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For all the tea in China
During the time of the Aberdeen Line, China was the main producer of tea. From 1657, when tea was first imported into Britain it came from China, nowhere else.
For nearly 200 years, the East India Company from its headquarters in the City of London, had a monopoly on tea imports to Britain. The Chinese insisted on silver in exchange for tea. Nothing else would do.
Tea became the East India Company’s most lucrative and profitable trade. And the British government benefitted from tea too.
By 1750, 10% of the government’s budget came from the tax revenue on tea. This fuelled the expansion of the Empire.


Tea and Revolution
But in 1773 the East India Company’s finances were in turmoil. As a result of the Company’s actions, millions of Indian people had died in the Bengal famine of 1769 meaning the tax revenue the Company was collecting from them had dried up. Not only that the Company was also in debt because they had a great deal of surplus tea in warehouses in the City of London.
The British government agreed that the Company could improve their finances by selling their excess tea to the British colony of America. But the Americans were so incensed by having to pay tax on the tea, they threw the tea overboard when it arrived (the Boston Tea Party).
It was therefore tea that sparked the American War of Independence.​​
Opium for Tea
Meanwhile in 1784 the tax on tea was slashed from 119% and many more people started to enjoy tea. Demand rose.
About the same time, the East India Company was struggling to get enough silver to pay China for tea. To get round this, the East India Company started to grow opium in India. The opium was illegally smuggled into China and sold for silver. The East India Company used the silver to buy the tea.
So, while people in Britain were enjoying their tea; and East India Company investors were reaping their huge dividends, millions of Chinese people were languishing in opium dens hooked on opium. The East India Company had become drug smugglers.


Tea and
Scotland
Scotland had a significant impact on the global tea trade. In the 1820s, Edinburgh native Robert Bruce discovered wild tea plants in Assam, thanks to local nobleman Maniram Dutta Baruah.
Although it took a decade for the East India Company to take him seriously, Bruce's brother, Charles, successfully produced Assam tea in 1836, providing competition for Chinese imports.​ Now tea auctions at Mincing Lane in the City of London sold both tea from China and tea from India. In time, tea would be grown in over 50 countries, including in Scotland.
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Aberdeen, though a secondary port, was crucial for regional tea distribution, with shipments arriving from larger ports like London and Liverpool.
Scottish Smugglers & Planters
Other Scots also played key roles. In 1848, botanist Robert Fortune conducted what’s now considered major corporate espionage, smuggling tea plants and cultivation secrets from China to India, laying the foundation for the Darjeeling tea industry.
Tea wasn't only smuggled in Asia though. High import duties in Great Britain also spurred tea smuggling along Scotland’s coasts, with Aberdeen’s access to the North Sea making it a prime location for illicit trade.
Shortly after Robert Fortune’s escapades, James Taylor from near Aberdeen established Sri Lanka’s first commercial tea estate in 1867, and Glasgow's Thomas Lipton revolutionised the tea market with affordable prices.


The Opium Wars
The Opium Wars (1839–1842, 1856–1860) were largely driven by Britain and Europe's thirst for tea.
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In 1842 (after the first opium war), China was forced to open 'treaty ports'. These were free trade areas which gave highly beneficial access for foreign traders, including for tea. Free trade boomed.
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​Competition to get the new season's tea back to Britain intensified. The aim of the game was to be the first ship back because there was high demand with low supply (until the second ship arrived), resulting in a premium being paid for the cargo from the first ship.
​The tea clipper races were on.
Fierce Competition
By the late 1850s, the 'races' started to be covered by the press and bets were made on who would win.
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By 1866, public interest was at its height as 16 clippers set off that year.
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The race was often a very close call with ships Ariel, Taeping, and Serica arriving back in London only two hours apart after 14,000 miles and 99 days at sea.
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But there was a problem. The steam auxiliary ship, Erl King had arrived two weeks earlier, making the price of tea plummet by the time the clippers arrived.
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While the Erl King was not considered part of the race, it completed the trip in 66 days, making clippers redundant. ​
However, the clippers continued to race for prestige, private wagers, and crew bonuses rather than for cargo premiums. Clipper ships were a source of national pride.


The Great
Tea Race
The Last Great Tea Race of 1872 was a famous maritime competition between two of the fastest clipper ships of the era, Cutty Sark and Aberdeen-built Thermopylae, both built for speed in the lucrative tea trade between China and Britain. The race began as the ships loaded tea in China and raced back to London.
Though both ships were exceptionally fast, Thermopylae took an early lead and ultimately won the race, arriving a week ahead of Cutty Sark. In fact, Thermopylae consistently proved faster, winning 8 out of 9 races against Cutty Sark during their years of competition.
Despite losing the 1872 race, Cutty Sark went on to become the more famous ship. However, the Great Tea Race was an immortalising moment not just for these iconic clippers, but also for the Aberdeen shipbuilding innovations that made their impressive feats of speed and endurance possible.
Tea's Up
Britons were now consuming 2lbs of tea each per year. By 1901, this had risen to 6lbs per head.
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It was an ideal hot drink for a cold, wet climate. Also, boiling the water for tea also reduced the risk of illness from waterborne diseases.
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As tea started to become part of the British culture, consumption was encouraged by business owners. The tea break was born, fuelling the Industrial Revolution.
