London:
T. CORNELL & SONS, Commercial, Law and General Printers,
63, Borough Road, S.E.
In March, 1904, the Southwark Borough Council at the request of Sir
William Collins gave permission for an inquiry to be made into the
constituents of tea in order to ascertain what injurious ingredients
were present, and if it were possible to obtain the characteristic
effects without subjecting tea-drinkers to any of the deleterious
symptoms. The subject will be seen to be of importance and I propose
to include a brief history of the use of the Tea plant, together with
a general review of the experience gained by those best competent to
judge of the effects since its introduction of what has now come to be
considered a necessity of life. In addition there are set forth the
results of examination of different samples of tea and the general
conclusions to which I have arrived.
What we call tea, is called by the Chinese tcha, tha, or te, and by the
Russians tchai. The original English word was tee, at least this is the
name used by Samuel Pepys one of the earliest to allude to the herb in
this country. Tee was afterwards altered to tay, as will be seen from
Pope’s lines in the “Rape of the Lock.”
Soft yielding minds to water glide away
And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tay.
Or again,
Hear thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tay.
Some of the modern editions of Pope have altered the spelling at the
expense of the rhyme.
The tea-plant, Thea Sinensis, botanically speaking a close ally of
the Camellia is in its natural state a tree which attains to 20 or 30
feet in height. Under cultivation it remains a shrub from three to
six feet high. It grows in all tropical and sub-tropical countries,
and roughly it takes the labour of one man a day to produce a pound
of tea. The leaves--the only part of the plant used in commerce--vary
from two to six inches long, are evergreen, lanceolate and serrated
throughout nearly the whole margin; the leaves are stalked and arranged
alternately on axis, the flowers somewhat resemble apple blossoms but
are smaller.
The shrubs are planted in rows three or four feet apart and look like
a field of currant or gooseberry bushes; at the end of the third year
the bushes become large enough to allow of the first picking and in the
eighth year the plant is cut down, when new shoots spring up from the
old roots. In Ceylon and parts of India the first picking is in March
and there may be as many as 25 pickings in the season until October;
in China the first picking is in April, and in Japan late in April or
early May. The early pickings make the finest quality of tea, and the
very late leaves are not usually exported at all, but are used by the
peasants locally. In preparation for commerce the leaves are subjected
to various processes of drying, rolling and roasting, into which it
would not be necessary at any length to enter; the essential point to
remember is that black tea differs from green in that after a short
preliminary rolling and roasting, the leaves are exposed to the air in
a soft moist state, when they undergo fermentation with the result it
is said that a portion of the tannic acid is converted to sugar. Robert
Fortune,[1] an authority on the cultivation of the tea plant thought
that the differences of manufacture “fully account for the difference
in colour, as well as for the effect produced on some constitutions by
green tea, such as nervous irritability, sleeplessness, &c.”
When we come to look into the early origin of the practice of
tea-drinking we find that the subject is shrouded in the mists of
antiquity. There are many legendary stories of the discovery and use of
tea by the Chinese, but the only authentic and well-attested accounts
were given by two Mahommedans who travelled in India and China in the
ninth century. The original manuscript was found in the Comte de
Seignelay’s library by Eusebius Renaudot and published in 1733. There
is plain internal evidence that the manuscript was written about 1173,
for there are observations upon the extent and circumference of the
walls and towers of Damascus and other cities in subjection to the
Sultan Nuroddin, who is spoken of as living at that time. This prince
died in 1173 which fixes the date of the narrative before that time.
The account speaks of the Arab merchants having been present in China
in the years 851 and 867 respectively. On page 25 occurs the following
important passage “The Emperor also reserves to himself the revenues
which arise from the salt mines and from a certain Herb which they
drink with hot water, and of which great quantities are sold in all
the cities, to the amount of great sums. They call it _sah_ and it
is a shrub more bushy than the pomegranate tree and of a more taking
smell, but it has a kind of bitterness with it. Their way is to boil
water, which they pour upon this leaf, and this drink cures all sorts
of diseases; whatever sums are lodged in the treasury arise from the
Poll-tax, and the duties upon salt, and upon this leaf.”[2]
Tea was therefore much in vogue in China in the 9th century. From China
the knowledge was carried to Japan, and there the cultivation was
established at the beginning of the 13th century; from that time until
the 19th century China and Japan have been the only two tea producing
countries. As with all innovations Europe and particularly England was
very slow to take to the practice, for tea is hardly mentioned by any
of the writers prior to the 16th century.
One of the earliest to allude to the subject was Giovanni Botero[3] in
1596, in his treatise on the causes of the magnificence and greatness
of cities; he remarks that “they (the Chinese) have also an herb, out
of which they press a delicate juice, which serves them for drink
instead of wine, it also preserves their health and frees them from all
those ills that the immoderate use of wine doth breed unto us.”
It will be observed that in these early accounts much stress is laid on
the beneficial action of tea in preserving health and curing disease,
and this was in all probability the first use to which the shrub was
applied. Thus one of the Sloane Manuscripts, dated 1686, gives a long
list of “qualities and operations,” attributed by the Chinese to the
tea plant. It was said to purify the blood and kidneys, cure giddiness
and pains in the head, vanquish superfluous sleep and heavy dreams,
open obstructions, clear the sight, strengthen the memory, sharpen the
wits and quicken the understanding.
About the year 1657, Thomas Garway of the Exchange Alley issued a sheet
proclaiming the virtues of tea; the alleged qualities being almost
identical with those given in the Sloane Manuscript just mentioned.
This was a sort of advertisement of his place of business and he
tells us that “many noblemen, physitians, merchants, and gentlemen of
quality” sent to town for the “said leaf,” and “daily resort” to his
house in Exchange Alley to drink tea. He informs us that prior to 1657
it was only used as a “regalia in high treatments and entertainments,”
and for presents for princes and grandees.
Another early reference is from an advertisement in the “Mercurius
Politicus” for 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.”[4]
A further early reference is by Thomas Rugge[5] which may be seen in a
manuscript at the British Museum. “About this time the parliment that
was forced out the 13th day of October, 59; it was called by all sorts
of persons the Rump, because they war soe few in number; and there war
also att this time a Turkish drink to be sould, almost in every street
called Coffee, and another kind of drink called Tee, and also a drink
called Chocolate which was a very harty drink.”
It is rather difficult to reconcile this account of the prevalence of
the use of tea as a drink with that of other writers of the period.
Thus Pepys writing a year afterwards under date September 25, 1660,
says: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had
drank before.” This clearly points to the novelty of the practice in
1660 for Samuel Pepys was Secretary of the Admiralty, and a public man
of keen observation, and it is almost impossible if tea was commonly
sold as a drink at this time that he should have been unaware of the
fact. Macaulay[6] also mentions that about this time tea “had been
handed round to be stared at.” It seems therefore clear that the
herb was quite recently introduced in 1660, and it is possible that
Rugge under the name of “tee” is referring to hot infusions of other
leaves for it is well known that herbs were commonly used for making
different sorts of teas as sage tea, &c.[7]
The first official notice of tea is in the Act of Parliament (12
Carolus II., c 23), by which a duty of eightpence was charged on every
gallon of coffee, chocolate, sherbet, and tea made for sale. In 1662
Charles II. married Princess Catherine of Portugal, and the Poet Waller
has immortalised tea-drinking by a birthday ode in her honour.
The muse’s friend, tea, does our fancy aid,
Repress those vapours which the head invade,
And keeps that palace of the soul serene
Fit, on her birthday, to salute the Queen.
Two years later the King was a recipient of the then valuable gift of
2lb. 2oz. of tea from the East India Company.
In Pepys Diary under the date of June 28, 1667, we read “Home and there
find my wife making of tea; a drink which Mr. Pelling, the Potticary,
tells her is good for her cold and defluxions.” Tea, therefore, was
just coming into vogue. In 1669 the East India Company received two
canisters containing 143¹⁄₂ pounds; the price at this time was sixty
shillings a pound. The Company imported 4713 pounds in 1678, but this
amount probably glutted the market, for in the six subsequent years
the imports were quite inconsiderable. In 1697-99 the imports averaged
20,000, in 1700-08 they reached 80,000 pounds, in 1728 over a million
pounds, in 1754 four and a half million, in 1763 six million, and in
1779 nearly ten million pounds.[8] It is not necessary to follow the
imports during the whole of the 18th century, speaking generally it was
found that excessive duties led to smaller imports, and at the same
time to a large increase of smuggling and other irregularities.
Since 1800 there has been an enormous increase of consumption in the
United Kingdom, as will be seen from the following figures:--