Tea (18 page)

The tea saucer was always shipped with the cups or bowls. The saucer was said to have been invented in seventh-century China. The discovery is attributed to the daughter of a military official, who used a small plate to cool tea before she offered it to her father. In many parts of the world, the saucer is still used this way, instead of functioning to catch any tea spilled from the cup, as we use it.

Almost everything that had to do with tea was shipped in from Asia, including teapots, milk pots, tea canisters, sugar dishes, cups, and saucers. The amount of porcelain brought from China to England during the seventeenth and eighteenth century was staggering. In
1980
, a ship that had sunk in
1643
in the South China Sea was found to contain massive amounts of porcelain, including over eight thousand cups of various types, including stem and conical shapes. Excavations of the
Geldermalsen
, a ship that was wrecked in
1752
, yielded forty thousand cups and fifty thousand saucers.

By the
1770
s, matching tea sets could be ordered from China through the East India Company merchants. These were called breakfast sets and were composed of a teapot, a sugar box (including a lid), a small stand for the teapot, a milk pot (like a cream pitcher), and a dozen cups (still without handles). In
1775
, the East India Company ordered eighty tea sets, along with twelve hundred teapots, two thousand covered sugar bowls, four thousand milk jugs, and forty-eight thousand cups and saucers.

Even with such enormous amounts of porcelain being imported, the British pottery industry began its own manufacturing of tea ware toward the end of the eighteenthcentury, and it was at this time that the European custom of placing a handle on a teacup became common. While cups for tea had single handles, cups used for hot chocolate—or by those who were weak or in firm—had two handles, one on each side. Larger teacups were used at breakfast, while smaller ones were used for afternoon tea. No matter what size the cup was, though, the saucer stayed the same size.

“I don't care about immortality, just the taste of tea.”

—Lu Tung, eighth-century Chinese poet

T
HE
B
RITISH
E
AST
I
NDIA
C
OMPANY
established the first British factory (trading post) on the coast of western India in
1619
. At first, traders believed that they could exchange British broadcloth for Indian goods, but they quickly found out that Indian textiles were of such high quality, there was little interest in buying European cloth. Undaunted, the company discovered that they could purchase Indian-made items cheaply and sell them in Great Britain for a profit— but reselling textiles did not bring nearly the profits that tea did. It had become obvious to the East India Company that if they were to maintain the tremendous profits to which they had become accustomed, the tea trade had to continue, and, if at all possible, grow. With the continuing frustrations of dealing with the Chinese, the British began looking for alternative methods of obtaining tea. The logical choice was India.

GAINING CONTROL IN INDIA

In many ways, it was easier to do business in India than in China. For one thing, India was closer to England geographically, and for another, the government rulers were easier to manipulate, as there was no strong central government.

India, during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, was only loosely joined under the control of Mughal leader Aurangzeb Alamgir (
1618
–
1707
). There had been fierce fighting between Aurangzeb and his brothers for control of the throne, and the result was a country divided and weakened. Most of the Indian leaders were not opposed to trade with Europe in the early part of the eighteenth century, but Aurangzeb justifiably feared that it would further weaken India, and he tried to put restrictions on the activities of the East India Company. The company fought these limitations and were intimidating enough to the native rulers that they eventually were able to build factories along the Indian coastline, in spite of local opposition.

India, like China, wanted only precious metal in exchange for their trade goods. This system remained tolerable to the British during the first half-century of trade, from
1720
to
1770
, but then several factors changed the situation. Up until the time of the American Revolutionary War, most of the silver used by England had come from Central and South America. After the war, supplies from Mexico were essentially cut off, and inflation led to a rise in the cost of silver as well. Demand for Asian goods in Britain was on the increase, but the Indian textile trade was in decline, in part as a result of increased competition from a growing European textile industry. The directors of the East India Company knew that changes had to be made, both in India and in China, if they were to keep their profit margins up.

Looking about for other trade opportunities, directors of the company seized upon the idea of growing poppies and selling opium. Much of the Indian countryside was well suited for growing the crop, and there seemed to be ample cheap labor for farming and processing it. What made this strategy particularly attractive was the ready and growing market for opium. The plan was simple; grow opium in India and trade it to China for tea.

The company set about implementing this idea with great zeal. They needed access to more land, and freedom from restrictions imposed by the Indian government, so they began with a push for more political control in India. The company actually had its own army, and in
1757
their officer Robert Clive won a decisive victory over Indian troops at the Battle of Plassey. In
1758
, Parliament granted the East India Company a monopoly for producing opium in India. From this point on, India gradually changed from a trading partner to a British imperial colony.

With its increased political power, the company was able to force Indian farmers to dedicate more and more land to growing poppies, which meant that acres of land were used for the production of opium rather than food or cotton. The result was widespread hunger and an even greater decline of the Indian textile industry, all of which was devastating to the economy of India. The effects of opium were to prove even more demoralizing to China.

The close ties between the East India Company and the British government were significant to the history of tea, of England, of India, and of China. In
1784
, the British Parliament passed the India Act, which divided control of the company between a Court of Directors and a Board of Control, made up of government officials. This act declared that the company could “levy war or make peace.” The company, therefore, actually carried out the will of the British government. It was a way for the British government to circumvent international laws and agreements that would have restricted a government, but did not apply to businesses.

By the early
1800
s, huge tracts of land in southern India were seized by the British East India Company, with the help and support of the British army. India's methods of fighting were no match for European military might. After Plassey came the Anglo-Maratha conflicts of
1803
–
1805
and the conquest of the Sikhs in
1848
. Finally, in
1857
, one hundred years after the Battle of Plassey, the Indian colonies became British Colonial India under full control of Britain.

It is estimated that Britain controlled about half of all the land in India during the first part of the nineteenth century. Heavy taxes were levied on the native people, and these funds were used to transport troops from Britain to India and to pay the salaries of company directors and other employees. The vast amounts of land controlled by the company were planted in a crop that was to alter both India and China forever—opium poppies.

INDIAN POPPIES FOR CHINESE TEA

Arab traders had actually introduced opium to China some time between the fourth and seventh centuries. There are records dating back to the eleventh century indicating that doctors had prescribed the drug for conditions such as insomnia, pain, and diarrhea. But for many centuries, opium was considered purely medicinal, and usage was not widespread. Once Westerners began trading at Canton, however, Europeans used both tobacco and opium as items to trade to the Chinese, and heroin usage, in particular, escalated. Opium proved to be an excellent item for trade. With their monopoly in India, the British had a seemingly endless supply, and they soon found that the Chinese were finally interested in taking something other than silver in trade for tea. As silver became more expensive and scarce, the East India Company brought more and more opium to China to trade for tea.

Alarmed at the potentially dangerous addictive quality of the drug, the Chinese government (under the Qing dynasty) passed an edict as early as
1729
forbidding opium use except for medicinal purposes. Enforcement of this law was minimal, however, and use of opium, and the heroin made from it, continued to increase, along with the growing imports from the East India Company. As the number of opium addicts grew, the Chinese government's response was to threaten the East India Company with a reduction in the amount of tea they were allowed to buy. It is important to remember that, at this time, all the tea produced in the world still came from China. England's insatiable thirst for tea and the boundless profits enjoyed by the East India Company and the British government made the thought of any decrease in the amount of tea imported from China intolerable.

In
1796
, the East India Company complied, at least in theory, to the demands of the Chinese government and stopped selling opium directly to the Chinese in Canton. Instead, they sold Indian opium to private English merchants in Calcutta. The merchants, without skipping a day of trading, brought the opium to China, thus maintaining the illegal trade. The difference was that the company could now deny any responsibility for wrongdoing, and the tea trade, as well as the opium trade, continued to grow, with the full knowledge of both the British government and the company officials.

GROWING ADDICTION IN CHINA

The number of opium addicts grew astronomically in China during the eighteenth century, and the problem was widespread before the Chinese government and royal leaders realized how serious it had become. In
1799
, the Chinese issued another imperial edict that banned the importation of opium. This time, the punishment included banishment or death, but addiction had taken hold of such a large part of the populace that the trade continued.