I read that English ppl introduced tea to India. I've also read that the English learned about tea from India

Question

Which account is correct? No need to be upset, I just wanted to know.

Answer 1

Tea is native to China. The English acquired a taste for tea from the Chinese and introduced tea to India by cultivating it in India for their own use.

Answer 2

The English first tasted tea in India,liked it so much that they exported it to their country & the folks back home liked it even better,got addicted,so they then encouraged tea plantations in India in all appropriate climatic zones,many tea gardens were even managed & run by British gentelmen. That's the story in a nutshell.Yes i agree no need whatsoever to be upset,after all tea is now enjoyed all over the world,but the 'cuppa chai' is a totally british invention.

Answer 3

Hmmm.....Well since India is still one of the largest tea producing countries today (Assam Black, Darjeeling....) as it has been for centuries and England produces NO TEA whatsoever --- it's pretty simple!

Obviously, the Brits found tea when they came to India & claimed it as their own. Where did you read that the Brits introduced tea to India? Was that account written by a mad or drunk Britishman ??

Answer 4

The English got a taste for tea from China, not India. (India did not produce tea until 1838.)
In fact the story of tea is quite an epic.

From 1740 the British Empire, had managed to get permission for a small trading presence in China. They had a very difficult time, battling an infernally corrupt court system for the next 90 years.

They were treated as uncivilised Barbarians by China's Emperor, forbidden to learn the language and had to 'kowtow' (grovel on their knees) to everyone.

The English traders were kept on an small island called Canton, and walled in, only permitted outside for brief periods. Almost never allowed on the mainland.

By 1800, the English taste for China Tea meant 1/20th of a typical London household budget was spent on it.

A massive trade deficit opened up, between the immense British empire and China. The outflow of currency was a real threat to the economy and interest rates.

Ever more alarmed - At first the English tried to export Indian cotton to China in an attempt to reduce the trade deficit.

Indian cotton did not do the trick. China soon began producing its own cotton.

England then tried again, to export English woollen goods to China. The Chinese laughed at wearing wool for a premium when they could have silk!.

By 1773 the English desperately tried to pass on the full cost of the tea imports - especially to their English colonists in America, and consumers in other parts of the Empire, with a tarrif - raising the price of Tea, to reduce the massive deficit for this good.

This tea tax was regarded as the height of pettyness and insult, and lead to the American colony declaring its independance from the Empire!

Although American indepedance saved England money on defence costs and it could still benefit from trade, this still left the English Empire with a real disaster as tariffs where circumvented by simple smuggling. The taxes/tarrif didn't work.

They were again left needing to find a commodity that could offset the massive, massive flows of silver to China that Tea was causing the huge empire, which would be bought as eagerly as tea was and on a regular basis.

They found it. - Opium.

Opium was already widespread in China, but to address the deficit, the British started massive production of it in the Indian part of the Empire.

The Chinese junkboats were powerless against the British Navy, and the government at the time famoiusly, desperately, wrote to Queen Victoria to try to stop them expanding the market.

Although the British public and most of the subjects of the Empire were against the opium trade, a media assault under the catch all banner of 'free trade and globalisation', backed up by powerful financial interests meant it carried on.

By 1842, dispite China trying to choke the ports where the drug came in, the British military forced the Chinese goverment to cede Hongkong and establish a full trading entity to China, all British kowtowing to be banned, and a hefty amount of silver paid.

At the same time - In 1838, India sold its first shipment of tea from cultivated tea plants taken from some wild ones found in India - in Assam. Indian tea production then grew massively, and with two suppliers the price fell. Removing the trade deficit.

So there you have it - Tea helped create American Independance, led to the downfall of governments and had massive massive global political and economic consequences which we live with to this day.

Answer 5

the English learened about it from India I think