Following the Opium Wars, China was gradually “opened up” by a succession of wars in 1856, 1861, 1871, and 1894 . . . . The rivalry between merchants was almost exactly mirrored by the rivalry between the Christian sects . . . . The material treasures of China were destroyed or dispersed all over the world. The loss of this cornucopia of three millennia of civilization was matched by the destruction of the Chinese genius for craftsmanship and design. The Chinese became copiers or coolies . . . For a pot of tea, one could say, Chinese culture was very nearly destroyed.

-Henry Hobhouse, Seeds of Change: Five Plants that Transformed Mankind

To his forgotten credit, England’s Walter Savage Landor was alone among her poets in lamenting the ruin of China:

. . . But while, as now, before my eyes
The steams of thy sweet herb arise
Amid bright vestures and faces fair,
Long eyes, and closely braided hair,
And many a bridge and many a barge,
And many a child and bird as large . . .
By all the Gods! O ancient land!
I wish thee and thy laws to stand.

Alone in Asia, Japan resisted Europe, opting in 1641 for self-isolation. This is what, under different circumstances, could have happened in India or China. Japan’s history is a direct result of not being in the tea trade.

Huang-ti (Yellow Emperor) K’ang-his of the Qing dynasty decreed that a stretch of the Canton waterfront eight hundred yards long by forty yards deep was as much space as he would allow Europe’s eager traders in his realm. One gains some respect for the utter “otherness” of that realm just from analyzing His Highness’ name. He is not known to history by his personal name but by his reign title; after death he will be referred to by yet a different name, the posthumous or temple name. For 150 years it was as K’ang-his commanded and during these years from 1685 until 1834, the transactions completed on this waterfront accounted for well over one quarter of all profits accruing to the English East India Company, the IBM or General Motors of its day which, we have seen, ruled most of India also. Tea comprised 70 – 90 percent of all China’s exports.

John Company’s monopoly dealings with China, Inc. changed the world. These changes occurred not fortuitously, but in consequence of the same momentum which was inexorably creating a world economy. The resulting changes were never foreseen or intended, nor were their consequences understood. Just as opium was to alter China, tea and sugar, both “farfetched and dear bought,” changed dietary and consumption patterns in Europe. True, relations between the tea and opium trades, or between sugar and slavery, must not be thrown together and labeled historical “cause”: or “consequences” as if, in themselves, they explained anything. Long-range trends and tendencies in human affairs seem clear to us only in hindsight – yet how strange it is I still think to discover the tea plant among these major forces shaping history!

Main Image :: Image 1 :: Image 2