Articles of Interest

This is a last chance plea for help for Pensioners

sent to the editor by Don Papworth who lives in Shillong and kindly keeps us
abreast of happenings there

Don received the note below which is self explanatory--please help if you can
from Bob Robertson P O Box 2305, Port Alfred 6170 Tel: 046-624-5768; Fax-to-email: 088-046-624-5768; Email: bobrob@border.co.za

Dear fellow SAABP Member

I need your assistance

As you probably know, the legal team representing the interests of British pensioners in Canada, Australia and South Africa, will be presenting our case for incremental increases, to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg before the end of the year. This will be our very last chance to have our case heard!

We urgently need to increase the number of Registered Members, because the list has to be presented to the court by our legal team, to prove that they are indeed representing a large number of British pensioners

Some other SAABP Members and I will be writing letters to the Editors of as many newspapers as possible, reaching out to British pensioners who have not yet registered with SAABP, requesting them urgently to do so. We shall appreciate your assistance in this matter:

1. Do you know any British pensioners in your locality who are not members of SAABP?
2. If yes, are you able to obtain their names/address details, tel/cell numbers and preferably email addresses, and arrange to have them sent to me?
3. Do you have a local newspaper and/or a freely distributed paper in your locality?
4. If so, will you please advise me name/address details etc, as well as the Editor's name if known?
October is almost ended so we do not have a lot of time to get this important work done. We need as much help as possible, as quickly as possible.I must stress, if we lose our case in Strasbourg we shall never have another opportunity to fight for our rights.
Yours sincerely
Bob Robertson

Montfort Chamney:
The Story of the Tea Leaf

Notes:
C.I.E. = Companion (of the Order) of the Indian Empire.
K.C.S.I. = Knight Commander (of the Order) of the Star of India.

Preface

This little book will arouse the interest of all who are interested in tea -- producers and consumers alike. It contains many items of information culled from a very great variety of sources, which have never before been put together, regarding the history of tea and tea drinking from the first discovery of the properties of the tea plant by the Chinese nearly 5000 years ago down to the present day. Amongst other things the author tells us how the habit of tea drinking began and spread in England, how the trade in tea (imported from China) was at first carried on by the Dutch and Portuguese, how it subsequently passed into the hands of the East India Company, and that Company when its monopoly was broken, introduced the cultivation of tea into India.

In the century which has lapsed since the pioneer tea gardens were opened, the cultivation of tea has become one of India's greatest industries, and in Assam alone gives employment to half a million labourers. At the present time owing to various causes detailed by the author, this great British Industry has fallen on evil times. As in the case of rubber it has been found impossible to obtain effective Dutch co-operation in the restriction of production, and the author holds that the best prospect of restoring its prosperity lies in putting a duty on teas of foreign growth.

In spite of the fact that Assam owes its rapid development entirely to its numerous tea gardens and that tea is also extensively cultivated in various other parts of India, and also in Ceylon, comparatively little has been written on the subject. Amongst the few who have written, moreover, so far as I am aware, only one was himself a tea planter, the late Sir James Buckingham of Amguri, who for some time represented the Province in the Indian Legislative Council.

In these circumstances we may welcome the present brochure, the author of which was for nearly 25 years a tea planter in Assam before he went to South Africa as Principal Immigration Officer and Protector of Asiatics. He was well known in Assam, not only as a tea planter, but also as a sportsman, and the owner of one of the best ponies that ever went to that part of India. He and I saw a good deal of each other in the happy days of our youth, now nearly half a century ago : and though our paths have since diverged I have never forgotten the old times, and have much pleasure in accepting his suggestion that I should write a short foreword to The Story of the Tea Leaf.

Story of the tea leaf

Knowledge in remote times regarding some of the properties of the tea plant is indicated by a few early Chinese Chroniclers, and the introduction of its leaf into Europe and first use there of the infused beverage have attracted the notice of some modern writers of repute.
In the light of these facts it may seem almost an impertinence for a retired old Civil Servant, blind and unknown, to take up such a subject anew. Nevertheless the writer, who more than once and for long periods has been brought into close contact with different aspects of the great tea industry, here ventures to outline from accumulated notes, and through the medium of a Braille writing machine, a brief summary of the strange and not uneventful history of tea.

Although the origin of the use in any form of the plant Camellia Theifera is unknown, tradition has not been idle, and according to one Chinese legend its virtues were first discovered about 2,700 years before the Christian era by the Emperor Shen Nung. But as all pre-historic knowledge relating to agriculture and medicine in China appears to have been attributed to that potentate this tradition may well be an example. The earliest authentic record is an allusion to tea found in some Chinese poems edited by Confucius about 500 B. C.

The tea plant is not indigenous to China and the seed from which it was first grown there is traditionally said to have been brought to China from Assam. Professor J. W. Gregory's recent volume "The Story of the Road" shows that silk and other oriental merchandise were regularly conveyed between India and China by road or land track established prior to the period 2600 B. C. It is certain that tea was known to the natives of Assam prior to British occupation of the province, and it is not possible to say in what period of the past that knowledge originated. In Sir Edward Gait's History of Assam this authoritative writer expressly alludes to the assistance given by natives after the formation of the first tea Company in Assam -- "plantings were made from China tea, but for some time the leaf brought in from the bushes growing wild in the forests continued to be the chief source of supply". It seems unlikely that the natives could have identified the wild plant, or been able to collect the particular leaves required for manufacturing dry tea unless already familiar with its use.

The section of the London Produce Market, 1902, dealing with the industry states -- "The origin of tea-drinking in China is obscured by a mass of legend. This in itself proves that the practice is one of great antiquity. Cha Pu was the first Chinese to write expressly about tea. It is alluded to in the writings of Confucius who lived about five hundreds years B. C. Cha Pu says that public attention was first directed to tea in the third century A. D. as a medicine only, and that it was not used as a beverage until three hundred years later."

Cultivated tea, reduced by early pruning to bush or scrub form, is otherwise identical in its properties with the wild stock, which in its forest home however attains the dimensions of a small tree. It is indigenous to several parts of India as well as the forest and hill tracts lying between Assam and Burmah. This rough allocation of wild tea is not exhaustive, but includes Kuch Behar, Rangpoor, Assam, the Barak Valley, Lushai Hills, Manipur and Burmah. In a now scarce volume "An Embassy of the East India Company of the United Provinces to the Great Tartar Cham, Emperor of China in the year 1655", which describes the commerce and customs of China, in which tea is repeatedly mentioned as a national beverage, made from the leaf of plants grown under cultivation only in China, Siam and Japan, but not found wild there.

Cha Pu's conclusion that the practice of tea-drinking began about the sixth century, finds support in the writings of another historian, who expressly states that consumption of the infusion had reached such dimensions by the end of the eight century that it was subjected to taxation. "According to the great Chinese writer Lo Yu, use of tea became so extensive that it was taxed in 793, and about 960 the duty was increased, and in that year tea was first sent as a tribute to the Emperor". The practice of tea-drinking in China in the middle of the ninth century is also known from Arab sources, and cultivation of the plant in Japan about the same period is proved by official records of that country. This initial planting appears to have been only experimental, and according to the London Produce Market it was not until the thirteenth century, when a priest named Miyoze again introduced seed from China, that cultivation on industrial lines was established in Kiushoo, the southern Island, whence it has gradually spread to the fortieth degree N. L.

In these days of swift inter-continental communication and ruthless trade rivalry, it is a curious reaction, that in earlier ages a lucrative industry should have flourished for centuries, unobserved outside the bounds of Asia, and that the second millenium after identification of tea by Confucius, should have come and gone before the product was seen in Europe. It is almost unquestionable that this first appearance did not occur before the second quarter of the seventeenth century. But on the day which marked the close of the preceding century, an event occurred in English history which, although not immediately concerned with tea, was destined to mould the future fortunes of the industry for nearly two hundred years. That event was the incorporation by Queen Elizabeth on the 31st December 1600 of the East India Company, under a charter which conferred upon a company of London merchants a monopoly of British trade of the vast regions then known as the "East Indies". Up to this time the tea trade and all pertaining to it had been strictly confined within the limits of Asia. But now a change was near at hand.

The compiler of the London Produce Market report, 1902, quotes a letter written from Japan in June 1635, by an Englishman named Wickham, as containing the first mention of tea by an European. The letter was addressed to Mr. Eaton, the representative of the East India Company at Macao, near Canton, and asked for "a pot of the best sort of chaw". But in his work "Curiosities of Literature", Mr. Isaac Disraeli tells us that a German, Dr. Olearius, described tea in 1633 as "a black water of acrid taste". Mr. Disraeli does not mention whether the Doctor's tea was served in Europe or Asia, but implies in another passage that the beverage was unknown in Russia six years later -- "A Russian Ambassador who resided in 1639 at the Court of the Mogul, declined acceptance of a large present of tea for conveyance to the Czar, as it would only encumber him with a commodity for which he had no use". The China Embassy records of 1655 definitely show that tea had reached Europe prior to that year -- "there is also the plant called Cha, which, not being able to contain itself within the bounds of China, hath insinuated itself into Europe".

The credit of introducing tea into Europe has been claimed by Portugal, Holland and England. But the discovery by Vasco de Gama in 1497 of the sea route via Cape of Good Hope to the far East, gave Portugal a notable advantage in the race for Eastern Commerce, and transformed the Tagus estuary into the shipping centre of the world. Soon Dutch and British traders came in as competitors, but 103 years had elapsed after Vasco de Gama's discovery, before the English East India Company was incorporated. There are reasonable grounds for the statement that tea first reached England from Holland, but with regard to original introduction into Europe Portugal may well have been ahead of either. The word "Tcha", used in Portugal, is the Japanese term for tea. Catherine of Braganza had a fondness for Tcha, and when this Portuguese Princess came to England in 1662, to be the Queen of Charles the Second it was she, tradition says, who initiated here the custom of afternoon tea.

The correspondence between Messrs. Wickham and Eaton, agents of the East India Company in Japan and China respectively, indicates that the Directors of "John Company", as the famous corporation was soon called, must in ordinary course of business routine have learned at an early date of the magnitude of the Asiatic tea trade. Whether they were apprehensive of a storm of protest, such as later did arise against the importation of what was then regarded by some as an oriental sedative, or simply preferred trading in commodities already in demand, cannot be explained now, although it can be shown that tea had been known in Europe for a considerable time before the Company shipped their first chest.

As proof that tea was not in use in England so late as 1641, Mr. Disraeli refers to a treatise published in that year and entitled "Small Beer", in which the author who advocates hot, in preference to cold, drinks, only alludes to tea by quoting the Jesuit Maffei's account that "They of China did for the most part drink that strange liquor of an herb called Cha, hot". "Curiosities of Literature" states that it was a matter of common opinion in the seventeenth century that tea came into England from Holland in 1666, when Lord Arlington and Lord Ossory brought over a small quantity. Mr. Disraeli also quotes Dr. Short's statement that after the first Dutch expedition to China, their ships returned there carrying great stores of dried sage which they bartered with the Chinese for tea.

With regard to the different terms applied of old to both leaf and infusion, Mr. Disraeli writes -- "The word Tcha is the Portuguese term for tea, retained to this day, which they borrowed from the Japanese, while our intercourse with the Chinese made us, no doubt, adopt their term Thee, now prevalent throughout Europe, with the exception of the Portuguese." Inconsistency in spelling of the term is notable even in the official papers of the China Embassy of 1655, where a short description of a reception banquet to the Ambassadors contains several varieties -- "At the beginning of the dinner there were several bottles of The or Tea brought to the table, whereon they drank to the Ambassadors, bidding them welcome. This drink is made of the herb, The or Cha after this manner; they infuse half a handful or the said herb in fair water, boiling it until a third part be consumed, to which they add warm milk about a fourth part, with a little salt, then drinking as hot as they can well endure." In another brief passage fresh spelling is used: -- "Their ordinary drink is hot water wherein Thea has been steeped, which (as they do all other liquors) they sip off warm. But the best of their liquors is that which they call Cia. This liquor, as they generally believe, has more virtue than the philosopher's stone."

The opportunity afforded the Embassy for opening business in tea was not availed of, and for the next eighteen years only small packages intended as presents for people of importance in England were shipped. In 1673 the first mercantile consignment of tea by the East India Company was despatched to London. It consisted of only 4713 lbs. and it is significant, seeing tea had then been in use in England for some time, that the London Produce Market should remark that it was: -- "A quantity that seemed to have lasted for several years". Indeed it would appear that the energetic Portuguese and Dutch traders completely forestalled the less active John Company in the new tea markets of Europe.

The two noblemen who have been mentioned, probably did bring over a little tea from Holland, but if the occasion was in 1666 it certainly was not the first time that tea reached England. The diary of Samuel Pepys settles that point unquestionably. Mr. Disraeli was himself sceptical respecting the date and wrote: --"This account is by no means satisfactory. I have heard of Oliver Cromwell's tea-pot in possession of a collector, and this will derange the chronology of those writers who are perpetually copying the researches of others, without confirming or correcting them." To this passage from the 1859 edition of "Curiosities of Literature" an interesting footnote is contributed by Lord Beaconsfield, Mr. Isaac Disraeli's famous son: -- "Modern collectors have gone beyond this, and exhibited Elizabethan tea-pots, which are just as likely to be true. There is no clear proof of the use of tea in England until after the middle of the seventeenth century. This antedating of curiosities is the weakness of collectors".

It has to be remembered that the savant Isaac, after 30 years of patient research, had completed his great work of six volumes, while the diary of Samuel Pepys, recorded in shorthand and cypher more than a century before, still lay neglected and undecoded in the library of Magdalen College, Cambridge. When at length its historical value had been ascertained and it was printed, a few references to tea were found. The first is dated 25th September 1660 and reads: -- "I did send for a cup of tea (a China drink) I had not drunk before".

Samuel Pepys, His Majesty's Secretary to the Admiralty, Member of Parliament, President of the Royal Society and Master of Trinity House, was exceptionally well informed in the affairs of his day, and moved in that circle of society, where the habit of tea-drinking in England began. The fact that he thought it useful to describe the beverage on his first acquaintance with it, clear indicates that tea was still a novelty in 1660. Seven years later, when home infusion of the leaf had apparently commenced, Mr. Pepys wrote with greater familiarity about it: -- "20th June, 1667. Home and there found my wife making of tea, which Mr. Pelling the Apothecary tells her is good for her cold."

A few other references to tea during this period have survived, and although dates are sometimes missing or doubtful, the substance is generally useful. One of the handbills distributed by the proprietors of a Coffee House, who has been called England's first tea-maker and was named Garway, is without date, but assigned to the early sixties of the seventeenth century. In this connection Mr. Disraeli writes: -- "Thomas Garway, in Exchange Alley, Tobacconist and Coffeeman, was the first who sold and retailed tea, recommending it for the cure of all disorders. The following shop bill is more interesting than any historical account: -- "Tea in the leaf has been sold in England for six pounds, and sometimes ten pounds the pound weight. And in respect of its former scarceness and dearness, it has been only used as a Regalia in high society and entertainments, and presents made thereof to Princes and Grandees to the year 1657. The said Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and first publicly sold the said tea, both leaf and drink. He sells tea from sixteen shillings to fifty shillings a pound. Probably tea was not in general domestic use so late as 1687." This view is supported by the London Produce Market, which says that tea became popular in England during the period commencing 1683, and was heavily taxed thereafter. The same authority states that at first tea was sold in England as an infusion only. The following advertisement appeared in No. 435 of the Mercurius Politicus: -- "The excellent and by all physicians approved, Chinese drink called by the Chinese Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee, is sold at the Sultans Head, a Coffee House in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange London." Throughout the reign of Charles the Second tea was a costly luxury, and that Monarch's first parliament included the beverage among the liquers taxed with eight pence per gallon. "It is curious to read that in 1664, the East India Company gave Charles the Second two pounds two ounces of tea, for which they had paid fifty shillings per pound. The Company did not, as already mentioned, ship tea on their own account." When William and Mary came to the throne, tea consumption had so extended, that a duty of five shillings per pound was imposed on the leaf, in addition to an ad valorem tax of five per cent.

At this time Chinese junks brought the tea to Madras and Surat, whence it was shipped to Europe. The average price of tea in England in the year 1700 was sixteen shillings per pound, without duty.

These fragmentary records of seventeenth century tea seem, although not always consistent, to indicate that the product reached the Continent of Europe during the first half of the century, and passed thence into England. It had, from many men of science and learning in Europe, a stormy reception, concerning which Mr. Disraeli wrote: -- "It is hardly credible that on first introduction of the Chinese leaf, (whose sedative fumes made it so long an universal favourite, -- or the Arabian berry, whose aromatic fragrance exhilarated its European votaries,) the use of these harmless novelties should have spread consternation among the nations of Europe, and been anathematised by the terrors and the fictions of some of the learned. Yet this seems to have happened. Petin, who wrote furiously against the introduction of antimony, spread the same alarm at the use of tea, which he called the impertinent novelty of the century." He also shows that many virulent pamphlets against use of the beverage were for various motives published, and that in a treatise on Hot Liquors, Dr. Duncan suspected the virtues attributed to tea were advanced with the object of increasing its importation. In Germany a writer named Hanneman considered tea dealers as immoral members of society, while another continental authority concluded a treatise on the subject with the remark. "As Hippocrites spared no pains to remove and root out the Athenian plague, so have I used the utmost of my endeavours to destroy the raging epidemical madness of importing tea into Europe from China".

Abuse however seems to have had little effect against the almost triumphant advance in tea consumption, which had reached considerable dimensions by the middle of the eighteenth century. Even then it was not free from misrepresentation, and Mr. Boswell in his Biography of Dr. Johnson tells how the very potential pen of the famous Doctor, countered the attack made upon tea-drinking by Mr. Hanway. Dr. Samuel Johnson described himself as a "hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals only with infusion of this fascinated plant whose kettle has hardly time to cool, who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning." Mr. Boswell, commenting on the controversy, says: -- "His defence of tea against Mr. James Hanway's virulent attack on that elegant and popular beverage shows how very well a man of genius can write upon the slightest subject, when he writes as the Italians say 'con amore.' I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of that fragrant leaf than Johnson".

An angry answer was made by Hanway to the Doctor's review of his essay on tea and Johnson, after a full and deliberate pause, returned a reply, the only instance in the whole course of his life when Boswell knew him to condescent to oppose anything that was written against him. In connection with his inordinate appetite for the beverage his Biographer relates, how one day when a hostess, after pouring his sixteenth cup, asked whether a small basin would not save him trouble, he answered roughly -- "I wonder, Madam, why all the ladies ask me such questions. It is to save yourselves the trouble, Madam, and not me". The lady, we are told, was silent and resumed her task.

The outcry during the course of the seventeenth century against importation of tea from Asia and growth in Europe of the tea-drinking habit wore itself out in the eighteenth. But in the second quarter of the nineteenth century a fresh agitation arose, directed his time against a particular class of tea and on grounds precisely specified -- the poisonous adulteration of "green" tea by the Chinese. The Indian product had not then become a factor in home markets, and that from China consisted of two distinct classes, namely black and green. The latter had been under suspicion for some time, and not without good reason.

Leaf of the tea bush, which flushes like a privet hedge after clipping, is gathered by hand about four times monthly and softened by withering. It is then rolled, under hand pressure on a table, or by machinery, until the leaf cells secreting the theine and the tannin which are the essentials of the beverage, are exhaustively pulverised, thereby allowing these properties to blend together with the green colouring matter of leaves (chlorophyl) in the rolled mass. There follows a process of fermentation, during which the colour of the leaf changes from green to a reddish copper hue, thus destroying the chlorophyl. The damp mass, now placed in machines or perforated trays, is subjected to a crisping heat which quickly transforms it into the black tea of commerce. But if instead of black, the green variety is desired, the chlorophyl is as far as possible preserved during the operations described, and then the finished product retains a pale green tint easily distinguishing it from ordinary black tea. But the black and green, manufactured thus from the same class of leaf, are equally pure and harmless.

A standard work entitled, "Nourishment and Diet in Health and Disease" includes tea among the list of beverages:- "Tea is the infusion of the leaves and leaf buds of the tea bush Thea. The cheering and mildly invigorating effect of this drink, like that of coffee, comes from caffeine (theine). The quantitative relation of this alkaloid to the tannin which is also present, determines the quality of this tea. Good tea should have neither too much caffeine nor too much tannin." Mr. Southall in his "Materia Medica" tells how specially prepared leaves of the camellia theia disclosed tanning ten per cent, boheic acid, volatile oil, aqueous extract about fifty per cent, and theine (or caffeine) two to four per cent. Analysis of teas grown in different producing countries vary considerably, but it appears that theine is generally more pronounced in black than in green tea, while percentage of tanning is highest in the latter. The amount of volatile oil, always very sparing, and of the total matter soluble in hot water, are also higher in the green variety. It is noteworthy that Vitamin is not found in any analysis of tea.

At introduction of tea into Europe, care was taken to ascertain and carry out with precision the best methods of infusing the leaf. But the art has become sadly neglected in modern England, where the beverage now seldom imparts that delicate aroma and flavour which caused its early popularity. And yet there is but little difficulty in following the routine of olden times. The water should be fresh, brought quickly to the boiling point and then poured immediately over the tea leaves -- which should be awaiting it in a well heated tea-pot. In order to obtain most, but enough, of the theine and only some one-third part of the tannin, the tea-pot should stand for five minutes only, enclosed in a tea-cosy or other warm covering. If the used leaves are then withdrawn from the tea-pot, cups of brisk wholesome tea will be served. Flavour does not depend wholly on the manner of infusion, but rather on the quality of the leaf, -- which is a real problem for the consumer, the practice of blending foreign with British grown leaf, having been carried to extremes in recent years by the wholesale distributors.

Names of some of the grades of tea auctioned in surprising quantities daily at the Mincing Lane Sale Rooms, are derived from terms, originally used very many centuries ago, in Chinese tea fields, although the significance of their meaning has long passed away. The name "Pekoe" alludes to the downy bloom associated with the bud and first, or highest, leaf on the young shoot, from which the best tea is made. The second (together with half of the third) and a tougher length of stalk received the name "Souchong", the Chinese term for "small plant". The large and coarse fourth leaf was only used in manufacture of common tea. It was called "Congoo" or "labour", and the word seems to signify the difficulty in making a palatable beverage out of coarse leaf. Modern systems of free plucking and machine manufactured teas have produced several new assortments, to which such names as "fannings", "brokens", "dust", have been applied.

It happened, however, that on account of its attractive appearance green tea became fashionable and commanded a higher price in Europe. On learning of this, the Chinese producers proceeded to make the popular colour still more striking by enriching it to almost emerald green. This was done by the inclusion of certain dangerous chemicals in the course of manufacture, regardless of the poisonous nature of some of the ingredients.

A description of this vicious form of adulteration was given in a volume published in 1853 by Henry G. Bohn of Convent Garden, entitled "China", Pictorial, Descriptive and Historical. With some account of Ava and the Burmese, Siam and Anam", by R. Fortune. The following is one of the passages dealing with this subject:- "By one of those perverse tastes which obtain amongst us, our own tea purchasers betrayed a strong predilection for a certain colour. "Foreigners", said the Chinese, "like to have their tea uniform and pretty", so they poison the herb to gratify the ridiculous tastes of Europe and America for bright green, just as many of our pickle-makers poison the pickle. They throw in a blue substance which appears to be salts of copper, and they mix with it a quantity of gypsum. They never think of drinking this tea themselves, but the more gypsum and blue they can communicate to the plant the higher becomes the value in the eyes of their best customers, and the dyeing process accordingly goes on in China to an alarming extent."

From this it seems clear that "painted tea", as it came to be called, was a development in the tea trade with China, and therefore unconnected with the original opposition by certain learned men of Europe against importation of tea from China. Green tea is seldom seen in England now.

At length the East India Company, realising the mischief of their early neglect of tea, entered into vigorous competition with their prosperous rivals from the Continent and soon secured a sound footing in the Chinese trade. Sheltered by their Charter and the high duty levied on tea in England, the Company quickly monopolised the imports there, save only a heavy illicit business in Channel tea-running, carried on by smugglers whose activity was encouraged by the extravagant prices then ruling. The fast increasing demand for the leaf greatly enhanced the prestige in China of John Company, and having captured practically the whole export trade there, the fortunes of the tea industry automatically passed into the keeping of the Company, and there remained for better for worse until in the year 1834, the Company's Charter was withdrawn, and cultivation of tea on soil owned by England was made commercially feasible.

Some of the events which marked this epoch of control in tea history, may be most easily approached by glancing first at the constitution and responsibilities of the East India Company at the time of its incorporation in 1600 and afterwards. The original members of the Company consisted of a number of London merchants, and their Charter was entitled "The Governor and Company of London Merchants trading with the East Indies", and in accordance with its terms, the Company was empowered to conduct under the auspices of the Government a monopoly of the trade of England with the East Indies. The Company prospered, and, becoming wealthy and influential, were from time to time entrusted with further powers and privileges. During the reign of Charles the Second authority was granted to make peace with, or wage war upon "Infidel Powers" and to raise and equip trained forces.

The people of this Island have been called on occasion the "mad English". Here they are seen embarking on the stupendous adventure of deputing to a body of monopolists, trading in a distant land, peopled largely by millions of highly intellectual Aryans, authority to maintain armies and make war or peace, and also investing them with almost sovereign powers of Government of all territories acquired. Doubt as to whether functions so divergent in their objective could be effectually controlled by a single authority, does not appear to have arisen at all, but Mr. James Mill in his History of India says, the Government of that country by the East India Company was too exclusively a matter of interest to India to excite much attention in England. In effect however the military campaigns of the Company were surprisingly successful, and the form of Government set up met the needs of the time, and laid the foundations of the finest Civil Service in the world. At this period the Company's commercial transactions were great and lucrative, and the additional powers were at first sparingly used. But in 1749 a large part of the Madras province was conquered, and the victory at Plassey eight years later enabled Clive to occupy a considerable portion of Bengal. Subsequent successful operations against the Sikhs and other native powers increased the already wide domain of the British in India.

It was at this point that the difficulty of undivided control reached a climax. To the dismay of the Directors in London and the Government of England, it was found, that as the acquisition of territory materially extended, the wealth and even the financial stability of the Company fell rapidly away. The Historian R. V. Harlow. in his Growth of the United States writes: -- "Formerly one of the most prosperous of all the great British Trading Corporations, the East India Company had met with serious reversals. By 1773 it was dangerously close to bankruptcy."

The difficult task of maintaining the Company's solvency fell on Lord North, Prime Minister of England, and in a troubled survey of possible sources of emergency revenue, the eye fell upon tea. It happened that the Company had been importing a quantity of the Chinese leaf far in excess of the current needs of Great Britain, and about seventeen million lbs. now lay unsold in the London warehouses. If means could be devised to dispose of this at prices then ruling, between two and three million sterling would be at hand, a great sum in those days. As England could not buy, some other purchaser must be found, and why not across the Atlantic ?

The population of the Colonies in North America had by then rapidly increased, and British merchants had marketted considerable quantities of tea in these growing settlements, established in some cases so long as two hundred years earlier. Under the Townsend Acts of the Sixties, a tax on tea of threepence per pound had been levied by the Parliament at Westminister. This was not paid direct by the consumer, but collected through the American wholesale dealers, and no precise objection was raised against the tax. Nevertheless a feeling of disquietude and even resentment was abroad, concerning what was called the "assumed" right of Parliament to tax the Colonies at all. The centre of unrest was Boston, and the moving spirit a Radical named Samuel Adams, a man of indifferent education but possessing rare gifts of leadership. He had a group of devoted followers in Massachusetts, and was now in search of some spectacular form of outbreak, calculated to rouse the other Colonies to concerted action, and settle once and for all the question of parliamentary sanctions.

Meanwhile Lord North, on the Eastern shore of the Atlantic, was too much engaged with his tea schemes to realise the menace of the storm gathering upon the west. The statesman William Pitt then in opposition, strongly disapproved of the Government's American policy, but was unable to prevent Lord North and his colleagues passing through Parliament the Tea Act of 1773, which not only gave the East India Company a monopoly of British tea exports to America, but empowered the Company to establish branch offices there and levy duty on the arrival of the product in American ports.

Adams exploited these measures as examples of fresh and more serious encroachments on the liberty of the Colonies, and when news was received during the Autumn of the same year, that a number of ships were being loaded in England with tea for Boston, he secretly assembled his followers, and had a resolution passed against allowing the tea to be landed. This was to form his "crowning outrage".

When the ships arrived towards the close of the year, no dealers appeared to pay the duty, or stevedores to unload and warehouse the cargoes. Thus a deadlock was created, but on the 16th of December parties of men, disguised as Indians, boarded the vessels and dumped the tea into the harbour waters.

"At rare intervals in human history" writes Mr. Harlow, "a certain event, in itself insignificant, has marked the climax of a great movement, and because of that it stands out as a record for all time. Such was the "Boston tea party". In some respects, especially because of its consequences, it is the most momentous single episode in American history. It was directly responsible for Lord North's policy of coercion, and that in turn precipitated the revolution". The coercive measures alluded to, only drew the colonists closer together, and England soon found herself plunged into a futile and most unpopular ware, waged thousands of miles from its base, and depending on slow sailing craft for lines of communication. The comparatively brief struggle ended after federation of the States in 1776.

One of England's most notable diplomats said not long ago, that secession of the Colonies was bound to occur sooner or later, and how he had often thought the separation came at the time that was best for England and best for America. If this be so, history may remember, not unkindly, Mr. Samuel Adams and his party at Boston, December the 16th 1773.

The fresh reverse notwithstanding, the East India Company, assisted by the Government, continued to trade as before. But its prestige was waning, and by the end of the century powerful rivals were intriguing against its monopoly. The climax was reached in 1813, when Indian trade was thrown open to any person who took out a trading licence.

This curtailment of the monopoly did not extend to China, where trading, for the most part in tea, was still carried on. Even then the business was mismanaged, and the monopoly employed mostly as a profiteering weapon. How this led to the eventual loss in 1834 of the last of the tea monopolies is told in her work "India through the ages" by Mrs. Flora Annie Steel: -- "What was the cause which led England to refuse a renewal of its Charter to the East India Company ? It was the price of tea. Before this all considerations as to whether the Company had done his duty to India or not, vanished into thin air. Tea was a question for every Englishman's breakfast table. The price of tea was high, and monopoly was therefore a bad thing for the consumer." This did not prevent the Company trading in tea, although conditions had altered, and business in the open tea market continued up to the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, where the famous Company, witness of the reigns of thirteen monarchs of England, one Regency and a Protectorate, brought its unique career of 257 years to a sudden and stormy close.

It is more than curious that the East India Company should for fully twenty years, have been aware of the existence of indigenous wild tea in Bengal, when their monopoly in India was raised in 1813, and yet failed to utilise that knowledge for growing and manufacture of tea on their own account. So far back as 1788 Sir Joseph Banks, in an official report, drew the directors' attention to the existence of indigenous tea growing wild in the Kuch Behar and Rangpore districts of Bengal, and suggested cultivation of the plant. But the directors adhered stubbornly to their Chinese sources of supply, apparently preferring the easy "exchange and barter" customs of the far East to the risk and labour of opening out tea fields. Nothing was done therefore, even by way of experiment, until long afterwards.

In 1821 however Mr. David Scott, the Company's agent in the same districts, collected some leaves of the plant or tree, and sent them to Calcutta for report. Unfortunately the Government botanist determined them wrongly, as foliage of some other plant, thus diverting attention for the time being from the discovery, but a little later Mr. Scott died and was succeeded by Mr. F. Jenkins who sent down further specimens, this time with a message that whatever name they might be called by, the leaves were in fact those of the tea plant. The Botanist now admitted his previous error, and in identifying the wild tea of Kuch Behar, confirmed the first discovery of tea in India by any European, as that made by Sir Joseph Banks in 1788.

Lord William Bentinck then Governor General of British India, was so much impressed by the potentialities thus discovered, that he sent to China for plants, labourers skilled in cultivation and manufacture of tea, as well as Chinese overseers to control the operations. Thus equipped, a start was made on the Himalayan slopes near Darjeeling, of the first Indian tea garden. The experiment did not meet with immediate success. Whether by design or mishap Lord Bentinck's Emissary was badly served in China. For such a change of environment and a journey so long, only healthy plant from the best growing localities should have been selected, but desirable qualities such as these were conspicuously wanting. Tea in China is grown on both plains and hills, and in districts of different fertility and climate. Some produce naturally healthier plant than others, and possibly the Chinese, fearing future competition in their hitherto sheltered market, gave only of their worst. Here is what Mr. H. G. Bohn printed in 1853:-

But these fresh importations from China had of course no relation to the original plantings in Assam which pre-dated the former by some fifteen years.

In Robinson's Account of Assam published 1841, the credit for discovery of the tea plant in Assam is jointly accredited to the brothers Robert and C. A. Bruce. But Sir Edward Gait's authoritative history of Assam, 1926, states precisely, that while the province was still Burmese territory, it was Mr. Robert Bruce who learned from native sources that tea was growing near the north eastern frontier. "The discovery that the tea plant grew wild in the upper part of the Brahamaputra valley, was made by Mr. Robert Bruce when he visited Garhgaon for trading purposes in 1823, and there learned of its existence from a Singpho Chief, who promised to obtain some specimens for him. In the following year these were made over."

While this intrepid pioneer was working his way from the western boundary of the great valley to its limit, hundreds of miles to the East, the relations between England and Burmah were strained almost to breaking point. If Mr. Bruce had kept a record of his journey through a difficult and unfriendly country, then harassed by semi-savage tribes and teeming with wild beasts and big game, it must have made a stirring narrative. When war with the Burmese broke out in 1824, Mr. Bruce appears to have taken refuge at Sadiya, an outpost on the extreme navigable reach of the Brahmaputra. Here a division of British gunboats soon put in an appearance, and its company of officers happened to include Captain C. A. Bruce, brother of Robert. To him were entrusted the specimens of Assam tea, and by his help they were delivered in due course to the Calcutta Botanical Gardens.

Unfortunately the specimens were examined by the Botanist who had previously described wrongly the tea leaves sent down from Kuch Behar and Rangpoor. He now determined the tea found in Assam as belonging to the same family (Camellia), but not the same species, as the plant from which tea was manufactured in China. This was the Botanist's second misguidance in relation to the indigenous tea plant of India, and when cultivation on industrial lines commenced in Assam at a later date, its consequence proved to be serious.

When Assam was ceded in 1826 to England, Lord Bentinck foresaw the possibility of inaugurating tea growing on a large scale, as soon as communications had been developed, and survey and land settlement of the country completed. In 1834 Captain Jenkins was deputed to report on the resources of Assam and he took a favourable view of tea-growing. The East India Company, having just lost the Chinese tea monopoly, at last decided on an attempt to raise their own crops. But the Botanist's ruling that the tea of India was not of the species from which dried tea had hitherto been made, had not yet been rebutted, and further supplies of plant from the poorer districts of China were procured. These inter-fertilised, degenerate shrubs were prolific in production of flower, the hybridising effects of which were soon active, and may to this day be noticed in most parts of the Brahmaputra valley.

Sir Edward Gait's History tells us that the first Government planting of this China stock was made on very porous sandy soil near the confluence of the Brahmaputra and the Kundal rivers. The locality was totally unsuitable, and the bushes which survived had to be raised and replanted on firmer soil at Jaipur, where a new garden was opened. Here fresh difficulties were met with. The imported Chinese overseers, trained under far different conditions of soil and climate, carried out every operation on garden and in factory, in precise accordance with practices prevailing in China since time immemorial, often unsuitable and sometimes harmful under the altered conditions of Assam.

The two accounts of China already quoted, have much to say on the subject of tea growing and manufacture in the Celestial Empire, and the volumes being scarce and difficult of access it may be useful to reproduce a few of the passages here. The China Embassy account of 1655 states:

The quotations which follow are taken from Mr. Bohn's publication of 1853. The first gives us a glimpse of the peasant growers of China, whose patch of land laid out with tea supports and finds employment for a family, although the leaf harvest is insufficient to maintain provision for its manufacture. The next extract also touches on Chinese rustic industry, and the part taken in tea production by Buddhist priests.

The methods employed for adulteration of green tea in China have been already alluded to, and here is a description of the manufacture of pure tea. The account however, where it is stated that the purpose of rolling the leaf is elimination of moisture and "to give the leaf the necessary twist", is not quite accurate. The twist is only a subsidiary effect, the fundamental object of the roll being the release of the theine and tannin secreted in separate cells, and thereby allow these essential properties of the beverage, to mingle freely until stabilised by the firing process.

Amongst the upper classes tea-drinking was an important function, and the habits and customs of Chinese when engaged in it, and their methods of infusing the leaf, are described in several accounts, which differ only on immaterial points:-

To this information Mr. Fortune adds:- "Let me confer a boon upon my countrymen be quoting a Chinese author's advice to a nation of tea-drinkers, how best to make tea. "Whenever the tea is to be infused for use" says Tung-po, take water from a running stream, and boil it over a lively fire". It is an old custom to use running water boiled over a lively fire, that from springs in the hills is said to be the best, and river water the next, while well water is the worst."

The long established Chinese industry of smooth unchanging routine, as described in these old chronicles, was in marked contrast with its young offspring in the wilds of Assam, where the European and native members of the garden staff were alike learners, without experience or even text book to guide their most ordinary operations. The natural result was that too much reliance was placed upon the judgement of the few imported adviser from China, where general conditions were so different. Consequently there were no misgivings when the seedlings were planted out only three feet asunder, providing fully 4800 bushes to the acre, whereas the suitable standard for Assam is less than half that allotment per acre. Tea bushes are not generally plucked until the third year after planting, and in the case of these early experiments by the East India Company, the lateral growth of the branches had by that time come into contact with the neighbouring bushes, rendering good cultivation impossible and systematic leaf-plucking difficult, while encouraging the spread of the blights and pests common to tea in Assam. That was probably one of the first indications that Chinese methods might not suit the rich soil, forcing climate and monsoon rainfall of India. Family garden farming after the Chinese custom, was out of the question, so every plantation required a factory to manufacture its own leaf. Some of the implements and appliances brought from China were found to be unsuitable but rolling by hand was successfully adopted and continued in use for several decades, until replaced by machinery. Firing of the rolled leaf was effectually secured over brisk charcoal embers, this fuel being readily yielded in quantity by the dense forests then abounding in the province. The loss in weight through withering and firing is seventy-five per cent. of the green leaf plucked, so that one pound of dry tea represents four lbs. of leaf. At the least one pound of charcoal was required to cure one pound of dry tea.

During the comparatively short period of its state ownership the young industry made but slow progress in the Himalayas as in Assam. The London Produce Market records the receipt in London during 1836 of one pound of tea manufactured in India, and of five pounds the following year. The latter was probably identical with the Assam consignment of that year, concerning which Sir Edward Gait writes: -- "In 1837 Mr. Bruce packed forty-six boxes of tea, but owing to defective packing much of it had been destroyed by damp before it reached Calcutta, and only a small portion was sent on to England". The first public sale of Indian tea took place 1838 when a lot of 458 lbs, was disposed of at an average price of nine shillings and five pence per pound.

Although the prices realised were encouraging the outlay on the plantations which produced the tea had been far beyond expectation and the future was regarded with misgivings. It is not therefore surprising that the East India Company took the first opportunity to entrust the development of the young industry to private enterprise, in place of the rigid routine of government control. In 1840 the Jaipur estates were sold to the Assam Company, floated in London with a very substantial capital, during the previous year.

The directors of the powerful corporation at once adopted a forward policy, taking up large blocks of good tea land, opening out new gardens and erecting factories in various localities. During the first decade of its long career many difficulties were encountered, especially with regard to recruitment of suitable labour and inauguration of transport facilities. But courage and perseverance prevailed and subsequent to the year 1850 success was assured. After more than ninety years of activity it stands out the premier tea-growing company of the world and in Mincing Lane when its teas are at auction, privileges are still enjoyed which do not extend to any other concern.

Experiments made by planters with indigenous seed proved the immeasurable superiority of the wild tea of Assam and the importation of Chinese seed was brought to an end. Meanwhile the Jorehaut and other companies had been formed and many private estates opened out. In 1852 the Assam company paid its first dividend and with the attention of financiers turning towards the new industry, capital commenced to flow in.

This movement of capital was not unaccompanied by some of the consequences too often associated with the development of a novel but alluring enterprise on the grand scale. The South Sea "Bubble" and "Rushes" to reported gold and diamond finds are examples and the spoils mostly go to the few. The London Produce Market recalls how the four years 1861 to 1864 were periods of enormous speculation in Assam tea, when: -- "company after company was formed to plant tea gardens. There was an eager gamble in shares with the usual result. The Assam and Jorehaut Companies, already in the field, could watch with indifference the hurried formation of new companies and extension of old ones, more often than not under the supervision of men of little or none of the knowledge and experience indispensable for success, and the crash of 1865 was confidently predicted by all those whose opinion was worth anything." But before this speculative period quite a fair number of more or less established gardens, often managed by their owners, had been planted in every suitable district of the province. One of the results was the settlement there of a considerable European population, which greatly increased as the boom in tea spread eastward. Professional men, sailors, soldiers and even pensionable Civil Servants, threw up their callings to join the new Eldorado in Assam.

Many of the small privately owned properties were absorbed by the speculative ventures and when the crash came in 1865 the land passed into possession of the banks which had been financing on security of Fee-simple title deeds. Some of the private owners however held grimly on through all the hardships of the ensuing crisis, with unshaken confidence in the future of Assam tea. In some localities these men were able to form little communities, encamped where water was plentiful, and by pooling their resources lived on the simple rations supplied by the natives, who treated them kindly although taking ponies and other garden live stock as security, banks having in such cases ceased all finance. In more isolated positions the planter lived, and sometimes died, alone in his rough hut constructed of bamboo and sun-grass, seldom meeting any of his own race. The late Mr. T. Henderson for more than fifty years manager, superintendent and director of the Salonah tea company's gardens in the Nowgong district, when riding across country one day was surprised to find a jungle clearance partly planted with tea on which a solitary figure was at work. This lone hand, a retired army officer, explained that the little garden was his property but the bank having discontinued remittances the coolies had left, and he was carrying on by himself. Save for this chance meeting the plucky old pioneer might have remained there to the end and, like many another in the same plight, gone down in harness and alone.

Putting aside bogus companies floated as a gambling medium and without serious intention of opening out suitable tea lands in Assam, there were two predomination factors in the crisis of 1865 -- ignorance of their duties and responsibilities on the part of members of hurriedly formed Boards of Directors in London, and the absence in Assam of any organisation for recruitment of suitable labour for the difficult operation of converting jungle wastes into cultivated tea gardens. The scarcity of experienced supervisors was only a contributory weakness. As it was, chaos soon ruled at home and abroad and with financing banks taking alarm liquidation of nearly all the new companies followed.

When the storm subsided and Assam had settled down to restore its shaken industry, a curious position was disclosed. Large areas, some containing good land partly planted with tea, had come into possession of various banks which had no direct use for them, and were anxious to sell. The province was still thinly populated and the Government had wisely determined to concede extensive grants of land for tea planting or any other class of industry likely to attract immigrants on a large scale from the congested districts of Bengal, of a type that would eventually settle permanently on the rich alluvial lowlands, where rice and other cereals could be raised in abundance. As the tea grants were Fee-Simple tenure and cost little beyond the necessary survey fees Banks could not compete in sales of land, and in some cases were themselves obliged to undertake the management of tea which had been previously planted. So late as the year 1889 a group of gardens on the north bank of the Brahmaputra was sold by a bank to a London syndicate, and from these was formed the present British Assam Tea Company Ltd.

The Government scheme of practically free waste land grants was not intended as a permanent measure, but it lasted long enough to place the young industry on a firm basis. Land was acquired on a large scale by the best class of investors and soon an organised system of labour recruiting brought a constant stream of suitable native immigrants into the province. Many had their families with them and after completion of indenture on the tea gardens, generally took up plots of waste lands -- often the property of their late employers and settled down permanently. Immense areas of hitherto dense jungle were cleared and put under rice cultivation by these people. A good service of cargo steamers now plied weekly on the Brahmaputra, supplemented in the early eighties by daily mail and passenger steam-boats. The Assam-Bengal Railway was a later development and like the others was an outcome of tea growing prosperity. The European population was now considerable in both the North and South of the province and the area of cultivated tea in Brahmaputra and Surma valleys, separated by the picturesque Khasia and Jaintia Mountain range, very extensive.

But these localities and the Himalayan slopes were not now the only new centres of production. It has already been shown that tea cultivation passed from China to Japan in very early times but, with the possible exception of Java, there is no indication of its growth on a commercial scale outside these countries before the second quarter of the nineteenth century. These successes of the Assam plantings becoming assured the industry quickly spread to other parts within and beyond the bounds of India, notably the Terai and Himalayan Dooars, Ceylon, Travancore and Natal. It is true the Dutch, who occupied Ceylon previous to 1795 attempted to acclimatise the plant there, but their experiments failed completely and it was not until nearly a century afterwards when the great coffee industry of the Island was destroyed by a pest, that efforts by British planters brought success. In 1879 there were ten acres of tea under cultivation in Ceylon. By the end of the century there was over one third of a million acres, and at present practically all suited land that remained available has been planted.

To follow the changes resulting from this mass production of British grown, machine manufactured, tea it is necessary to remember that up to about the middle of the past century China had practically monopolised world markets, a rich inheritance not lightly put aside. But the Chinese method of growing tea in isolated patches and manufacturing the plucked leaf under hand power only together with extravagant forms of transport to the coast, made cost of the produce very high. Still the European consumer had got used to the price and cultivated a liking for the flavour, so that Indian tea of a different appearance and flavour was at a disadvantage on its initial introduction. That it took a long time before dominating the home markets is clearly indicated by the figures of Chinese exports which continued to increase after the arrival in quantity of Indian tea, and did not reach the "peak" figure of one hundred and thirty three thousand tons until the year 1886, when the weight of the cheaper British product began to tell and in the ensuing struggle for supremacy, leaf from the Celestial Empire could not compete with its less expensive young rival from India. Before the close of the century exports from China had decreased by more than fifty per cent and now Chinese tea is not found in the catalogues of the Mincing Lane sale rooms.

The displacement of China and fast advancing consumption of tea in Europe, Asia and America provided good markets for Indian tea. But this comfortable position did not last long. Fresh capital for the new thriving industry was easily found and freely utilised. A large body of experienced planters, whose work was assisted by well-qualified scientific advisors had become available and more effective management was reflected in higher yield per acre of gardens already established. Consequently when the new plantings matured a heavier crop was thrown on the market than had been anticipated or could at the time be absorbed.

Supply was now in excess of demand but consumption was still rising and the native population of India was acquiring the tea-drinking habit. Then came the great war putting a wholesome stop to extensions in belligerent countries although neutrals continued large scale planting especially in Java and afterwards in Sumatra, and those equatorial possessions of Holland are now the most active and formidable competitors of England in the London market. After the Treaty of Versailles rich tea lands were discovered in parts of Central Africa and planting has been in progress there for several years. Now Russia is said to be a large buyer of tea seed, and if the Soviet Government can find within their vast territories suitable soil and climatic environment for the plant, a fresh factor will have been added to the already serious problem of over-production.

In addition to the great centres of production named, tea is grown on very restricted lines in several other countries, including Brazil, Jamaica, Mauritius, Rhodesia, the Fiji Islands, Straits Settlements, Burmah, Queensland, the Azores and Caucasus. In Europe most tea is consumed in England, Holland and Russia. Next to Great Britain the United States import the largest quantity. If reckoned on basis of consumption per head of population the people of Australia and New Zealand are the greatest tea drinkers in the world

Much had been hoped from the development of Indian consumption which had been spreading freely. Accurate figures are difficult to obtain but two years ago were estimated at about sixty million lbs. Since then a marked decline has set in, due possibly to the unsettled state of the country and also the fact that the present Hindoo leader of the Swaraj movement regards the use of tea with aversion. Loss in this local market entails heavier shipments to England, increasing there the dump of unsold stocks. When imports from other sources of supply are also heavy and the dump reaches abnormal proportions, prices in Mincing Lane decline, sometimes sharply, and the position of producers is jeopardised.

In the case of cereals or other annual crops the natural laws of supply and demand act quickly and control production decisively. But however immutable they require in some circumstances time to function. When supply is excessive the farmer can turn to other crops, but tea is perennial and once established will yield its leaf for half a century and there is no escape through crop rotation when prices weaken and gardens are working at a loss. The capital outlay involved in bringing a tea plantation into full bearing, settling in the labour force and equipping it with buildings and machinery now averages one hundred pounds sterling per acre in India but often more, and except in occasional instances of extremely old and worn out sections of a garden, abandonment of planted area is economically impossible.

Obviously it is necessary under such circumstances to decrease output in some way if the dump is to be worked off and remunerative prices restored. Otherwise those natural laws will certainly function and by sweeping into liquidation the old and financially weaker areas of production, ruthlessly restore the balance between Supply and Demand.

In the past before the industry had attained unwieldy proportions this danger, although never wholly absent, was minimised or averted through action agreed upon by the majority of producers. By discarding the coarser leaves of the tea bush a much lighter crop of finer quality can be harvested, some compensation for loss of weight being found in better prices realised in Mincing Lane. Again it is possible for an agreed percentage of the mature plant on every estate to be as it were "quarantined" and left unplucked for a year. But to stabilise remedies of this nature it would be necessary to find effective means of curtailing the extension of established gardens and stopping development of new areas, until figures of world consumption of tea showed material advance -- a still more thorny problem. Any scheme for crop restriction must be based on substantial combination among producers, but it is always difficult to co-ordinate, even in a single district or province, the various interests represented. Not only are the owners numerous and scattered but no garden conforms closely with its neighbours in soil, plant or productivity and often differs in age and otherwise. It is not possible to make allowance for such unevenness in a scheme of restriction which to succeed must apply to the planted areas as a whole. Individual producers and planters should not be misunderstood when objections are raised against sacrifices, the burden of which is unevenly distributed. One form of protest common to all was based on the heavier duty imposed on tea entering the Netherlands than on imports into Great Britain thereby closing Holland to Indian teas while those of Dutch origin were pouring into London and driving the higher class British produce out of the markets England alone had built up. Further, Java and Sumatra had never joined in any restriction policy and were still rapidly extending their planted areas. The plea was in short that restriction confined to British production would only make more room for their most active competitors.

Nevertheless so far as concerned India and Ceylon, the obstacles mentioned were patiently tackled and overcome, and when the low prices of season 1929 brought matters to a head, even Java and Sumatra agreed to a reasonable measure of crop reduction for 1930, India and Ceylon promising to short-pack by fifty-seven million lbs. as compared with the preceding year's output, while Java and Sumatra undertook to reduce by ten million lbs.

The results of the pact were unfortunate for its originators. While reduction was effected in Northern India by forty-two millions, Southern India five millions and Ceylon ten millions, making the agreed reduction of fifty-seven million lbs, the undertaking of the other growers was more honoured in the breach than the observance, the output of Java and Sumatra only showing one million decrease instead of ten. This disappointment notwithstanding, the British producers made an offer to maintain the reduced figures of 1930 output provided the Dutch Colonies guaranteed that crops for the season following would not exceed the total figures of 1930 -- including the nine million lbs. already manufactured in excess of stipulated weight. But the offer was rejected on the grounds that native growers in the Colonies could not be controlled. When the estimated figures of 1931 crop became available it was found that a still further increase amounting to over twelve million lbs. was forecasted.

The position thus disclosed demonstrated the futility of India and Ceylon, where more than one million and a quarter acres of cultivated tea represents, at the moderate estimate of sixty pounds per acre, more than seventy millions sterling of British capital, hoping for assistance from foreign quarters towards restoring the balance between supply and demand. When the last duty on tea imports into England was abolished British growers were producing sufficient tea of good quality for requirements of the whole Empire.

During the past decade consumption of tea in these islands averaged about eight and a half pounds per head of the entire population, but more than two centuries had gone by before this high figure was reached. In 1800 only 23 million lbs. or 1.4 lbs per head were consumed, an average which expanded to six lbs. in 1900 but did not reach eight lbs. per head until 1919, while figures for 1922 were 411 millions total and 8.8 lbs. per head. The rate of consumption at present is estimated at about nine pounds per head and as this appears to be a more or less stabilised limit, not much further relief against over-production can be anticipated in this direction unless retail prices are substantially lowered. By a revision in 1919 of import duty into England, a small preference was allowed in favour of Empire grown teas and so long as this continued the industry was able to maintain its position. But in 1929 the English market was thrown open to the world by abolition of all duty on tea. Rival producers were quick to exploit the opportunity, especially in view of the fact that Holland and Germany retained in full their tariffs of seven and eighteen pence per pound respectively. Cheaply made produce of inferior quality was dumped in fast increasing quantity for sale on the English markets. In 1930 these foreign imports reached a total of more than 85 million lbs. A collapse in auction prices ensued, followed by elimination of dividends on Empire owned companies except in the few cases where substantial cash reserves were in existence or unusually favourable conditions prevailed. But worse was yet to come. Labour wages had risen considerably in India since the close of the Great War and could only be met by fair auction prices in Mincing Lane or Calcutta. With the failure of these essentials the question of financing the gardens became acute and has so continued ever since. In cases where it has proved impossible considerable blocks of the cultivated area have been given up and lapsed into jungle. From the point of view of the consumer it is more than doubtful whether lowered wholesale prices have benefited him. Retail prices have not fallen in fair proportion while these unpopular foreign teas, which would sell badly under their own marks, pass into the blending house where identity is quickly lost sight of. Indeed the purchaser of a pound of tea to-day does not know how many countries and what growths are represented in the packet his grocer hands him.

This combination of circumstances has brought a great British industry into a most critical position and the surest relief appears to lie in the imposition of a tariff or duty on teas of foreign growth. It is true an appeal already made to the Government was countered with the free-trade axiom that food must not be taxed. But this seems a "terminological inexactitude," as tea is a beverage and has been consumed as such for more than fourteen hundred years. When first introduced into England it was as a beverage that tea was taxed. Only when its infusion passed from coffee house to the home, did duty on the leaf itself become necessary to facilitate collection of the tax. The properties of tea as already shown are not nutritious in the sense now implied and it would be a lesser fallacy to apply the term "food" to malted liquors such as beer or stout which, unlike tea, contain a vitamin and yet are taxed.

Considering the universal popularity of tea in these islands it is almost unthinkable that any government should indefinitely stand by and see this great national industry pass into alien hands, and, the wealth it represents to foreign countries.

The little narrative which closes here shows that antiquity of the use of tea is unquestionable. For many centuries it has been carried in pack saddles from China to Tibet, whose inhabitants regard it as almost a necessity of life and where, in pressed-brick form, it still sometimes passes as currency. It is amongst the very few commodities known to have survived continuous taxation for more than eleven hundred years. Tea has played its part in history, notably as one of the factors in events leading up to the American War of Independence, and in the rise and fall of the greatest mercantile corporation the world has yet seen. Before its inexorable advance wide wastes of uninhabited jungle lands have given way to cultivation and been populated by prosperous peasant labour drawn from congested areas of the East. In olden times it was one of the forms of tribute to Emperors, and was first brought to Europe only as a luxury for the enjoyment of princes and the wealthy. From its introductory cost of twenty pounds sterling for one lb weight, tea has become the most economical and popular beverage in the Kingdom. Its place in the homes of the very poor can be realised fully only by those whose own comforts are few, and the fact that it has reached them at all is in itself a striking example of the fruits of British enterprise and perseverance.

Appendix

Address to the Fellows of the Royal Empire Society by Sir Charles C. McLeod, Bart., Chairman of National Bank of India and Member of the Board of Port of London Authority, delivered at the Cannon Street Hotel E. C. on 24th of November, 1931. (Reprinted by kind permission of Sir C. C. McLeod and Proprietors of ''The Home and Colonial Mail''.)

I am speaking here to-day on behalf of the producers of tea in India, Ceylon, and East Africa, who have united for the purpose of upholding their common interests.

The need for united action is urgent. For years past we have been suffering from a peculiarly insidious form of dumping, tea grown in the Dutch East Indies is being sent here in increasing quantities and admitted free, while Holland imposes a duty of 7d per pound on tea reaching her ports. Up to the time Mr Churchill abolished the tea duty Empire tea enjoyed a small preference of two-thirds of a penny per pound, and since that small preference was taken away enhanced imports of Dutch tea have taken place, with serious results to the plantation companies of the Empire.

I should like to emphasise that all the requirements of the United Kingdom, and indeed of the Empire, can adequately be met by Empire-grown tea. In their report, issued a few months ago, the Imperial Economic Committee, an authoritative and impartial body which conducted an exhaustive inquiry into the production and marketing of tea, declared definitely that, from all the information before them, they were of opinion that the quantities, varieties, and qualities of tea produced within the Empire were such that blends to suit almost any taste and almost any purse could be maintained from Empire teas alone. They further stated that the Empire product was for the most part a superior article, and at its best the finest in the world. The bulk of the Java and Sumatra teas, they said, were of a low grade, useful mainly as a cheapener or makeweight, and it was significant that they were never retailed by name in the United Kingdom.

Yet, although this country stands easily first in the ranks of tea consumers, there is a remarkable ignorance in the public mind in regard to the origin of the tea drunk here and of the contents of the blends which are placed on the market. It is a common experience, as you know, to be asked, in hotels and teashops whether you will take "Indian or China". There is the amusing story of the two ladies who, going into a teashop, ordered "One pot of Indian tea and one of China, please." The waitress, in her turn, called down to the kitchen: "Two teas -- one weak." and it may well be imagined that the lady concerned, like any other people in similar circumstances, was satisfied that the weak beverage supplied to her was made from genuine China leaf.

The consumption of China tea in this country has been decreasing, and is now small. On the other hand, shipments from Java and Sumatra to the United Kingdom are causing a glut in the market, and this dumping has been especially marked during the past two or three years. A glance at the position in 1921 and 1930 respectively reveals a disquieting state of affairs. In the first-named year the retained imports of tea in the United Kingdom amounted to 412.8 million pounds, of which 380.2 million pounds, equivalent to over 92 per cent, were produced within the Empire. By 1930 the total had risen to 453 million pounds, but the Empire's share had fallen to 367.3 million pounds, or 85.7 per cent.

Now it is no light matter that an Empire Industry should be affected in this way. And as the Imperial Economic committee pointed out, Dutch-grown tea is never sold as such, but is introduced into blends, so that the general public, while consuming it, have never heard of its existence.

I do not wish to weary you with quotations, but there are two here which I fell impelled to read in order to illustrate what the Empire tea industry means. In their report the Imperial Economic Committee wrote: --

Again we have in the report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India, presided over by the Marquis of Linlithgow, striking testimony to what the tea industry has done for that country. The Commission reported in 1928, and in dealing with the plantations wrote as follows: --

The Commissioners concluded with the declaration that "the benefit which India owed to the planting community had not been adequately realised by the general public".

This great industry as I have indicated, has been, and is, suffering heavy losses which are mainly traceable to the dumping of Dutch-grown tea in the United Kingdom. For many months past Empire tea has been selling at the Mincing Lane auctions at prices which do not nearly cover the bare cost of production, and as a result, the position of many tea companies in India and Ceylon is very serious indeed. In a large number of cases the European staffs on the gardens have had to be materially reduced; in others, the European employees have of necessity suffered substantial reductions of their remuneration. The number of Europeans engaged in the industry in India and Ceylon in normal times may be estimated at upwards of 5,000, and where reductions have been necessary, we have the tragic picture or men who have made tea cultivation and manufacture their life's work being thrown out of employment and returning home to swell the ranks of the unemployed here.

As regards native labour, the total number of persons engaged in tea production in India is in round figures 932,500, and it is estimated that an additional 592,000 are at work in the Ceylon gardens. The slump in tea has meant serious loss to these labourers; in fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the bulk of those employed in Cachar and Sylhet, numbering 180,000 are in danger of losing their employment altogether, while all of them have had to submit to a reduction in their earnings. Significant information on this phase of the problem is forthcoming from the Government of Assam, who in March last sent a communication to the Government of India urging that the Secretary of State should be asked to agree to the granting of preferential duty to Empire tea. They stated that the position of the tea industry, on which Assam was largely dependent, was undoubtedly grave, and that a letter which they had received from the Indian Tea Association on the subject gave no exaggerated description of the position and its future possibilities. At present the cessation by a number of gardens of employing ex-tea garden labourers who had taken up land near the tea estates had contributed to a marked decrease in the land revenue of the Province. The condition of those labourers who had no land or capital to start reclamation, but who might have to be discharged from tea gardens would be a very formidable problem for the Assam Government. Pending a definite improvement in the price of tea the Government were faced with an inevitable reduction of revenue and the postponement of all schemes of improvement suggested by the Royal Commission on Labour in India.

At a conference with the representatives of the tea industry, Sir Laurie Hammond, the Governor of the Province, referring to the refusal of the Labour Ministry to agree to the request for a preferential duty for Empire tea, stated that with the change of Government at home they had again advanced this request, and he went on to say that preference would benefit not merely the tea industry, but the Province as a whole, as well as that population who came from other provinces in search of work, which, as the Royal Commission saw, provided them with a livelihood and a rise in the standard of living far superior to that obtainable in their own districts.

In addition to the loss of employment and the reduction of pay in the countries of production, we have the absence of dividends, which affects thousands of shareholders here, and involves a decrease in the receipts of the British Exchequer in the shape of income tax. Again, at a time when unemployment is inflicting serious hardships on the working classes in this country, and is draining the public funds, there is a falling off in the orders given to manufacturing firms here which supply the gardens with machinery, agricultural tools and other requisites.

The case for taxing foreign-grown tea is so strong that no arguments worthy of the name can be adduced against it. The suggestion was, however, advanced a month or two ago that if this course were adopted the investors British capital in tea in Java and Sumatra would inevitably suffer. Now the amount of this capital is between � 4 million and � 5 million, and what is that in comparison with the � 76 million of British capital invested in the tea industry in India and Ceylon ? Besides how can those who are producing tea with foreign labour in the overseas possessions of a country which levies a heavy duty on imported tea expect the same treatment as the investors whose money is utilised in growing tea within the Empire and is giving employment to British subjects in India and Ceylon as well as to large numbers of workmen in the Mother Country ?

Another criticism recently put forward relates to the question of over-production. When this matter is examined the effect of the dumping of Dutch-grown tea becomes more prominent. The increase in the crop of India since 1910 has amounted to 65 per cent., and in Ceylon to 39 per cent. But Java and Sumatra have in the meantime increased their output by 400 per cent. and in 1930 the retained imports of foreign tea in the United Kingdom amounted to 85.7 million pounds, as compared with 32.6 million pounds in 1931. An agreement was arrived at between the producing companies for a restriction of output in 1930, under which India and Ceylon undertook to reduce their crops by 47 3/4 million pounds and Java and Sumatra by 10 million pounds. In actual fact, the Empire crops were reduced by 57 1/2 million pounds, while those of Java and Sumatra declined by only one million pounds, so the less the champions of these islands say about over-production the better.

Empire tea, as I have said, is sold in Mincing Lane to-day at prices, which do not cover the costs of production, and yet when a small recovery recently took place a statement was made to the effect that the rise was unjustified and undesirable, especially as the Government were particularly anxious to prevent a rice in the prices of food. I venture to assert that no British Government worthy of the name could wish to see a great Empire industry ruined by foreign dumping. British agriculture is in a parlous condition largely owing to the same cause, and all parties in this country rightly profess themselves anxious to place that industry on a profitable basis. The analogy in the case of tea is indeed a perfect one.

There is no question that if the present condition of affairs should continue extensive areas now under tea must inevitably go out of cultivation, and consumers would find that a period of abnormally low prices would cost them dear in the long run. It should be emphasised that the producers have no control over the prices of tea, wholesale or retail. The bulk of the crops are sold by public auction, and the price is regulated by the distributors who constitute the buyers. The growers, therefore, could not indulge in the evil practice of profiteering, even if they desired to do so, which is far from being the case.

It has been said with truth that with the exception of water tea is the cheapest drink in the world. Actual experiments have shown that a pound of good medium Empire tea will yield 280 ordinary tea-cups full of a refreshing beverage, or 140 breakfast-cups holding half a pint each. So that seventy pints of tea can be obtained from a pound of leaf selling retail at, say, 1s. 8d. a pound, and there is therefore no substance in the argument that a small advance in price would inflict hardship even on the poorer classes. Here is the reply to the objection sometimes urged against the taxing of foreign tea. We can imagine the beatific smile that would light up the honest countenance of the British workman if he suddenly found that a penny would buy him three and a half pints of his favourite beer.

In a speech in the House of Commons on the revised Budget proposals in September of this year, Mr. Churchill contended that the tea duty which he removed should be re-imposed, and that it would have yielded the Exchequer �6,000,000 without raising the price of tea above what it was in 1928. So far as Empire producers are concerned, we are ready to agree to the imposition of a duty, provided substantial preference is given to Empire tea. That preference I have shown is urgently needed, and it is impossible to imagine that it will not be forthcoming from the National Government.

You may perhaps recall that the Empire tea-producing countries applied for a Marking order under the Merchandise Marks Act, so as to enable the purchaser to exercise an option in favour of Empire tea. That application was not successful, but the Empire producers have now launched a campaign in this country which, if properly supported, will be of great benefit not only to India, Ceylon, and East Africa, but to Britain as well. Most of the great distributing houses have patriotically joined in the movement, and have placed on the market packets distinctly labelled "Empire Grown Tea". The grocery trade are also participating most loyally, and through their various organisations have undertaken to do everything in their power to make the campaign a success. It is now for the consumers to play their part and to respond whole-heartedly to the eloquent appeals to "Buy Empire Goods", which have been forthcoming from our leading statesmen and other personages of eminence.

This text has been turned into html by Kai Birger Nielsen. It is present on this webpage with permission of Stuart Chamney being sought (chamhams@netcom.ca), Toronto, Canada.

The brother of Robert Bruce, described here as C. A. Bruce, is his younger brother Charles Alexander Bruce (1793-1871).

The Williamson Magor story began in 1868 when two young and
enterprising Englishmen, James Hay Williamson and Richard
Manuel Blamey Magor, got together at the Great Eastern Hotel
In Calcutta and signed a partnership deed in April 1869. Over the
following few decades, while remaining almost exclusively in the
hands of the Williamson and Magor families, the company
consolidated its position, expanding through mergers. Running
the tea estates was left to the visiting agent, and the partners
generally came to India only in winter, for a couple of months,
for a leisurely trip around Assam.

A period of consolidation of Williamson Magor's position in the
tea world began with the recruitment of young blood: O. J. Roy
and Patrick Hay Williamson. O.J. Roy was the son of James E.
Roy of Duncan Macneill who had been on friendly terms with
Stephen Anderson for many years. Patrick Hay Williamson was
the son of R.L. Williamson and consequently, the grandson of
James Hay Williamson, one of the founders of Williamson Magor.

Patrick Hay Williamson was widely known as Pat Williamson, and
his stylish and lavish lifestyle earned him the sobriquet 'the last of
|the nabobs'. His business acumen was worthy of emulation. Pat
Williamson played a memorable role in helping the Assamese
tea estates during the Chinese invasion. On the business side,
his greatest achievement was the smooth transition of the British
partnership of Williamson Magor into the Indian company of
Williamson Magor & Co. Ltd.

Independence in 1947 ushered in dramatic changes in the tea
industry. Industrial giants moved into the large tea estates vacated
by their European owners. These Indian entrepreneurs improved
the quality and distribution networks by introducing technological
changes. More importantly, the managing agency system that
had been in vogue during the time of the British, gradually began
to come apart in the late fifties and early sixties and was finally
abolished in 1968.

It was a time when fortunes were being made and lost. 'There is a
tide in the affairs of men,' Shakespeare pointed out of Julius Caesar, '
which if taken at the flood leads to fortune.' One man who was able
to ride the wave of success and fortune was B.M. Khaitan and from
the sixties the story of Williamson Magor is inextricably linked with him.

Britishers, who fondly referred to B.M. Khaitan as 'Birju', realized his
business acumen in 1954 when he helped Williamson Magor at a
critical juncture. Bishnauth Tea Co., Williamson Magor's flagship
company, faced the threat of falling into the hands of Balmukund
Bajoria who had accumulated a threatening 25 per cent of its
shares, one per cent short of a controlling stake. To buy out
Balmukund Bajoria required a lot of money which was available
neither in London nor in Calcutta. Had Bishnauth been lost,
it would have sent the signal that Williamson Magor was not
strong enough to protect its company. Birju salvaged the situation,
his family providing the money required to be paid to Bajoria.

Birju frequently proved to be the savior of the firm and Pat
Williamson was instrumental in appointing him managing
director on 18 January 1964. After Pat Williamson died in
1965, B.M. Khaitan became the chairman of Williamson
Magor in 1966 and with it earned the affectionate appellation
B.M. The event made news not just as another takeover of
an industrial institution of Anglo-India, but also because of the
deep underlying friendship and mutual regard shared by two
individuals drawn from such completely disparate societies.

BM virtually turned the company around single-handed and
soon established a reputation for total integrity and reliability.
The managerial staff of the 'British' company were soon to
find that their terms of employment and pay packets were
|improved considerably under the Indian chairman, a trend
that has continued to this day. In the coming years, some of
the most prestigious British tea companies would seek out
BM as a partner or as the preferred choice for sale of their
tea estates.

The Khaitans trace their lineage to a distinguished family,
originally from Rajasthan. BM, the family patriarch, took over
the reins of the company and firmly steered it to impressive
growth in partnership with the Magor family based in the UK,
During the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Assam Valley
School, R.B. Magor remarked that it was unusual for an English
family to still be in business in India after so many years and
that this had only been possible because of his happy association
with his friend Birju.

From behind the scenes, his wife Shanti, the consummate
homemaker who always helps others, evidently played a major
part in the eventual success of the Khaitans' association with the
Magors. They have three children: Deepak (1955), married to
Yashodhara Goenka; Divya (1966), married to Sandeep Jalan;
and Aditya (1968), married to Kavita Ruia. Today, members
of the Khaitan family are at the helm of the group.

Notwithstanding the growing menace of Naxalism in West Bengal,
in December 1968 the management decided to celebrate
Williamson Magor's centenary in style, believing it would cheer
up everyone and indeed it did. Williamson Magor invited all the
planters in Assam, a number of overseas guests and retired
planters with their wives and for four days the entire Williamson
Magor family celebrated with gusto, attending parties, cocktails
and dinners, along with boat cruises, taking pride in what they had
created. The centenary also marked the official opening of Four
Mangoe Lane, the group's current headquarters. Incidentally,
to this day no one knows how the 'e' attached itself to 'Mango'!

Earlier, on 24 January 1966, while laying the foundation stone
of the building, R.B. Magor had said, "It has been a privilege to
work with our new burra sahib and friend Birju Khaitan and
although he has only recently ascended to the gaddi of Williamson
Magor & Co. Ltd, all of us who have worked with him realize how
singularly lucky and fortunate we are that, after Pat Williamson's
untimely death, we have such a worthy chief. He is very well
suited to carry on the firm's traditions and to expand our interests
in the years to come and thus ensure our employees' future prosperity.'

Magor's words proved to be prophetic. In the momentous years
following the centenary, the group has moved from strength to
strength, building upon its traditions and corporate culture and
striving for the prosperity of its employees and shareholders
and the larger community enfolding the tea industry.

Over the years the Williamson Magor group has built up an enviable
track record of negotiated mergers, acquisitions and takeovers.
BM says, 'The expansion of our entire business has been from the
sixties, as one merger followed another in quick succession,
including the merger of all the tea companies. We didn't enter
much into Greenfield areas except in one or two cases for, during
the eighties, mergers were the only way of expanding rapidly
because putting up a greenfield project takes not less than
seven years.' The merger of Macneill & Barry took place in
January 1975 to form Macneill & Magor Ltd and wen many
other tea companies merged with it, the company's name was
changed to Williamson Magor & Co. ltd on 12 May 1992.

In 1985, Williamson Magor acquired India Foils Ltd with which it
had a close relationship as the latter made the aluminium lining
for its tea chests from Alcan, and later sold it to Sterlite industries
owned by the Agarwalas. The next major step was to buy the
tea companies within the McLeod Russel group with the help
of the Gutheries, a prominent tea family in the UK. The McLeod
Russel acquisition made Williamson Magor the world's largest
private tea producer. However, it was the 1994 acquisition of
51.3 per cent holding of Union Carbide India Ltd, now known
as Eveready Industries (India) Ltd, that catapulted the group
into the big league and on to the media center stage. The
group dedicated this deal 'To Calcutta with love'.

Williamson Magor celebrated its 125th anniversary in February
1994, organizing a grand function. Befitting its culture, the
celebration was a great occasion to cheer up everyone with golf,
races, chances and cocktails in an elegant environment. Lunch
was organized at the Calcutta Club for two thousand people.
It was not just a group function but was attended by leading
personalities from Calcutta. The chief minister of West Bengal
and Assam were also present and blessed the group's prosperity
and its inclination to develop their states.

Under the visionary leadership of the Khaitans, the Williamson
Magor group has today grown into a large conglomerate. Its track
record is marked by a spirit of dynamism, discipline, hard work
and a tenacious and relentless commitment to excellence. With
its policy of progressive diversification, it has been pushing back
the frontiers in tea, batteries and information technology. However,
notwithstanding the diversification, tea continues to be the group's
central concern. Although the group recently disposed of a few of
its tea estates in line with its ongoing road map for restructuring,
it still owns 29 tea gardens in Assam and the Dooars and produces
nearly 35-8 m. kg of tea per year.

The boards of Eveready Industries (India) Ltd and Bishnauth Tea
Co. Ltd have also agreed to the proposed merger of the two
companies. In their opinion, this will consolidate and strengthen
the entire tea operations of the two companies under one umbrella
and enable the company to expand into the value added packet
tea segment where Eveready Industries (India) Ltd has already
carved out a niche for itself. The group has emerged as one of the
largest producers of tea in the world, exporting over 11 m. kg in
the face of stiff international competition and has earned a very
well-deserved international reputation for consistent quality and
rock-solid reliability.

Montfort Chamney: The Story of the Tea Leaf

Preface

Story of the tea leaf

Appendix

Montfort Chamney:
The Story of the Tea Leaf