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 ot of people world politics has been influenced and national destinies swayed by it says the boston transcript its story has just been put into two large volumes of a book called all about tea by william H published by the tea and coffee trade journal compari company y as a sort of encyclopedia a and nd manual ranging from the earliest history of tea through gh the latest knowledge of its botany and chemistry A great deal of industrial and political romance is to be encountered in it nowhere more so than in the chapter dealing with the introduction of tea lea into america the attempt to tax it and the chain of circumstances 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 cabied the worlds greatest tea monopoly it concerns the operations ot of the honorable bast east india company better known as john company chartered by queen elizabeth Eliz aLeth in the clo closing sing 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 I 1 importation and therefore the price of tea and brought about the first english propaganda in behalf of a particular beverage it was so powerful p ow erful says mr that it precipitated a dietetic revolution in i n england changing the british people from a nation of potential co coffee afee drinkers to a nation of tea drinkers and all ajl within the space of a few fe W years it was a formidable rival of states and empires with power to acquire territory coin money command fortresses and troops form alliances make war or peace and exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction while it was first of the east bast india companies to be chartered it was not the first in i n the th e field nor was it without competitors in the exploitation of asia the dutch were four years ahead of them though not chartered until 1602 |