The True Price of Tea

What is nicer to contemplate than a cup of tea?

The ritual of a brew is the first thing that I do on a working day morning.

Filling up the kettle, preparing the tea bag in the cup, lining up the milk, toying with the idea of, perhaps, a spoonful of sugar, waiting patiently for the water to boil and then pouring it and watching the infusion take place is an important preparation for the day ahead.

A simple procedure, essentially British in nature and yet what could in fact be less British?.

The logistics? Tea from India, China or Africa. Sugar from the Caribbean.

In partaking of my early morning tea I am in fact reinforcing a lot of associations, some quite violent and distasteful from days of Empire and rooted in the very history of the world.

Tea, before the 1700's was a very expensive luxury import from China, taken neat in small cups and by all accounts sour and sharp. It was a social grace only to be afforded by the wealthy and upper classes and with celebrity endorsements by the wife of Charles the Second and Queen Anne. The tea was kept locked up in a secure caddie and location with the sort of jealous obsession afforded a drug stash. Johnson, the 17th Century pundit admitted to having an addiction to the drinking of tea with the words "tea solaces midnight and welcomes morning".

The aspirational aspects of taking tea became increasingly popular in the 18th Century and the addition of milk and sugar by the wider masses transformed it from a harsh to a sweet experience. Consumption surged and supply kept pace with the consequence that prices fell within the budget of the working classes. Marketing targeted tea drinking as a respectable practice which could be enjoyed by men and women alike in contrast to coffee which was firmly a male preserve.

Tea Gardens and venues flourished and at home the likes of Wedgewood produced budget tea services in earthenware and pottery. A visitor from Scandinavia was amused to see the working classes taking to tea drinking citing the image of coal carters milling around outside tables supping a welcome brew.

By 1900 every person in the UK was drinking 3 kilos of tea a year.

The ruling classes went out of their way to encourage tea drinking amongst the populus as a means of weaning workers off port, gin and other intoxicating liquors. The mild antiseptic properties of tea were seen to be beneficial as was the preparation with boiling water to kill microbes and germs. The Temperance Movement and Methodism advocated the practice to promote a sober workforce. In all it was a means of crude but effective social control.

Slowly the British image was being transformed from a nation of rowdy, boisterous drunkards intent on the demon drink to one of sophistication in the sipping of tea.

Many workers now ate in the late evening, around 7.30pm to 8.00pm and so tea and a sandwich taken at 4pm filled that gap.

We still perpetuate this ritual to some extent and have tended to forget the true price of tea and its very violent hinterland.

Early trade with China brought not just the imported leaf but also a lot of Opium leading to the opium wars of the period. This conflict led to the development of other sources and where better than within the British Empire where climate and labour were ideally suited. Calcutta in India was soon brought on stream followed by Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, which saw an influx of Tamils from South India to work the plantations. Whole socio-economic profiles of nations were therefore re-shaped by the consumer led thirst for tea.

Actual growing, tending and harvesting was low cost in the producing nations. The added value and profits went to the traders and merchants who funded large and fast Clipper sail ships to get the goods to London. A further,darker element linked to tea was the sugar trade with slave labour in the West Indies and Southern United States. Even after the abolition of slavery by Britain in the 1830's the supply of slave sugar persisted from Cuba and other non-aligned states.

We should not forget milk either as a powerful economic and nation shaping commodity.

In the early to mid 19th century it was a fact that most cows actually lived in the cities and larger towns. This was down to the need for rapid distribution to the market prior to reliable refrigeration. The development subsequently of the railway network in Britain permitted dairy farms to spread out into the suburbs and a more natural rural environment.

So, next time you are enjoying your cuppa just give some passing thought to the part that tea has played in social and economic history not only of Britain but of the wider world. It may leave a bitter taste.