Tea Advisor
Aspects of Tea Production
[During the first half of the 19th century], the role of the East India Company had fundamentally changed, for Parliament had removed the monopoly the Company had enjoyed of trade between Britain and China. As from 22 April 1834 the China trade was opened to all. A year later the Company's Charter came up for renewal, and its position in India was transformed. It, in effect, became an agent for the British government, administering the country and collecting taxes on its behalf. It ceased to trade on its own account. Following the Indian "Mutiny" of 1857, the Company was stripped of this privilege too, and the British government took over the direct rule of British India. The Company was, of course, generously compensated - with money from the Indians.
China's trade with the West had originally been opened up by the Portuguese. A fleet of their ships had first visited Canton in 1517, and they had established "factories" (trading posts) at several places along the Chinese coast. In 1545 the Chinese attacked them. Many Portuguese were killed, and their ships destroyed. By 1549 all their factories had been closed. However, in 1557 they were allowed to re-establish themselves at Macao, a two-mile long spit of land sixty-five miles south of Canton.
A British ship first visited Canton in 1637, but it was 1699 before they managed to start regular trade and establish a factory. The Chinese allocated fifteen acres for the foreigners, and the British were crowded against the other nations' factories, including those of the Dutch, the French, the Americans, the Spanish and the Danes. To avoid any suggestion that the foreigners had any rights over the land, they were only allowed to stay for six months. Access to the rest of China was forbidden. The foreigners welcomed the enforced sojourn in Macao, for they were forbidden to bring any women, whether wives or mistresses, to Canton. Moreover, the Chinese women were forbidden to them. In Macao, the foreign men were free to keep their families, or make other liaisons, or visit the many brothels.
The Chinese, confident in their superiority, refused to have diplomatic relations with any country that refused to acknowledge inferior status. All dealing by foreign merchants were required to be conducted through a guild of Chinese merchants, the Cobong, who in turn were supervised by Chinese Imperial officials.
Tea | By Roy Moxham
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