Show tea monopoly influenced history of world tea sound like an empire shaking commodity strongly brewed it warms the trapper and cheers the sailor mildly concocted it adds pleasure to a meal yet its commerce has involved the lives and fortunes of millions of people world politics has been influenced and national destinies swayed by it says the boston bransc transcript fript its story has just been put into two large volumes of a book called all about tea by william 11 published by the tea and coffee trade journal company as a sort of encyclopedia and manual ranging from the earliest history of tea through the latest knowledge of olt ats botany and chemistry A great deal of industrial and political ro mance is to be encountered in it nowhere more so than in the chapter dealing with the introduction of tea into america the attempt to tax it and the chain of cir circumstances C um S which followed culminating in the war of independence but this is a fairly familiar story in this part of the world another dramatic chapter not as well known is caged the worlds greatest tea monopoly 11 it concerns the operations of the honorable east india company better known as john company chartered by queen elizabeth in the closing days of the year 1600 it grew to a point where it maintained a monopoly of the tea trade with china led the way for british control of india controlled the supply importation and therefore the price of tea and brought about the first english propaganda in behalf of a particular beverage it was so powerful says mr that it precipitated a dietetic revolution in england changing the british people from a nation of potential coffee drinkers to a nation of tea drinkers and all within the space of a few years it was a formidable rival of states and empires with power to t acquire territory coin money command fortresses and troops form alliances in make ake war or peace and exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction while it was first of the east india companies to be chartered it was not the first in the field fi eld nor was wa S it without com competitors competitor petito rs in the exploitation of asia the dutch were four years ahead of them though not chartered until 1602 |