sometimes I feel like a kid in an academic candy store...
and I have no where to put this information. I get excited writing it down in class, so I've decided to share it all with you too. Its from my plants and people class - which is kind of the history of how humanity uses plants. Its history, but FUN history.
shut up, I know I'm a nerd. Now read it and tell me how smart I am.
Why did Tea win in Britian?
The British imported tea from China. In the 18th c, as much as 10% of the exchequer went to Tea, in silver. Britian didn't want to buy the tea in silver and offered cloth instead. The Emperer of China, not being retarded, said no and demanded silver instead.
So what did Britain do? They created the British East India Trading Co. (BEI). They also created the opium trade. This violated Chinese laws. It was a black market so it was completely unregulated by the government. The BEI ships would show up in Chinese harbours to sell cloth.. and opium.
1836 - 30,000 chests of opium per annum sold, 12 million Chinese addicts.
(the best part? how did they pay - in SILVER. It was full circle - all the silver is coming back to the british exchequer.)
1839 - China seizes 20,000 chests of opium and destroys. First Opium War! Wait for it - England wins. (Surprise!)
1848 - 40,000 CHESTS IMPORTED!! 6,000,000 sterling revenue (in silver) for the exchequer! The Emperer should have taken the cloth!
Then, the Brits sent Robert Fortune, a plant collecter into China to steal all their tea plants. (they really should have just taken the cloth). He came back over the mountains and made tea plantations in Sri Lanka and India.
Now they have a secure supply! They also had coffee plantations but it was an unstable market... the prices were fluctuating but not the tea prices!
1870 - Disease rips through coffee plantations in Sri Lanka... resulting in huge price increases in Coffee, mostly because there wasn't any.
1880s - Britian becomes a tea drinking nation.
So why do the Americans, a British Colony, drink Coffee and not tea?
Because the British were levying taxes (the Townsend Act). The American's revolted and when the shipment of Tea came in they dumped it all in the Boston Harbour
May 10, 1773 - The Boston Tea Party
Why the tea? Because Tea was considered to be a British Symbol.
Draw a parallel to this with Coca Cola as an American Symbol now - routinley used and downtrodden upon as a symbol of American-ism, how America is too big, too brassy too MUCH all the time.
Interesting, eh?
shut up, I know I'm a nerd. Now read it and tell me how smart I am.
Why did Tea win in Britian?
The British imported tea from China. In the 18th c, as much as 10% of the exchequer went to Tea, in silver. Britian didn't want to buy the tea in silver and offered cloth instead. The Emperer of China, not being retarded, said no and demanded silver instead.
So what did Britain do? They created the British East India Trading Co. (BEI). They also created the opium trade. This violated Chinese laws. It was a black market so it was completely unregulated by the government. The BEI ships would show up in Chinese harbours to sell cloth.. and opium.
1836 - 30,000 chests of opium per annum sold, 12 million Chinese addicts.
(the best part? how did they pay - in SILVER. It was full circle - all the silver is coming back to the british exchequer.)
1839 - China seizes 20,000 chests of opium and destroys. First Opium War! Wait for it - England wins. (Surprise!)
1848 - 40,000 CHESTS IMPORTED!! 6,000,000 sterling revenue (in silver) for the exchequer! The Emperer should have taken the cloth!
Then, the Brits sent Robert Fortune, a plant collecter into China to steal all their tea plants. (they really should have just taken the cloth). He came back over the mountains and made tea plantations in Sri Lanka and India.
Now they have a secure supply! They also had coffee plantations but it was an unstable market... the prices were fluctuating but not the tea prices!
1870 - Disease rips through coffee plantations in Sri Lanka... resulting in huge price increases in Coffee, mostly because there wasn't any.
1880s - Britian becomes a tea drinking nation.
So why do the Americans, a British Colony, drink Coffee and not tea?
Because the British were levying taxes (the Townsend Act). The American's revolted and when the shipment of Tea came in they dumped it all in the Boston Harbour
May 10, 1773 - The Boston Tea Party
Why the tea? Because Tea was considered to be a British Symbol.
Draw a parallel to this with Coca Cola as an American Symbol now - routinley used and downtrodden upon as a symbol of American-ism, how America is too big, too brassy too MUCH all the time.
Interesting, eh?