Chapter III: 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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