The History of Tea Drinking
Tea was first imported from China through the city of Canton by British and European merchants and became particularly popular in the 17th Century with the British upper-classes. It was drunk strong without milk or sugar from small cups by the aristocracy and was such an expensive item that it was kept locked away in tea caddies. According to historian Neil MacGregor, coffee, which is a stronger and bitterer beverage, was considered a more masculine drink with a more intense effect, while tea was perceived as suitable for both men and women. Therefore tea became the more popular drink of the two.
The demand for tea increased steadily in the 18th century and it was also at this time that it became popular to drink tea with milk and sugar. In order for this to happen, milk had to be available in cities and this became possible in Britain with the invention of the steam engine and the construction of the railway system. Sugar was a product of the Caribbean, where sugar cane was grown in British controlled plantations and harvested by slave labour. As the demand for tea increased, prices fell and tea became popular with the urban working classes and rural poor. In fact, according to Neil MacGregor, tea had become so popular, that by 1900, 3kgs of tea per person per year was being consumed in Britain.
This suited the ruling and industrial classes who desired to have a working population that was sober, punctual and hardworking and therefore had an interest in popularising tea drinking as an alternative to the consumption of alcohol.
Religious leaders and temperance movements promoted hot, sweet energizing tea with milk as an alternative to alcohol and because the unsanitary water available to urban populations was boiled beforehand, it did not make you sick and tea became the drink of choice for the working classes.
Tea drinking took off in a remarkable way from the mid-nineteenth century onwards Tea houses and Tea Gardens flourished in London and other cities and later came to Dublin in the shape of places such as Bewley’s Oriental Cafes.
Opium Wars and Tea
In order to import tea and other commodities such as Chinese silk and porcelain into Britain and Ireland, China had been originally paid in silver. The British had to purchase the silver from Mexico and European nations, incurring fees in the process and thereby lowering profits.
The British needed a product they could trade for tea from China instead of silver. Opium could be cultivated and harvested by very cheap labour in India. Not only that, it was an addictive substance and therefore, there would always be a ready market for it in China. Therefore, the British fixed the prices paid for Chinese goods such as tea in opium.
The Honorable East India Company had first imported small quantities of Indian opium into China in the mid-eighteenth century and soon they held the monopoly on British trade to China. Samuel Bewley, the founder of the Bewley’s company, was one of a number of merchants who successfully lobbied the British government to end this monopoly.
British merchants would buy tea on credit in Canton then they would buy opium at auction in Calcutta and transport the opium to the Chinese coast on British merchant ships. The opium would then be smuggled inland by Chinese merchants and sold for silver and the debts would be settled.
Soon opium addiction affected all classes in China, affecting Chinese society and economy badly. The opium trade drained silver out of China. Just as the British were importing tea and promoting its consumption at home to lessen consumption of alcohol, they were exporting opium to China in huge amounts to pay for the tea trade.
The First Opium War
By the beginning of the 19th century, the Chinese banned opium and officially ended its trade for Chinese goods. However, British, European and American traders were unwilling to give up the lucrative exchange of opium for Chinese tea, silk and porcelain and continued to smuggle it to Chinese opium traffickers. The ensuing tensions led to the first Opium War between Britain and China from 1839-1842.
Thanks to the use of steam boats and new technology by the British, The First Opium War was totally one-sided and according to British accounts, resulted in light British losses for thousands of Chinese casualties. An Irish regiment of the British Army, The Royal Irish Regiment, fought in this war. The regiment and its part in the First Opium War, known to the British at the time as ‘the China War’ is commemorated by a monument at the North Transept of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. There is a separate monument which commemorates Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Tomlinson, commander of the !8th Royal Irish Regiment who died at the Battle of Chappoo on the 18th of May 1842.
This war ended with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, which greatly favoured British merchants and also ceded Hong Kong to Britain.
The Second War Opium War
The Second Opium War took place between 1856 and 1860 following the seizure by the Chinese of a British flagged ship. This time the British were joined by French force which occupied Canton in late 1857. In May 1858, British warships arrived at Tianjin and in 1860 a large Anglo-French fleet arrived at Beijing. The war ended with the Tianjin Treaties, which opened up more ports to Western trade and later that year, the import of opium into China was legalized.
The Opium Wars, which were instigated largely because of Britain’s desire for Chinese tea, resulted in the forcible opening up of China to Western trade and the world economic system but greatly reduced the power and prestige of the ruling Qing Dynasty which was overthrown by 1912. However, to the Chinese, these times are still remembered as a national humiliation and still cause great distrust of and resentment towards the West to this day.