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TEA
—ITS—
HISTORY AND MYSTERY
—BY—
JOSEPH M. WALSH,
AUTHOR OF
“COFFEE, ITS HISTORY, CLASSIFICATION AND
DESCRIPTION.”
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PHILADELPHIA:
HENRY T. COATES & CO.
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COPYRIGHTED, 1892,
BY
JOSEPH M. WALSH.
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_All Rights Reserved._
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PREFATORY.
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Utility, not originality, has been aimed at in the compilation of this
work. The obstacles and difficulties its author had met with in his
endeavors to learn something of the article he was commissioned to sell
when he first entered the Tea trade, the almost total lack of knowledge
displayed by the average dealer in the commodity, allied to the numerous
inquiries for a work containing “all about tea,” first prompted the
undertaking.
The material was collated at intervals, in a fragmentary manner,
covering a period of over twenty years, and arranged amid the many
interruptions incident to an active business life, subjected to constant
revisions, repeated prunings and innumerable corrections, due mainly to
the varying statements and conflicting opinions of admitted authorities
in every branch of the subject. Still, as careful and judicious an
arrangement of the data has been given as possible, a faithful effort
being made to omit nothing that may prove useful, instructive or
profitable to the expert, the dealer or general reader.
Aware that many facts have been omitted, and many errors committed in
its preparation, he still trusts that the pains he has taken to avoid
both have not been in vain, that the former may be few, and the latter
of no great importance. The work was compiled under impulse, not under
inducement, a single line not being intended originally for the market,
and is now being published solely for the benefit of those “whom it may
concern.”
PHILADELPHIA, December, 1892.
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CONTENTS.
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Chapter Page
I. EARLY HISTORY 9-28
II. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 29-35
III. BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FORM 37-49
IV. CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION 51-68
V. CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION 69-132
VI. ADULTERATION AND DETECTION 133-157
VII. TESTING, BLENDING AND PREPARING 159-204
VIII. CHEMICAL, MEDICAL AND DIETICAL PROPERTIES 205-235
IX. WORLD’S PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 237-252
X. TEA CULTURE, A PROBABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY 253-265
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[Illustration:
(Branch of Tea Plant.)
]
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CHAPTER I.
EARLY HISTORY.
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The history of Tea is intimately bound up with that of China, that is,
so far as the Western world is concerned, its production and consumption
being for centuries confined to that country. But, having within the
past two centuries become known and almost indispensable as an article
of diet in every civilized country of the globe, it cannot but prove
interesting to inquire into the progress, properties and effects of a
commodity which could have induced so large a portion of mankind to
abandon so many other articles of diet in its favor, as well as the
results of its present enormous consumption.
Although now to be found in a wild state in the mountain-ranges of
Assam, and in a state of cultivation through a wide range from India to
Japan, the original country of Tea is not definitely known, but from the
fact of its being in use in China from the earliest times it is commonly
attributed to that country. Yet though claimed to have been known in
China long anterior to the Christian era, and even said to have been
mentioned in the _Sao-Pao_, published 2700 B. C., and also in the _Rye_,
600 B. C., the exact date or manner of its first discovery and use in
that country is still in doubt. One writer claims that the famous herb
was cultivated and classified in China 2000 B. C., almost as completely
as it is to-day, and that it was used as a means of promoting amity
between Eastern monarchs and potentates at this early period. Chin-Nung,
a celebrated scholar and philosopher, who existed long before Confucius,
is claimed to have said of it: “Tea is better than wine, for it leadeth
not to intoxication, neither does it cause a man to say foolish things
and repent thereof in his sober moments. It is better than water, for it
doth not carry disease; neither doth it act as a poison, as doth water
when the wells contain foul and rotten matter,” and Confucius admonishes
his followers to: “Be good and courteous to all, even to the stranger
from other lands. If he say unto thee that he thirsteth give unto him _a
cup of warm Tea_ without money and without price.”
A Chinese legend ascribes its first discovery to one Darma, a
missionary, famed throughout the East for his religious zeal, who, in
order to set an example of piety to his followers, imposed on himself
various privations, among which was that of forswearing sleep. After
some days and nights passed in this austere manner, he was overcome and
involuntarily fell into a deep slumber, on awakening from which he was
so distressed at having violated his vow, and in order to prevent a
repetition of allowing “tired eyelids to rest on tired eyes,” he cut off
the offending portions and flung them to the ground. On returning the
next day, he discovered that they had undergone a strange metamorphosis,
becoming changed into a shrub, the like of which had never been seen
before. Plucking some of the leaves and chewing them he found his
spirits singularly exhilarated, and his former vigor so much restored
that he immediately recommended the newly discovered boon to his
disciples.
Tradition, on the other hand, never at a loss for some marvelous story,
but with more plausibility, claims that the use of Tea was first
discovered accidentally in China by some Buddhist priests, who, unable
to use the brackish water near their temple, steeped in it the leaves of
a shrub, growing in the vicinity, with the intention of correcting its
unpleasant properties. The experiment was so successful that they
informed the inhabitants of their discovery, subsequently cultivating
the plant extensively for that express purpose. While another record
attributes its first discovery about 2737 B. C. to the aforementioned
Chin-Nung, to whom all agricultural and medicinal knowledge is traced in
China. In replenishing a fire made of the branches of the Tea plant,
some of the leaves fell into the vessel in which he was boiling water
for his evening meal. Upon using it he found it to be so exciting and
exhilarating in its effects that he continued to use it; imparting the
knowledge thus gained to others, its use soon spread throughout the
country.
These accounts connected with the first discovery of the Tea plant in
China are purely fabulous, and it is not until we come down to the
fourth century of the Christian era that we can trace any positive
allusion to it by a Chinese writer. But, as the early history of nearly
every other ancient discovery is more or less vitiated by fable, we
ought not to be any more fastidious or less indulgent towards the
marvelous in the discovery of Tea than we are towards that of fire,
iron, glass or coffee. The main facts may be true, though the details be
incorrect; and, though the accidental discovery of fire may not have
been made by Suy-Jin in the manner claimed, yet it probably was
communicated originally by the friction of two sticks. Nor may it be
strictly correct to state that Fuh-he made the accidental discovery of
iron by the burning of wood on brown earth any more than the Phœnicians
discovered the making of glass by burning green wood on sand, yet it is
not improbable that some such accidental processes first led to these
discoveries. Thus, also, considerable allowances are to be deducted from
the scientific discoveries of Chin-Nung in botany, when we read of his
having, in one day, discovered no less than seventy different species of
plants that were poisonous and seventy others that were antidotes
against their baneful effects.
According to some Chinese authorities, the Tea plant was first
introduced into their country from Corea as late as the fourth century
of the present era, from whence it is said to have been carried to Japan
in the ninth. Others again maintaining that it is undoubtedly indigenous
to China, being originally discovered on the hills of those provinces,
where it now grows so abundantly, no date, however, being named. While
the Japanese, to whom the plant is as valuable as it is to the Chinese,
state that both countries obtained it simultaneously from Corea, about
A. D. 828. This latter claim not being sustained by any proof
whatever—Von Siebold, to the contrary—who, relying on the statements of
certain Japanese writers to this effect, argues in support of their
assertions, the improbability of which is unconsciously admitted by Von
Siebold himself when he observes “that in the southern provinces of
Japan the tea plant is abundant on the plains, but as the traveler
advances towards the mountains it disappears,” hence inferring that it
is an exotic. The converse of this theory holding good of China, a like
inference tends to but confirm their claim that with them the plant is
indigenous. That the Japanese did not originally obtain the plant from
Corea but from China is abundantly proven by the Japanese themselves,
many of whom admit that it was first introduced to their country from
China about the middle of the ninth century. In support of this
acknowledgment it is interesting to note, as confirming the Chinese
origin of tea, that there is still standing at Uji, not far from Osaka,
a temple erected on what is said to have been the first tea plantation
established in Japan, sacred to the traditions of the Japanese and in
honor of the Chinese who first introduced the tea plant into the Island
empire. Another more authentic account states that the Tea-seed was
brought to Japan from China by the Buddhist priest Mi-yoye, about the
beginning of the thirteenth century, and first planted in the southern
island of Kiusiu, from whence its cultivation soon spread throughout
that country.
Some English writers go so far as to claim that Assam, in India, is the
original country of tea, from the fact that _a species_ has been
discovered there in a wild state as well as in the slopes of the
Himalaya mountains. But though found in both a wild and cultivated state
in many countries of the East at the present time, all its Western
traditions point to China, and to China _only_, as the _original_
country of Tea, and that the plant is native and indigenous to that
country is indisputably beyond question.
It was not known to the Greeks or Romans in any form; and that it could
not have been known in India in very early times is inferred from the
fact that no reference to the plant or its product is to be found in the
_Sanscrit_. But that the plant and its use, not only as an agreeable and
exhilarating beverage, but as an article of traffic worthy of other
nations, must have been known to the Chinese as early as the first
century of the Christian era, the following extract from an ancient work
entitled the “Periplous of the Erythræan Sea,” may serve to prove. The
author, usually supposed to be Arryan, after describing “a city called
Thinæ,” proceeds to narrate a yearly mercantile journey to the vicinity
of “a certain people called Sesatæi, of short stature, broad faces, and
flat noses”—evidently natives of China—adds “that the articles they
bring for traffic outwardly resemble vine leaves, being wrapped in mats,
which they leave behind them on their departure to their own country in
the interior. From these mats the Thinæ pick out a haulm, called
_petros_, from which they draw the fibre and stalks; spreading out the
leaves, they double and make them up into balls, passing the fibre
through them, in which form they take the name of _Malabathrum_, and
under this name they are brought into India by those who so prepare
them.” Under any interpretation this account sounds like a remote,
obscure and confused story. Still one of the authors of the able
“Historical Account of China,” published in 1836, has ventured to
identify this Malabathrum of the Thinæ with the Tea of the Chinese.
Vossius Vincent and other authors, while admitting the difficulty of
understanding why it should be carried from Arracan to China, and from
China back to India, unhesitatingly assert that Malabathrum was nothing
more than the Betel-leaf, so widely used in the East at the time as a
masticatory. Horace mentions Malabathrum, but only as an ointment. Pliny
refers to it both in that sense and as a medicine. Dioscorides
describing it as a masticatory only. While the author of the “Historical
Account” prefers to consider the passage in the Periplous as a very
clumsy description of a process not intelligently understood by the
describer, but as agreeing far better with the manipulation of Tea than
with that of the Betel-leaf, and his conjecture, unsupported as it is,
merits citation if only for its originality.
The first positive reference to Tea is that by Kieu-lung in the fourth
century, who not only describes the plant, but also the process of
preparing it, of which the following is a free and condensed
translation: “On a slow fire set a tripod, whose color and texture show
its long use, and fill it with clear snow-water. Boil it as long as
would be sufficient to turn cray-fish red, and throw it upon the
delicate leaves of choice Tea. Let it remain as long as the vapor arises
in a cloud and only a thin mist floats on the surface. Then at your ease
drink the precious liquor so prepared, which will chase away the five
causes of sorrow. You can taste and feel, but not describe the state of
repose produced by a beverage thus prepared.” It is again mentioned by
Lo-yu, a learned Chinese, who lived during the dynasty of Tang, in 618,
who became quite enthusiastic in its praise, claiming that “It tempers
the spirits, harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves
fatigue, awakens thought and clears the perceptive faculties,” and
according to the _Kiang-moo_, an historical epitome, an impost duty was
levied on Tea as early as 782 by the Emperor Te-Tsing, and continued to
the present day.
McPherson, in his “History of European Commerce with India,” states that
Tea is mentioned as the usual beverage of the Chinese by Solieman, an
Arabian merchant, who wrote an account of his travels in the East about
the year 850. By the close of the ninth century, however, Tea was found
in general use among the Chinese, the tax upon it at that time being a
source of considerable revenue as recorded by Abuzeid-el-Hazen, an
Arabian traveler cited by Renaudot in a translation of his work. There
is also independent evidence furnished by two other Arabian travelers in
a narrative of their wanderings during the latter half of the ninth
century, admitting their statements to be trustworthy as to the general
use of Tea as a beverage among the Chinese at that period. Moorish
travelers appear to have introduced it into Mohammedan countries early
in the tenth century, and other travelers in China in the seventeenth
give most extravagant accounts of its virtues, which appears to have
been in very general use throughout the greater part of Asia at that
time.
Father de Rhodes, a Jesuit missionary, who entered China in 1633, states
that “the use of Tea is common throughout the East, _and begins, I
perceive, to be known in Europe_. It is in all the world to be found
only in two provinces of China, where the gathering of it occupies the
people as the vintage does us.” Adding that he found it in his own case
to be an instantaneous remedy for headache, and when compelled to sit up
all night to hear confessions its use saved him from drowsiness and
fatigue. Adam Olearius, describing the travels of an embassy to Persia
in 1631, says of the Persians: “They are great frequenters of taverns,
called Tzai Chattai, where they drink Thea or Cha, which the Tartars
bring from China, and to which they assign extravagant qualities,
imagining that it alone will keep a man in perfect health, and are sure
to treat all who visit them to this drink at all hours.” These strong
expressions as to the use of Tea, applying as they do to a period not
later than 1640, are sufficient to prove that the ordinary accounts
place the introduction of that beverage as regards Europe, particularly
the Continent, as too late.
INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE.
The earliest European notice of Tea is that found in a work by Ramusio,
first printed in 1550, though written several years prior to that year.
In it he quotes Hazzi Mohamed in effect, “And these people of Cathay
(China) do say that if these in our parts of the world only knew of Tea,
there is no doubt that our merchants would cease altogether to use
_Ravino Cini_, as they call rhubarb.” Yet no accounts at present
accessible establish the date of its first introduction into Europe, and
it is also a difficult matter to determine to which of the two
nations—Portugal or Holland—the credit of first introducing it belongs.
Some writers claiming that the Dutch East India Company brought Tea to
Amsterdam in 1600, while the Portuguese claim the honor of its first
introduction prior to that year. An indisputable argument in favor of
the latter is the notice given of it by Giovani Maffei in his “History
of India,” published in 1559. “The inhabitants of China, like those of
Japan,” he writes, “extract from an herb called _Chia_ a beverage which
they drink warm, and which is extremely wholesome, being a remedy
against phlegm, languor and a promoter of longevity.” While Giovani
Botero, another Portuguese, in a work published in the same year, states
that “the Chinese have an herb from which they press a delicate juice,
which they use instead of wine, finding it to be a preservative against
these diseases which are produced by the use of wine amongst us.”
Taxiera, also a native of Portugal, states that he saw the dried leaves
of Tea at Malacca some years prior to 1600, and the article is also
mentioned in one of the earliest privileges accorded to the Portuguese
for trading in 1558; yet it was not until nearly a century from the
beginning of that trade that we find the first distinct account from a
European pen of the use of Tea as a beverage.
In a “Dissertation upon Tea, by Thomas Short,” printed in London, in
1730, the author gives the following account of its first introduction
into Europe: “The Dutch East India Company on their second voyage to
China carried thither a good store of Sage and exchanged it with the
Chinese for Tea, receiving three to four pounds of the last for one
pound of the first, by calling it a wonderful European herb possessed of
as many virtues as the Indians could ascribe to their shrub-leaf. But
because they exported not such large quantities of Sage as they imported
of Tea they also bought a great deal of the latter, giving eight- to
tenpence a pound for it in China. And when they first brought it to
Paris they sold it for thirty livres the pound; but thirty years ago the
Chinese sold it at threepence, and never above ninepence a pound at any
time, frequently mixing it with other herbs to increase the quantity.”
Macaulay also states in the history of his embassy to China that “early
in the seventeenth century some Dutch adventurers, seeking for such
objects as might fetch a price in China, and hearing of a general use
there of a beverage produced from a plant of the country, bethought
themselves of trying how far a European plant of supposed great virtues
might also be appreciated by the Chinese; they accordingly introduced to
them the herb Sage, the Dutch accepting in exchange the Chinese Tea,
which they brought back with them to Holland.” These statements but tend
to confirm the Portuguese claim, the efforts of the Dutch to open up
trade with the Chinese in Tea being evidently made many years subsequent
to its introduction by the former; in still further support of which the
following may be noted:—
In 1662 CHARLES II. married the Portuguese princess, Catharine of
Braganza, who, it is said, was very fond of Tea, having been accustomed
to it in her own country. Waller, in a poem celebrating the event,
ascribes its first introduction to her country in the appended lines:—
“Venus her myrtle has—Phœbus her bays;
Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise.
The best of Queens and _best of herbs we owe_
To that proud nation which the way did show.”
The earliest mention made of Tea by an Englishman is that contained in a
letter from a Mr. Wickham, agent of the East India Company at Firando,
Japan, and dated June 27, 1615, to a Mr. Eaton, another officer of the
Company, resident at Macao, China, asking for “a pot of the best Cha.”
How the commission was executed does not appear, but in Mr. Eaton’s
subsequent account of expenditures occurs this item, “Three silver
porringers to drink Tea in.” The first person, however, to advocate the
use of Tea in Europe was Cornelius Bottrekoe, a professor of the Leyden
University, who, in a treatise on “Tea, Coffee and Chocolate,” published
in 1649, strongly pronounces in favor of the former, denying the
possibility of its being injurious even when taken in immoderate
quantities.
Tea was evidently known in England previous to its direct importation
there, small quantities having been brought from Holland as early as
1640, but used only on rare occasions. The earliest mention made of it,
however, is that contained in a copy of the “_Mercurius Politicus_,” at
present in the British Museum, and dated September, 1658, in which
attention is called to “that excellent, and by all Physitians approved,
China drink, called by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations Tay, sold at
the Sultaness Head, a Cophee-house by the Royal Exchange, London.” The
most famous house for Tea at this early period, however, was Garway’s,
more popularly known for upwards of two centuries as “Garraway’s,” being
swept away only a few years ago by the march of improvement. Defoe
refers to it as being “frequented only by people of quality, who had
business in the city and the wealthier citizens”; but later it became
the resort of speculators, and here it was that the numerous schemes
which surrounded and accompanied the “Great South Sea Bubble” had their
centre, and, appropriately enough, “Garraway’s” was also the
headquarters of that most remarkable but disastrous Tea speculation of
1842.
A singular handbill issued by its founder is still extant, being
discovered by accident in a volume of pamphlets found in the British
Museum, where it may still be inspected. Although the document bears no
date, there is ample internal evidence to prove that it must have been
printed about 1660. It is a quaint and extraordinary production,
purporting to be “An exact description of the leaf Tea, made according
to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travelers in those
Eastern countries, by Thomas Garway,” setting forth that:—
“Tea is generally brought from China, growing there on little
shrubs, the branches whereof are garnished with white flowers of
the bigness and fashion of sweetbriar, but smell unlike, and
bearing green leaves of the bigness of myrtle or sumac, which
leaves are gathered every day, the best being gathered by
virgins who are destined for the work, the said leaves being of
such known virtues that those nations famous for antiquity,
knowledge and wisdom do frequently sell it among themselves for
twice its weight in silver. That it hath been used only as a
regalia in high treatments and entertainments, presents being
made thereof to grandees.”
Proceeding at considerable length to enumerate its “virtues,” many of
which are decidedly apocryphal, and attributing to the beverage, among
its other properties, that of—
“Making the body active and lusty, helping the headache,
giddiness and heaviness, removing the difficulty of breathing,
clearing the sight, banishing lassitude, strengthening the
stomach, causing good appetite and digestion, vanishing heavy
dreams, easing the frame, strengthening the memory, and finally
preventing consumption, particularly when drank with milk.”
Many other remarkable properties being credited to this wonderful
“Chinese herb,” the advertiser closes his great encomiums by suggesting—
“That all persons of eminence and quality, gentlemen, and others
who have occasion for tea in the leaf may be supplied. These are
to give notice that the said Thomas hath the same to sell from
sixteen to fifty shillings the pound.”
If the article had possessed but a tithe of the virtues and excellencies
accorded to it by the celebrated Garway it must have been recognized at
the time as the coming boon to man.
Up to 1660 no mention is made of Tea in the English statute books,
although it is cited in an act of the first parliament of the
Restoration of the same year, which imposed a tax of “eightpence on
every _gallon_ made and sold, to be paid by the maker thereof.” This was
subsequently increased to five shillings per pound in the Leaf, which at
the time was stated to be “no small prejudice to the article, as well as
an inconvenience to the drinker.” Ever since that year the duty on Tea
has been one of the hereditary customs of the Crown, though Parliament
has at sundry times, by different acts, fixed divers duties upon it.
Pepys alludes to Tea in his Diary, under date of September 25, 1661, the
entry reading: “I did send for a cup of Tee, a China drink, of which I
never drank before”; and again, in 1667, he further mentions it. “Home,
and there find my wife making of Tee, a drink which Mr. Pelling, the
Potticary, says is good for her cold.” But that it still must have
continued rare, is very evident, as in 1664, it is recorded that the
East India Company made the king what was then considered “a brilliant
present of 2 lbs. of Tea, costing forty shillings,” and two years later
another present of 22 lbs., both parcels being purchased on the
Continent for the purpose.
It was not until 1668 that the East India Company is credited with the
direct importation of Tea into England, which, although chartered in
1600, for the first time considered Tea worthy their attention as an
article of trade. The order sent to their agents in that year was: “for
100 lbs. of the best _Tey_ they could procure to the amount of £25
sterling.” Their instructions must, however, have been considerably
exceeded, as the quantity received was 4,713 lbs., a supply which seems
to have “glutted the market” for several years after. Up to this time no
alarm had been excited that the use of Tea was putting in peril the
stalwarthood of the British race. But in the very year of this large
importation we find Saville writing to his uncle Coventry, in sharp
reproof of certain friends of his “who call for Tea, instead of pipes
and wine,” stigmatizing its use as “a base, unworthy Indian practice,”
and adding, with an audible sigh, “the truth is, all nations are getting
so wicked as to have some of those filthy customs.” Whether from
sympathy of the public with these indignant reprehensions or other
causes, the whole recorded imports for the six following years amounted
to only 410 lbs., the quantities imported continuing small and
consisting exclusively of the finer sorts for several years thereafter.
The first considerable shipment of tea reached London about 1695, from
which year the imports steadily and rapidly increased until the end of
the seventeenth century, when the annual importations averaged 20,000
pounds. In 1703 orders were sent from England to China for 85,000 pounds
of Green Tea and 25,000 pounds of Black, the average price at this
period ranging from 16 to 20 shillings ($4 to $5) per pound. The
Company’s official account of their trade did not commence before 1725,
but according to Milburn’s “Oriental Commerce” the consumption in the
year 1711 had increased to upwards of 142 million pounds, in 1711 to 121
millions, and in 1720 to 238 million pounds. Since which time there has
been nothing in the history of commerce so remarkable as the growth and
development of the trade in Tea, becoming, as it has, one of the most
important articles of foreign production consumed.
For above a century and a half the sole object of the English East India
Company’s trade with China was to furnish Tea for consumption in
England, the Company during that period enjoying a monopoly of the Tea
trade to the exclusion of all other parties. They were bound, however,
“to send orders for Tea from time to time, provide ships for its
transportation, and always to keep at least one year’s supply in their
warehouses,” being also compelled to “bring all Teas to London, and
there offer them at public sale quarterly, and to dispose of them at one
penny per pound advance on the gross cost of importation, the price
being determined by adding their prime cost in China to the expenses of
freight, insurance, interest on capital invested, and other charges.”
But in December, 1680, Thomas Eagle of the “King’s Head,” a noted
coffee-house in St. James, inserted in the _London Gazette_ the
following advertisement, which shows that Tea continued to be imported
independently of the East India Company: “These are to give notice to
persons of quality that a small parcel of most excellent Tea has, by
accident, fallen into the hands of a private person to be sold. But that
none may be disappointed, the lowest price is 30 shillings in the pound,
and not any to be sold under a pound in weight.” The persons of quality
were also requested to bring a convenient box with them to hold it.
The East India Company enjoyed a monopoly of the trade in Tea up to
1834, when, owing to the methods of calculation adopted by the Company,
and the heavier expenses which always attend every department of a trade
monopoly, the prices were greatly enhanced. Much dissatisfaction
prevailing with its management, this system of importing Teas was
abolished, the Company being deprived of its exclusive privileges, and
the Tea trade thrown open to all.
In all probability Tea first reached America from England, which country
began to export in 1711, but it is claimed to have been previously
introduced by some Dutch smugglers, no definite date being given. The
first American ship sailed for China in 1784, two more vessels being
dispatched the following year, bringing back 880,000 pounds of Tea.
During 1786-87, five other ships brought to the United States over
1,000,000 pounds. In 1844, the “Howqua” and “Montauk” were built
expressly for the Tea trade, being the first of the class of vessels
known as “Clippers,” in which speed was sought at the expense of
carrying capacity, and by which the average passage was reduced from
twenty to thirty days for the round trip. The trade in tea was entirely
transacted at Canton until 1842, when the ports of Shanghai, Amoy and
Foochow were opened by the treaty of Nankin, the China tea trade being
mainly conducted at the latter ports. As late as 1850, all vessels
trading in tea carried considerable armament, a necessary precaution
against the pirates who swarmed in the China seas during the first half
of the last century.
The progress of this famous plant has been something like the progress
of Truth, suspected at first, though very palatable to those who had the
courage to taste it, resisted as it encroached, and abused as its use
spread, but establishing its triumph at last in cheering the world, from
palace to cottage, by the resistless effect of time and its own virtues
only; becoming a beverage appreciated by all, as well as an agent of
progress and civilization.
TEA
AND
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.
Although Tea may be claimed to be in all its associations eminently
peaceful, growing as it does on the hill-sides of one of the most
peaceful countries in the world, coming to us through the
peace-promoting ways of commerce, until it reaches its ultimate
destination, that centre of peace—the family table—and like peaceful
sleep, “knitting up the raveled sleeve of care,” yet it has been the
occasion of several wars and political problems, the latest of which is
the precipitation of the great Chinese exodus, which at present
threatens such vital results, not only to our own country, but possibly
to the world at large.
It was destined—as in all social and political affairs, the greatest and
most important events are curiously linked with the smallest and most
insignificant—to be the final crisis of the American Revolutionary
movement. Think of it! _The birth of the greatest nation of all time due
to a three-penny tax on tea!_ It was the article chosen above all others
to emphasize the principles that “_all men are born free and equal_,”
and that “_taxation without representation is tyranny_,” and for the
establishment of which principles a war was fought, that when judged by
the law of results, proves to have been the most important and fruitful
recorded on history’s pages. Who, in looking back over the long range of
events conserving to create our now great country, can fail to have his
attention attracted to what has been termed, with a characteristic touch
of American humor, “The Boston Tea Party of 1773”? Who could have then
predicted the marvelous change that a single century of free government
would have wrought? Who could have dreamed that Tea would have proved
such an important factor in such a grand result? What a lesson to
despotic governments! A dreary November evening; a pier crowded with
excited citizens; a few ships in the harbor bearing a hated cargo—hated
not of itself, but for the principles involved; on the decks a mere
handful of young men—a few leaders in Israel—urged on by the fiery
prescience of genius, constituting themselves an advance guard to lead
the people from out the labyrinth of Remonstrance into the wilderness of
Revolution.
It is true that previously other questions had been factors in the
dispute, but a cursory glance at the history of the time will show that
heated debates had been followed by periods of rest, and acts of
violence by renewed loyalty. The “Navigation laws” had caused much
indignation and many protests, but no violence to mention. As early as
1768 the famous “Stamp Act” was passed and repealed. The period
intervening between its passage and repeal gave opportunity for public
opinion to crystallize and shape itself. It sifted out of the people a
modern Demosthenes, gifted with the divine power of draping the graceful
garment of language round the firm body of an IDEA! George III. would
not profit by the example of Cæsar or of Charles, and while North had
avowed his willingness to repeal the tax on all other articles, he
promised the king that “_he would maintain this one tax on Tea to prove
to the Colonists his right to tax_.”
The trade in Tea at this time was a monopoly of the English East India
Company, which just then had acquired an immense political prestige, but
lost heavily by the closing of the American market, the Company’s
warehouses in London remaining full of it, causing their revenue to
decline. North was induced to offer them a measure of relief by
releasing from taxation in England the Tea intended for America, but he
still persisted in maintaining the duty of threepence to be paid in
American ports, and on the 10th of May this farcical scheme of fiscal
readjustment became a law. The Company obtained a license for the
free-duty exportation of their Tea to America in disregard of the advice
of those who knew that the Colonists would not receive it. Four ships
laden with Tea were despatched to the ports of Boston, New York,
Philadelphia and Charleston. The Colonists prepared for their expected
arrival, public meetings being held in Philadelphia and Boston, at which
it was resolved that _the Tea should be sent back to England_, and so
notified the Company’s agents at these ports. The Boston consignees
refused to comply with the popular demand, all persuasion failing to
move them. The matter was then referred to the Committees, who
immediately resolved to use force where reason was not heeded. When the
vessels arrived, a meeting was held in the Old South Church, at which it
was resolved, “_come what will, the Tea should not be landed or the duty
paid_.” Another appeal was made to the Governor, which was also denied!
Upon this announcement Samuel Adams arose, saying, “_This meeting can do
nothing more to save the country_.” The utterance of these words was a
preconcerted signal; the response, an Indian war-whoop from the crowd
outside. A band of young men, not over fifty, disguised as, and styling
themselves, “Mohawks,” rushed down to the wharf where the vessels lay;
the ships were boarded, the Tea chests broken open and emptied into the
river. _From the moment that the first Tea-leaf touched the water the
whole atmosphere surrounding the issues involved changed! In that
instant, with the rapidity of thought, the Colonies vanished and America
arose!_
When the news of these proceedings reached England, it provoked a storm
of anger, not only among the adherents of the government, but also among
the mercantile and manufacturing classes, they having suffered heavy
losses by the stoppage of trade with America. The commercial importance
and parliamentary influence of the East India Company swelled the outcry
of indignation against which they termed the outrage of destroying its
property. All united in the resolve to punish the conduct of Boston for
its rejection of the least onerous one of an import duty on tea. What
followed has been told in song and story—Lexington and Concord, Bunker
Hill, Valley Forge and Yorktown. A new nation sprang into existence,
taking its stand upon the pedestal of “EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL,” under a
new government “OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE.”
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