Tea Advisor
Aspects of Tea Production
The company had been operating without proper incorporation and with unlimited liability. This meant that if the company became insolvent, the shareholders would be liable for its debts. These problems, and the discouraging news from India, were enough to frighten some shareholders, and these forfeited their shares rather than pay what was due on them. The company was finally incorporated in 1845 under a special Act of Parliament, six years after it was founded. Its seal depicted a tea bush and an elephant, surmounting the motto 'Ingenio et Labore' - 'by ingenuity and hard work.' In 1845 the company declared a dividend. Presumably this was to placate shareholders, for there was no profit to justify this largesse and the money had to be borrowed from its bank. Such was the state of the company's finances that some of the directors wanted it liquidated. However, no buyer could be found.
Drastic cost-cutting ensued. The company's steamer and sawmill were sold; the estates in the north and east were abandoned. The Calcutta board kept their nerve while London panicked, and they changed the management in Assam. The concentrated group of tea tracts left in production became better managed, the quality of tea improved, and in 1847 the tide began to turn. In 1848 the company made its first profit. By 1850 the company had cleared its debts. Some abandoned estates were brought back into production, and in 1852 the company paid a genuine dividend.
Within a decade the Assam Company had raised tea production from 10,000 lbs to 250,000 lbs. Five years later, in 1855, it was 583,000 lbs. At that date they were still the sole exporters of tea from Assam, but the situation was about to change. In the early 1850s a number of small estates were opened up to follow the example of the Assam Company. Many of them, indeed, were started by British employees of the Assam Company. They found it convenient to buy a plot adjacent to the land they were managing for the company, where they could keep a close eye on things, and perhaps 'borrow' the company's seed or labour. In 1859, a large new public company came into operation - The Jorhaut Tea Company. It absorbed several of the existing small tea gardens as a nucleus, and then expanded to become a major force. By the end of 1859, in addition to the Assam Company and the Jorehaut Tea Company, there were fifty other tea estates in Assam.
Tea | By Roy Moxham
Back To Top ‹ Previous Article | Next Article ›
