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For all the tea in China
During the time of the Aberdeen Line, China was the main producer of tea. For nearly 200 years, the East India Company had a monopoly on tea imports to Britain. It controlled the prices too.
Across the next 50 years, a few events happened that caused tea to become hugely popular in the UK.
Firstly, in 1784, after losing the American war of independence, tea taxes were slashed in Britain from 119% to 12.5%.
Secondly, in 1834, the East India Company's monopoly on China was finally ended, opening up the trade to competition.
Thirdly, by 1850, the price of tea had fallen enough that almost everyone could afford it.
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Pictured: The cultivation of a tea plantation in China, 1851.
The Not So Innocent Brew
From 1657, when tea first arrived in Britain, it came exclusively from China, with the East India Company holding a monopoly on imports for nearly 200 years. The Chinese demanded silver for their tea, making it the Company’s most profitable trade, while Britain’s government also benefitted, with 10% of its 1750 budget sourced from tea taxes, fueling imperial expansion.
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By 1773, however, the East India Company faced financial collapse. The 1769 Bengal famine, which killed millions, had reduced tax revenue, and the Company was in debt with surplus tea in London warehouses. To recover, they struck a deal with Britain to sell this tea in America, but colonial anger over taxes led to the Boston Tea Party. Thus, tea sparked the American War of Independence.
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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.
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Pictured: East India House
Very Scottish Tea
Scotland has 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.​
Aberdeen, though a secondary port, was crucial for regional tea distribution, with shipments arriving from larger ports like London and Liverpool.
Smuggling
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. James Taylor from near Aberdeen established Sri Lanka’s first commercial tea estate in 1867, and Glasgow's Thomas Lipton revolutionized the tea market with affordable prices.
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The 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.
The Opium Wars
The Opium Wars (1839–1842, 1856–1860) were largely driven by British efforts to balance trade deficits caused by their high demand for Chinese tea. Britain lacked sufficient silver to trade directly for tea, so it began exporting opium to China, creating widespread addiction.
When the Chinese government resisted, the British used military force, leading to the Opium Wars.
The resulting treaties forced China to open ports and allow the opium trade, lowering the overall costs for British merchants. This helped reduce the price of tea in Britain by making trade more favorable to British interests.
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Pictured: The East India Company destroying Chinese Junks, Anson's Bay, 1841.
A Teatime Treat-y
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.
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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.
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However, the clippers continued to race for prestige, private wagers, and crew bonuses rather than for cargo premiums.
Pictured: Taeping and Arial racing home.
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 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 immortalizing moment not just for these iconic clippers, but also for the Aberdeen shipbuilding innovations that made their impressive feats of speed and endurance possible.
Pictured: Thermopylae v. Cutty Sark (1872)
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, like beer, boiling the water for tea also reduced the risk of illness from a waterborne disease.
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As tea started to become part of the British culture, consumption was encouraged by business owners (unlike beer). The tea break was born.
