds in ready cash, but more importantly, the marriage union opened up new trade routes, as England was granted free trading rights in Brazil and the Portuguese East Indies. Tangiers and Bombay were thrown into the pot as well, and control of these islands passed to England. Catherine, by nature of her dowry, became an important link between England and Asia.

As a direct consequence of the marriage and the dowry, the British also gained an even stronger foothold in India and made Bombay its base of operations. The British East India Company was granted a new charter from the king that gave it a complete monopoly over all trade and commerce in China and India.