1. 1
1
Max Goldman
HIST 380: Historical Methods
Professor Natale Zappia
Tea Time Around the World: An Exploration of the Development of A Globalized
Consumer Culture Through the Sino American Tea Trade, 1750-1900.
Intro:
Globalization as it is understood today was not a product of the
postindustrial world. Rather, it has been occurring for centuries. Among foreign
policy experts today there seems to be a general consensus: out of all bilateral trade
relationships that the United States of America possesses with the nations of the
world, those with China seem to eclipse those with other countries. It is my purpose
then, in this paper, to argue that trade relations are not a product of events
occurring in the later half of the 20th century, but of the trade of tea between the two
countries occurring before 1900. Thus, my research answers the question of how
China under the Qing Dynasty and pre 20th century America interacted through the
latter’s demand for tea. Included in this analysis are the significant roles that other
once major world powers and their “companies”, the British East India Company
and the Dutch East India Company served as intermediaries and important
mediums for the delivery of tea to the United States, where it was at times enjoyed
and reviled. My argument therefore takes us back to the middle 18th century, where
this narrative begins.

2. 2
2
Today, many recognize “tea” as a quintessentially aromatic, relaxing drink.
Popular in many parts of the globe, this spread shows the extent at which a culture
of tea consumption has proliferated. Our narrative of the United States’ demand for
tea, and its acquisition of the commodity, will first be examined by an illustration of
the history of tea in China. Shifting then to an illustration of the mediums of the
trade ,My paper will initially examine the impact of VOC teas( Dutch East India
Company) teas and their impact on culture in Holland in the mid 18th century. I will
be analyzing and using various graphs, charts and imagery as forms of cultural
production associated with tea consumption in the Netherlands. I will then examine
the destructive role of the British East India Company’s tea in the British American
Colonies during the 1760s, right around the time of the Boston Tea Party.
Next I will explore the notion that tea, or as author Sarah Rose puts it, “ the
world’s favorite drink”, was stolen by the British East India Company of the mid
19th century and changed the course of history.1 In switching the focus between the
British East India Company in colonial America and the company’s imperialist
operations in Asia, I intend to illustrate that the stirrings of globalizations brought
on by the onset of the continuous spread of tea occurring in the mid19th century
was not brought about by entirely “ legitimate means”. As I will point out, a certain
degree of theft and intrigue were involved in the spread of the commodity.
The later parts of my paper will now focus on Sino American interactions via
tea consumption from the mid 19th century to the early twentieth. Finally, Jan
Whittaker’s Tea At the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in
1 Sarah Rose, For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink
and Changed History (New York, Viking 2010), Introduction by Sarah Rose.

3. 3
3
America will provide evidence that will allow, through the lens of American women
and social history, an examination of the rise of American tea rooms in the colonial
era through the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries, ultimately showing the
extent of U.S. China cultural interaction through examining the spread of tea via
maritime trade, which I believe brought forth the onset of a global culture of tea
consumption.2
Primary, Secondary Sources and Existing Scholarship
Dr. Robert B. Marks’ famous textbook, Origins of the Modern World illustrates
an point that is one of the driving forces behind this research. An argument he
makes is that the world as we know it today was contingent on the “Rise of the
West”- or the gradual shift in the economic balance of power in the middle 18th
century ( approximately 1750) from Asia including China and India to European
nations such as Great Britain, France and the Netherlands.3 The latter, in exploiting
their growing colonial resources, began to experience rapid economic growth. Yet,
this is but the tip of the iceberg. The growing elite classes in these nations, led
mostly by new non royal “bourgeoisie” classes, began to demand the exotic goods of
the orient. This paper will argue that the globalized world we live in today came to
be through an important but easily overlooked commodity. As hitherto stated, the
object in question here, and the medium by which my argument is framed, is the tea
trade between what was the United States of America and Qing Dynasty China.
2 This paper does not intend to argue that tea was the sole source of a global
consumer culture. However, tea, as will be restated again, is to be argued as one of
the major commodities from which a global consumer culture emerged
3Robert B. Marks, Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative. (
United States, Rowman and Littlefield, 2008)

4. 4
4
However, we must also give voice to those early modern global corporations that in
all likelihood gave Americans a taste of this soothing beverage.
Given the nature this topic, one would expect to come across ship’s
manifests, or images of tea trade vessels, or accounts of merchants. However,
research led me to come to an even more profound observation. Tea, it would seem,
appeared to have been a commodity of controversy. A news article from “New
York”, dated May 10th, 1770, demonstrates an acute dislike of the exotic beverage,
expressed by what was likely the city or colony’s (the document does not specify)
upper class male population. I speculate that he was a member of the clergy or a tea
merchant based on the use of scriptural references as well as the description of the
potentially anarchic behavior of women vis a vis tea. The newspaper article takes
the form of a poem, and begins with references to scripture:
When Adam first fell into Satan’s snare,
And forfeited his Bliss to Please the fair;
God from his Garden drove the Sinful Man
And thus the Source of Human Woes began4
The author then goes on to describe the “proper role of women”, one that is
subservient to the husband. However, in this context tea is considered an object
that riles the disobedient woman:
If they want tea, they’ll storm and rave and rant
And call their Lordly Husbands Ass and Clown;
The Jest of Fools and Sport of all the Town5
The author also alludes to the role of the “Indian weed” imported from China and its
place in a growing resentment in the colony and city of New York against the British
4 Author unknown. “Address to the Tea Drinking Women of New York”. 1770. Early
American Imprints Collection, 1650-1800.
5Author unknown. “Address to the Tea Drinking Women of New York”.

5. 5
5
Crown.6 The poem also points to the import of British tea into the colony, in all
likelihood due to substantial demand for the drink among New York’s merchant
class as well as the recently imposed “Non importation tax”:
Just now from London there is a Ship come in
Brings noble News will raise us Merchant’s fame,
The fruits of our Non Importation scheme;
…
The Parliament, dear Saint, may they be blessed,
Have great part of our Grievances redressed;
…
“ Say, there is not some Tea from China come.”
“ Why, we can’t import that Indian Weed”.7
In “ A Letter to the Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York” written by a
merchant turned farmer, the letter points to the growing tension between the
British Crown and the Dutch and British East India Companies.8 The author points
to the Pro Dutch bias of the Tea Act. “The Tea Act, passed by the British Parliament
on May 10th, 1773, granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea
sales in the American colonies”,9 and affirms the established role that tea has in
Colonial New York:
Let us enquire into the principals of those Persons, who are racking
their inventions to vilify and traduce the East India Company (which
one is not specified). Do they mean to insinuate, that the Dutch East
India Company is a jot more virtuous...Let us examine our own
situation and circumstances. Custom has established the use of Tea
among us, that it is become a necessity of life; our wives and
daughters tell us they must have it , cost what it will.10
6 Author unknown. Letter to the Tea Drinking Ladies of New York,
7 Author unknown. Letter to the Tea Drinking Ladies of New York
8 Author unknown.” A Letter to the Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York.
New York,” 1770, Early American Imprints Collection, 1650-1800.
9 “ The Tea Act: The Catalyst of the Boston Tea Party”.www.bostonteapartyship.com,
accessed May 11th, 2014.
10 Author unknown. “A Letter to the Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York”.

6. 6
6
Yet another newspaper article comes from about the time of the Boston Tea Party of
1773. This article, addressed “ To the Agents of Their High Mightiness’s , the D***
Beloved Partners In Iniquity”,11 Signed by the “High Mightinesses of The City of New
York. The letter illustrates an immediate impact on prices of tea being imported into
the colonies. This time, members of the Dutch East India Company made this angry
address. Complaining that the passage of the Tea Act unfairly favored British
merchants:
It is no less that the Parliament of Great Britain has passed that
damneable law, which allows the English East India Company to send
Tea to this country, without paying any Duty in America; 12
Another noteworthy primary source comes from the Special Collections Archive at
UCLA. Within the archive are two trade cards from 1870. Both were from “ The
Original California Trade Company”13. The backsides of the trade cards state:
Handsome presents given away to every purchase of Teas and Coffees
at the Original California Tea Company. 142 Third St. & 701 Languna
Street., S.F., G. Middlehoff, Prop’r.
The imagery on the trade cards also speak to the already mainstream nature of tea
by the 1870’s. One of the cards features a bucolic landscape in the background, with
a horse drawn carriage moving into the sunset. 14The other trade card features a
simpler illustration, with blue and red flowers on a vine. Tea, by the 1870’s, about
11 Isaac Van Pompkin. “To the Agents of Their High Mightinesses, the D**** Beloved
Partners In Iniquity”.. Early American Imprints Collection, 1650-1800.
12 Van Pompkin, “ To The Agents of Their High Mightinessess, the D**** Beloved
Partners in Iniquity”.
13 A Collection of Trade Cards from the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Trade Company.
1870. UCLA Special Collections.
14 See collection details.

7. 7
7
the time of the “gilded age” had become mainstream consumer goods.
In Eric Jay Dolin’s book, When America First Met China, Dolin asserts that
commodities from China had existed in the British American colonies since the early
17th century.15 However, the colonists had no means of trading directly with China.
Goods such as tea would have been acquired through British smugglers or
merchants who brought the product to American shores. Interestingly only one
“official” body was allowed to purchase the item from China to bring it to American
shores. That entity was the British East India Company. 16 By the early 18th century,
the Colony of New York, recently wrested from Dutch control, had possessed
various coffee and teahouses.17 Little else relevant information is given, though we
can infer that tea, along with Chinese products gradually increased in popular. In
her famous book, Unbecoming British: How Revolutionary America Became a
Postcolonial Nation, author Kariann Yokota in describing the global nature of
popular American commodities, describes its impact not only as a enjoyable
beverage that by the later 18th century was consumed by all social classes( see
primary sources above for a juxtaposition),18 but also its role as a agent of
revolution.19 A tax imposed by the British crown on tea, then, was considered
damaging to the American economy, and the drink became associated with British,
15Eric Jay Dolin, When America First Met China. (United States, W.W and Norton
Company, 2012). Introduction by Eric Jay Dolin.
16 Ibid, 5-6.
17 Ibid, 57.
18 Kariann Yokota. Unbecoming British: How Revolutionary America Became a
Postcolonial Nation.( London, Oxford University Press, 2011), 81-83.
19Ibid, 81-83.

8. 8
8
tyranny and oppression.20 Tea became representative of all that was British and
Loyalist to the Crown. However, before we continue to describe tea as an instrument
of social change, let us examine why tea became so important in the first place. This
takes us back to China, and what Michael Greenberg, in his book British Trade and
The Opening of China 1800-1842 referred to as “the Old China Trade”- “Old” referring
to the type of trade between the British East India Company and China. 21 Author
Sarah Rose puts it, “ the world’s favorite drink”, was stolen by the British East India
Company of the mid 19th century and changed the course of history. Another
historian Henry Hobhouse, in his book Seeds of Change, tells us that “tea followed
the spices as the major Eastern trade; By 1700, tea had become one of the great non
alcoholic drinks with coffee and cocoa.”22 Though his book is dated, he makes an
interesting assertion: “ The exchange of opium for tea over more than a century was
a crime which no one even today acknowledges as the man made catastrophe it
was”.23 He also suggests that the British East India “stole tea” from China, an idea I
shall elaborate on later.
So What?
This research argues the question of how China under the Qing Dynasty and
early 20th century America interacted through the latter’s demand for tea. Included
in this analysis are the significant roles that other once major world powers and
their “companies”, the British East India Company and the Dutch East India
20 Ibid, 81-83.
21 Greenberg, Michael. British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-1842. London
1951, Cambridge University Press.
22 Hobhouse, Henry. Seeds of Change. London, 1985. Oxford University Press.
23 Hobhouse, Introduction.

9. 9
9
Company served as intermediaries and important mediums for the delivery of tea to
the United States, where it was at times enjoyed and reviled. My argument therefore
takes us back to the middle 18th century, where this narrative begins.
It is necessary to give mention to one of the most significant secondary
sources driving my research. In historian David Igler’s article Diseased Goods:
Global Exchanges in the Eastern Pacific Basin, 1770-1850, the argument is put forth
that “ the Americas were international before they were national”.24 I could not
agree with this statement more, and Igler’s article focuses on and highlights the
primary unit of analysis of my paper, the Pacific world, though my paper will
incorporate and acknowledge the significance of the Atlantic World as well.
Unfortunately, this is where my argument and Igler’s disconnect. Though Igler
emphasizes the role of European trade ships and merchants as mediums for
transporting diseases25 , my paper, as alluded to earlier focuses on the tea trade
between the United States and China, and the specific mediums involved in that
particular process. However, I am able to incorporate some aspects of Igler’s theory
that the America’s were international before they were national. The primary
sources I have provided demonstrate the culmination of the processes created
through nonindustrial processes, or processes that were not the result of trade and
manufacture associated with the industrial revolution. For example, it must have
been that trade ships, faster and with greater cargo capacity than their
contemporaries, were able to haul boxes of tea leaves to ports in European
24 David Igler, “Diseased Goods: Global Exchanges in the Eastern Pacific Basin,
1770-1850”. The American Historical Review 109 ( 2005), 3
25 Ibid, 5-25.

10. 10
10
metropoles and colonies. For this seems the only logical way that the leaves would
have arrived in Britain, the Netherlands and their respective colonies. In some cases,
as implied in the letter “Letter to the Merchants of the City and Colony of New York”,
where the author- a merchant turned farmer, writes:
Let us enquire into the principals of those Persons, who are racking their
inventions to vilify and traduce the East India Company ( which one is not
specified). Do they mean to insinuate, that the Dutch East India Company is a
jot more virtuous...Let us examine our own situation and circumstances.
Custom has established the use of Tea among us, that it is become a necessity
of life; our wives and daughters tell us they must have it , cost what it will.26
It must have been that that merchant ships were able to bring the goods fast enough
With enough cargo capacity and sold at a reasonable enough price, that the demand
For tea in the British colonies prior to independence was so that upper class males
began to feel their wives’ and daughters’ demand for tea at the male head of the
house’s expense.
Today, many recognize “tea” as a quintessentially aromatic, relaxing
beverage. Popular in many parts of the globe today, this spread shows the extent at
which a culture of tea consumption has proliferated. Our narrative of the United
States’ demand for tea, and its acquisition of the commodity, will first be examined
by an illustration of the history of tea in China. According to author Solala Towler,
tea has had a long history in China. In her work, Cha Dao: The Way of Tea, Tea as a
Way of Life, the origin of tea, or as it is known in Chinese “Cha”, is shrouded in myth
and legend. One legend asserts that ancient Chinese healers believed that certain “
essences” flowing from “the Great mother Goddess” into earthly flora and
26 Author unknown, “A Letter to the Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York”.

11. 11
11
minerals.27 This “soul substance”, as it was so known, could empower human beings
with a certain “color”.28 Building off this legend, another tells of the actual invention
of the beverage. Shen Nong, or the “Divine Farmer” was said to have stumbled upon
the herbal drink whilst tasting various herbs said to have poisoned him.29 One day,
as the story goes, Shen Nong was boiling water for another herbal experiment when
some leaves from a tree close to him blew into a bowl of water. Shen Nong let these
leaves remain in the water, and took a relaxing sip of his concoction.30
Tea culture did not take off in China until the Tang Dynasty ( 618-907 CE) ,
by which time it had become associated with China’s elite scholarly class, and likely
became an inspiration for many artists and poets.31 In China, tea had been known
for centuries prior the time when Europeans first got a sip of it. It was clearly the
target of massive cultural and literary production during China’s Tang Dynasty ( a
period that witnessed a flourishing of Chinese literature, poetry and art).32 Author
Helen Saberi, a consumption historian, provides photographs of artifacts associated
with tea consumption such as Is it not surprising then, that we observe a similar
phenomena, albeit several centuries and thousands of miles away in the
Netherlands and in all likelihood, Britain as well?33. Tea- though the origins of which
are shrouded in legend, had(and from my own observations,) continues to have , a
profound role in Chinese culture and civilization. Some of the personal level effects
27Solala Towler. Cha Dao :The Way of Tea, Tea as a Way of Life. (London, Singing
Dragon, 2010), 29-31.
28Ibid, 29-31.
29 Ibid, 30-31.
30 Ibid,31.
31 Ibid, 34.
32 Helen Saberi, Tea: A Global History. (London, Reaktion, 2010 ), 8.
33 Ibid, 85-86.

12. 12
12
of tea can be observed in poetry, the arts and crafts.34 A Tang dynasty poet by the
name of Lu Tong, penned a poem to describe the nature of the beverage. As I read
this rather harmonious expose, I thought back to the earlier Colonial New York
Citizens who were angered and dismayed by the trade in the drink:
The first cup caresses my dry lips and throat,
The second shatters the walls of my lonely sadness,
The third searches the dry rivulets of my soul to find the stories
of five thousand scrolls
With the fourth the pain of past injustice vanishes through my pores
The fifth purifies my flesh and bone.
With the sixth I am in touch with the immortals.
The seventh gives such pleasure I can hardly bear.
The fresh wind blows through my wings
As I make my way to Penglai.35
By the Song Dynasty ( 960 AD- 1279), “ a period of romanticism and elegant
taste” not unlike the “ Age of European Enlightenment,”, tea began to take on its
unique, “delicate” and aromatic qualities that we are familiar with today.36 The
beverage had also gained popularity with “monks and priests” as “ the beverage
helped them stay alert during meditation.”37Tea also substituted for wine, and poets
and artists would use it as an inspiration to write poems.38 Another poem by
describes the pleasant effects of the beverage on the human psyche:
One winter night
A friend dropped in.
We drank not wine but tea.
The kettle hissed
The charcoal glowed,
34 Ibid,, 7, 32-33, 87.
35 Ibid,7.
36 Ibid, 30.
37 Ibid, 30.
38 Ibid., 31.

13. 13
13
A bright moon shone outside.
The moon itself
Was nothing special –
But ah, the plum-tree blossom!39
Though the poems of the mystical nature by Lu Feng and the unknown poet
are filled with imagery and allegory, I argue that the poet in question was perceptive
in certain areas. For example, by saying that “ the third cup of tea searches the dry
rivulets of my soul to find the stories of five thousands scrolls”- could the author
have pointed to the potentially “Enlightening quality” of the beverage? It certainly
seems that way. At least from European paintings of social gatherings of the time,
the spread of this mystical beverage from China affected the elites before being
transmitted to the middle classes.40
Towler, another consumption historian, would agree and support Saberi’s
information and would add to it further- Tea not only popular within China’s
scholarly upper class, was also a favorite among nomads on the periphery.41
Observe any parallels? If you are pondering this question, I propose another shift
back to 18th century Europe. By the mid 18th century, the British middle class began
enjoying the relaxing and aromatic qualities of the beverage. Further, to draw on the
“periphery idea”- around that same time, tea also became fashionable in the English
Colonial periphery, namely the American colonies. It even became an element to
ignite popular revolt. 42More importantly, the leaves spread to tribes on China’s
frontiers, and became a valuable trade commodity.43 The Chinese tea we are familiar
39 Ibid, 30-31.
40 Ibid. , 86, 89, 99, 100-101.
41 Solala Towler. Cha Dao,42-44.
42Helen Saberi, Tea: A Global History, 102, 114-115.
43Ibid,102, 114-115.

14. 14
14
we are familiar with today developed during the Ming Dynasty( 1368-1644), and by
the time of China’s last dynasty, the Qing, it was in demand among the peoples of
European and American nations. 44
Before we can discuss the direct impact of Chinese teas in what would
become the United States, we should consider possible mediums by which the tea
was able to get to America in the first place. One of these mediums must likely have
been through the Dutch East India Company, or VOC.45 According to author Liu
Yong, a particular chapter of her book, The Dutch East India Company’s Tea Trade
with China drew my attention. It would seem that in Holland during the middle 18th
century, there were two types of tea that could be procured. Liu’s chapter makes use
of large amounts of primary source information to illustrate the impact of tea in
Dutch society.46 For example, tea was not to be procured by members of the lower
classes, and tea from “Batavia” developed a “dusty” characteristic. 47 The author uses
graphs and tables to illustrate the figures of tea sold in the Netherlands, For
example, one such table , “ Comparison of volumes between tea sent from Canton
and sold at auction in the Dutch Republic, 1756-1790” is worthy of note, and it
highlights an intriguing patters( or lack thereof). From the mid 18th century (around
1750) onward, increasingly large quantities of tea were being sent to the
44 Solala Towler, Cha Dao, 42-44.
45 Yong Liu, The Dutch East India Company’s Tea Trade with China, 1757-1781.(
Leiden, Boston, Brill Academic, 2006), Online edition, 119.
46 Yong Liu. “The Sale of the VOC Teas in Europe” in The Dutch East India Company’s
Tea Trade with China, 1757-1781 ( Leiden, Boston, Brill Academic, 2006), Online
edition, 134-140.
47 Ibid,119-121.

15. 15
15
Netherlands, yet the numbers sold at auctions have slight fluctuations.48 Further, it
would appear that in certain years during the 1750s, 1760’s and 1770’s the
Netherlands incurred substantial trade debt with China.49 Apparently, the presence
of tea created forms of cultural production associated with tea consumption in the
Netherlands.50 Some of the cultural production was associated with signs of
teashops, which in 18th century Amsterdam, sold not only tea but coffee as well.51
One of the most prominent and obvious examples of the globalization of tea culture
is manifested in the “tea house”. The tea house, an important part of the cultural
production associated with tea that will be observed in the West, also had its origins
in Tang Dynasty China. According to Saberi:
The tradition of public tea houses in China began as early as the Tang
Dynasty ( 618-906). They were places for relaxation and leisure. Tea houses
Flourished through the centuries and became places for artistic culture,
where mainly the wealthy classes came to drink tea, socialize and perhaps
discuss politics. 52
The idea of the tea house was one that likely arrived in Britain and the Netherlands
as well as their respective colonies via the same mediums as the tea leaves-
merchants and their trading ships. An interesting artifact is a “Wooden framed
transom of a tea shop” with inscribed with the Dutch language equivalent of “Green
Tea Tree”- which was probably the name of a tea shop in the city.53 Further, author
Liu Yong provides a photograph of a famous tea shop in the city- “The Clover Leaf”.
According to the description provided of the image, said shop has been in continues
48 Ibid,128.
49 Ibid ,128.
50 Ibid,134-137.
51 Ibid, 133.
52 Helen Saberi, Tea: A Global History, 32.
53Yong Liu, The Dutch East India Company’s Tea Trade with China ,138-139.

16. 16
16
operation since 1769.54 Judging from the photograph, the shop is located in a central
part of the city, facing the street. The large windows and the visible curtains on the
top floor of the structure suggest that it would have been a place where citizens
would congregate, possibly to discuss politics and literature, much like the
teahouses thousands of miles away in China.55 In the Netherlands the tearoom
became a place potentially of social discussion and commentary.
In switching the focus to the British East India Company, its operations in
colonial America and the company’s imperialist operations in Asia, I argue that the
stirrings of globalizations brought on by the onset of the continuous spread of tea
occurring in the mid 19th century was stolen. The British East India Company, as
suggested by Saberi, began its operations at the end of the 17th century. By 1689 it
started to import tea into Britain, being the only legal entity to do so.56 The origins
of this are shrouded in stuffy back room royal household affairs, but suffice it to say,
the introduction of tea into the UK was by no means definite.57 It was contingent on
rather miniscule processes that need not be addressed here. By the early 18th
century, however, (1721 to be exact), the East India Company was granted a
monopoly on tea trade.58 By 1786, the passage of the Commutation Act- an act
which in 1785 reduced tariffs on imported goods, including tea, from 119% percent
to 12%.59 This act by Parliament likely allowed said goods to be consumed by more
54 Ibid, Liu, 142.
55 Ibid, Liu, 142. See image.
56 Helen Saberi, Tea: A Global History, 94.
57 Ibid,91-93.
58 Ibid, 94.
59 Michael Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-42, ( London,
Cambridge University, 2008) Introduction.

17. 17
17
people of differing social classes.60 As these events were taking place, It would be
safe to assume that tea not only became a favorite of the landed elites, as in Tang
and Song Dynasty China, but also among those of the middling and lower classes.
However, it is once again important to cite Greenberg’s The British Trade and the
Opening of the China Trade, 1800-1842’s section on the Old China Trade. He states: “
Tea was the only available article which could be forced into universal consumption
without competing home manufacture(as opposed to the Dutch).” He also writes
that by 1783 the expected quantity sold was over 5 million pounds. By 1785, over
15 million pounds of the product was sold in Britain, due to the “reduced duties on
tea, from over 100% to 12 ½ percent”.61 As I have pointed out in the existing
scholarship, a certain degree of theft and intrigue were involved in the spread of the
commodity. In Eric Jay Dolin’s When America met China and as supported by
evidence in Saberi, it would seem that the British, at least prior to having a
monopoly on tea and the passage of the Commutation Act, had a tendency to
smuggle the beverage.62 Further, this tendency to steal and smuggle the beverage
prior to the Commutation Act illustrates a possibly unsettling reality- that the
British Empire’s power and influence in transoceanic trade during the 18th century
was not undertaken by completely legitimate means, thus showing the extent of U.S.
China cultural interaction through examining the spread of tea via maritime trade,
which I believe brought forth the onset of a global culture of tea consumption.
60 Inference.
61Michael Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China, Introduction.
62 Eric Jay Dolin, When America First Met China. ( New York, W.W. and Norton
Company, 2012), 5-6.

18. 18
18
In describing the global nature of popular American commodities author
Kariann Yokota illustrates the impact of tea in what would become the United
States not only as a enjoyable beverage that by the later 18th century was consumed
by all social classes( see primary sources above for a juxtaposition)63 , but also its
role as a agent of revolution.64 A tax imposed by the British crown on tea, then, was
considered damaging to the American economy, and the drink became associated
with British, tyranny and oppression.65 Tea became representative of all that was
British and Loyalist to the Crown. It must have occurred then, that British and Dutch
merchants who obtained the good in China brought over tea to the American
colonies. Dolin argues that from the early 17th century, British smugglers brought
the product illegally from China.66 His book also presents significant information on
the origins of a market for the drink in what would become the United States.67
However, the colonists seemed to have no means of trading directly with China.
Goods such as tea would have been acquired through British smugglers or
merchants who brought the product to American shores.68
Even after the British East India Company’s establishment, the theft of tea
would still continue. As suggested by Sarah Rose in her book For All the Tea in China,
even by the mid 19th century, this thievery continued. 69Rose’s book recounts the
narrative of a brave and adventurous Scotsman, Robert Fortune, and his quest to
63Ibid, Yokota. 81-83.
64 Ibid, Yokota. 81-83.
65 Ibid, Yokota, 81-83.
66 Eric Jay Dolin, When America First Met China, 5-6.
67 Eric Jay Dolin, “China Dreams”, in When America First Met China. ( paperback
edition, 56-72.
68 Ibid, 60. “ China Dreams” in When America First Met China
69 Sarah Rose,For All the Tea in China, Introduction on book cover.

19. 19
19
seek out new tea cultivation grounds for the East India Company in China. Rose’s
book tells us that although the Company claimed ideal land in the “ cool and misty
foothills of the Himalayas”, the land there lacked the actual tea plants and the
company the “know how to transform land aggressively protected by the Chinese “.
The sole method of acquiring the plants was to steal them.70 In 1848, the company
would dispatch a Robert Fortune- a Scottish gardener, botanist and plant hunter to
embark on this quest. While in China, Fortune “ disguises himself in a Mandarin’s
robes and a pigtail” and “confronts pirates, a hostile climate, suspicious locals and
his own untrustworthy men” in this narrative of thievery and intrigue.71 Rose,
apparently the sole author to specifically write about the spectacle of the British
theft of tea, would support the notion that demand in Britain for the aromatic
beverage was such that merchants would risk breaking laws to get their hands on
the prized tea.72
Both India Companies, Dutch and British, would play out their roles as the
medium of transmission of tea in the British North American Colonies, what would
become the United States. Kariann Yokota suggests the transoceanic origins of
America’s material culture73, a notion that point to the “ international nature” of the
early American consumer market.74Eventually, the British and Dutch East India
Companies must have become the principal agents in trading the bundles of oriental
consumer culture to what would become the United States. In what would become
70Ibid, Introduction.
71 Ibid, Introduction.
72 Inference.
73Kariann Yokota,. Unbecoming British, 81-83.
74 Inference.

20. 20
20
the United States, tea also became a popular beverage among the gentry. By the
middle 18th century, in the colony of New York, tea had become subject of
newspaper articles, addresses to women, as well as the grievances of the merchants
of the city of New York. 75
When America achieved its independence, it seemed that the prior popularity
of tea continued. “The Old China Trade,” or as suggested by Greenberg in “ The
British Tea Trade and the Opening of the China Trade, 1800-1842 represented the
perpetuation of the tea trade into the next century. This global consumer culture
was spread by quicker and more profitable means, represented by the “Clipper
Ship”.76 Clipper ships, as I have been able to discern from diagrams in George
Campbell’s book China’s Tea Clippers, the clipper ships, with their large cargo
carrying capacity and fast maximum speed, sped up the delivery of tea and the
Chinese consumer culture.77
By the 1840’s, the city of New York had apparently become a center of
shipbuilding. The ships built, known as clipper ships, were some of the fastest sail
powered vessels of their time. George Campbell, in his book, China Tea Clippers
shows the global nature of clipper ship construction,78 and such ships were built by
both the Americans and the British East India Company. Campbell provides the only
source on visual and technical information of these magnificent vessels. 79On page
nineteen of his book, he provides us an illustration of these ships, these mediums of
75 Inference.
76 George Campbell. China Tea Clippers, (Great Britain, International Maritime
Publishing Company, 1974), 13.
77 Ibid, 13.
78 Inference.
79 Ibid, 13.

21. 21
21
delivery of tea between Qing Dynasty China and consumers in America and
Europe.80 From this diagram, we can infer that the ships were wide, and large
enough to carry many boxes of precious tealeaves while still maintain the speed to
make journeys across the expansive oceans. Despite the magnificence of these
vessels and the important contributions that they made to the global tea trade with
their speed and cargo capacities, it is important to note that there may be a darker
version of the clipper ship story. An article by Shirley Ye Sheng and Eric H. Shaw
tells how the doors to Chinese trade were “ forced” open81, and “cracked open”.82
Though describing the negative effects of Opium on “millions of Chinese”83, and the
“drain of silver” from Chinese coffers necessary to pay for the opium,84 it can be
inferred that the clipper ships described above may not have only carried tea back
to the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands and elsewhere. A global
consumption culture revolving around tea came at a great cost to China’s national
self esteem, as Sheng and Shaw note:
China’s defeat in the Opium Wars, forced its door open to trade on
terms that can only be described as exceptionally sordid and
extremely unfavorable. As a consequence, China sunk into a semi-
feudal and semi-colonial state…For the Chinese people its long sense
of superiority was shattered… The impact of the Opium Wars on the
economy, society and polity were long lasting and impacts China’s
worldview to this day.85
80 Campbell, 13.
81 Shirley Ye Sheng, Eric H. Shaw. “ The Evil Trade that Opened China to the West.
(PhD diss., Florida Atlantic University, 2007), 193-194.
82 Shirley Ye Sheng, Eric H. Shaw, “ The Evil Trade that Opened China to the West”,
194.
83 Ibid,195.
84 Ibid, 195.
85 Ibid, 197.

22. 22
22
Clearly, it seems the tea trade between China and the United States vis a vis
the British East India Company did not benefit everyone. It is important to note that
the birth of a global consumer culture based around tea cost millions of lives and a
country’s national image and confidence.
It is now the early twentieth century. The processes put in place by the
international transoceanic trade between China, Britain and the Netherlands have
been occurring for over a century. In Britain, the Netherlands and the United States,
tea has become a popular beverage among all social classes.. In America- where my
argument began- so it will end. Tea houses have become common throughout
American cities, and have become a place where women and men could gather and
discuss the events of the day- much like the scholar elites of China’s Tang dynasty
did centuries before, but this time working alongside other constructions that
helped make public spaces more attractive to women in European style cities.86
According to author Jan Whitaker, she states in her book Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn
The twentieth century witnessed profound changes in women’s role
in women’s role in American society. At the beginning of the century
American women were dressed in long, restrictive clothing and had
no vote. They could not travel freely nor go many places alone…. the
tea room did not cause all these changes, but it did play a role in
bringing women out into society and into the business world87
This statement by Jan Whitaker has major implications for this argument and paper.
86 For more information, on processes that improved the public sphere for women
in European and European type cities, see : David Harvey, Paris, Capital of
Modernity.( New York , Routledge, 2006), and Chapters 3-6. 10-12, 13-14 and 17.
Erika Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London’s West End.
( Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 3-73, 74-141, 142-222. Books
and chapters are course materials and assigned readings for HIST 362: The
European City.
87 Whitaker, Jan. Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn. 2002, Jan Whitaker. Introduction.

23. 23
23
Going back to the Letter to the Tea Drinking Ladies of New York, the global
consumer culture created by the tea trade between China and the United States, via
the mediums of the Dutch and British East India Companies( essentially early
international conglomerates) culminated in the tea rooms of gilded age in America.
88The global spread of tea over a century created not only similar consumption
habits across oceans and continents, but gave voice to women in the United States-
freeing them from their restricted role in society.89 The tea trade between the
United States and China from the mid 18th to early twentieth centuries set into the
motion the development of the globalized, relatively socially equal world we live in
today.
Ultimately, this paper does not suggest that tea was the sole commodity that
set forth the processes with which a global consumer culture arose. Tea is but one of
many such commodities, others such as sugar, silver, coffee, including African
Slaves. However, it is necessary to restate the assertion made at the beginning of
this paper:
Among foreign policy experts today there seems to be a general consensus:
out of all bilateral trade relationships that the United States of America
possesses with the nations of the world, those with China seem to eclipse
those with other countries.
That being said, the major question this paper and research intends to answer is
how Sino American relations have developed in the time period specified, while
88 Inference.
89 Inference.

24. 24
24
also- using the tea trade as a lens-examining the emergence of a global tea
consuming culture. That being said, other commodities that helped give birth to
global consumerism, such as slavery ( albeit an unfortunate tale)90, do not fit into
this argument- that American demand for Chinese tea, an important aspect of early
Sino American relations, helped to create a global consumer culture for the drink.
What many foreign policy experts today claim as one of America’s most important
bilateral relationships, Sino American relations, has been an important bilateral
connection for over a century. The American and European demand for tea, an
aromatic, relaxing beverage rooted in Chinese mythology, poetry and crafts created
a tea drinking market around the world, one that spanned the course of over a
century- one that continues to this day. However, a British, Dutch and American
demand for tea came at a cost to China’s national image and self confidence, while at
the same time allowing places that served tea to become part of an expanding, more
female friendly public sphere. So, to end this narrative of tea, trading companies,
ships and social change: The next time you, dear reader take a sip of any Chinese tea,
think of the global impact it has had, as well as the possibilities it created for
women, but at the cost of millions of lives and a nation’s pride.
90 To my knowledge, China and the United States never engaged in the African slave
trade.