It was an industry off and running by the time George Williamson retired from Assam in 1859. Scores of private entrepreneurs had learned the best tea to plant and the right way to grow and harvest it. The Honorable East India Company had surrendered its Indian prerequisites to the Crown the year before, forcing all [...]

A tea man stood at the Pearly Gate,
his face was worn and old.
He meekly asked the man of fate
for admission to the fold.
What have you done, St. Peter asked,
to seek admission here?
I ran a tea estate on earth for many and many a year.
The gate swung open sharply as Peter
touched the bell.
Come in, he said, [...]

Alas, the Assam Company was in no position to buy, being already insolvent. Less than two years after the Honorable Company had informed the world India’s tea industry was an established success, Assam Company shares bought at twenty pounds were being hawked on the market at half a crown. [...]

. . . altogether a fairer judgement would be that the Assam company undertook all the risks of a new venture and that the experience so dearly bought by them was of great value to those who began later.
-Sir Percival Griffiths, KBE (1898 - 1992), The [...]

Occasionally even Robert Fortune enjoyed moments of serenity. His second visit to China was at the behest of the East India Company. He was to bring back seeds, plants, and experienced hands from the finest tea districts of northern China. In disguise and in and out of “tiresome difficulties” as usual, he [...]