When watching the "Cloud Tea Ceremony", I found
In the history of tea, the British once threw out the fallacy that "India is the origin of tea".
Behind a piece of tea, the rise and fall of a nation. Behind it is the competition of interests and strength.
- 01 -
A century-old dispute over the origin of tea
In 1823, the British brothers Bruce, who were living in India, found a wild tea herd in the Assam region of India, and there was a wild tea tree several meters high.
Eight boxes of about 350 pounds of black tea were shipped to London and bought by merchant Peter for 20 shillings per pound.
The British have been buying tea from China, but this time there are wild Tea Products from Assam, and British experts and scholars can't sit still. Provoke a century-old dispute over the origin of tea.
Tea origin India says
The book published by Yi Peisun and others said that only wild tea trees were found in the Assam region, and they grew more luxuriantly than Chinese tea trees, concluding that tea plants originated in India and that Chinese tea trees are a variant of Indian Assam tea.
In 1877, the Englishman Belden published "Tea Trees in Assam" in Calcutta, pointing out that no one has ever made an academic application for the discovery of wild tea trees in China, proving that there are no wild tea trees in China, and it is certainly not the origin of tea trees.
In 1911, Japanese agronomists Yokoi and Ito argued that the birthplace of tea was in Assam, India, and although China had its own life, it had not yet been proved.
The dualism of the origin of tea
There are also some bricklayers who say that tea originated in many places such as China and India.
For example, in 1919, the Dutch botanist Cohen Situ believed that the wild tea plant of the large-leaf species grew in India, Myanmar, Yunnan and other places, but there was no record of the wild tea tree of the large-leaf species in China.
In 1950, British plant explorer Kimton Watt published a paper, "Do Wild Tea Exist?", which presumed that tea plants originated in northern China and the upper reaches of the Yangtze, Mekong, and Irrawaddy rivers.
In addition, the "Tea Book" written by the American William Ukus pointed out that in Southeast Asian countries, all places with suitable natural conditions and wild vegetation are the origin of tea plants.
In 1958, the British scholar Aiden proposed in "Tea" that the origin of tea plants is located in a central area at the source of the Irrawaddy River, or more of an unnamed highland north of this central area, but not in China.
These theories, today, seem simply nonsense. Fengqing Xiang Bamboo Basket 3200 year old Jinxiu Tea Ancestor sits in town, Zhenyuan Qianjiazhai 2700 year old Tea King Tree, can press the legendary Assam Tea Tree to the ground and rub.
However, before the discovery of the Tea Ancestor and the Tea King Tree, these theories of heresy spread rapidly in the Western world. Chinese scholars, after tea was produced in India for more than a hundred years, did not find a dispute over the origin of tea plants until the 1920s.
In the face of the distortion theory that tea originated in India, Chinese modern and contemporary tea people are also arguing with reason.
According to the "Yun Tea Canon":
In 1922, Wu Juenong, a 25-year-old patriotic tea man, was the first to stand up and use the mainland's long history of tea cultivation and tea drinking history to refute the distorted theories of Britain and Japan. His "Examination of the Origin of Tea Plants" was published in the 35th issue of the Journal of the Chinese Agricultural Society.
Other tea people argue that China is the place of origin of tea, source: "Yun Tea Classic".
- 02 -
Behind the centuries-old tea tree controversy
Britain provoked a century-old dispute over the origin of tea plants,
It is by no means a few scholars who are idle and have a convulsive brain. Essentially, it is speaking for its own interests.
First, question the legitimacy of China's monopoly on tea exports
In ancient China, in the middle and late 18th century, luxury goods such as silk, porcelain, and spices had been stolen by the West, and only tea was still struggling to support. By the middle and late Qing Dynasty, tea exports accounted for almost 90% of exports.
In 1722, the year of the death of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, China's total exports of goods amounted to 211,800 taels. Tea exports amounted to 119,700 taels, accounting for 56%.
In 1750, the 15th year of the Qianlong Emperor, China's total export of goods was 507,100 taels. Tea exports amounted to 366,200 taels, accounting for 92%.
By 1822, during the Light Years of the Qing Dynasty, China's total exports of goods were 615,400 taels, and tea exports were 218127 quintals, about 11,000 tons, and the export value was 584,600 taels, accounting for 95%.
After that, China's tea exports, China's tea exports accounted for almost 100% of the export value. The Qing Dynasty's exports were all supported by tea.
At that time, tea was only produced in China, and only China in the world mastered the tea making process. And most of these teas are bought by the British who love to drink tea.
The British were very unhappy when the money stolen by the robbers was transported to China to buy tea, and the British were very unhappy about this kind of loser's business, but they still had to find China to buy it. After all, no other country produces tea except China.
This time, a tea tree was suddenly found in colonial India, and it was repaid.
British scholars have thrown out the crooked theory that tea originated in India, which is to question the legitimacy of China's monopoly on tea exports.
To put it bluntly: tea does not originate in your home, you put it on the export market, this is not OK, I just make some moths, it is also possible.
Second, wash away the sins of Robert Fochon
In 1849, Robert Fow jones of the Royal Horticultural Society went to China to steal tea seeds.
This goods arrived in Shanghai, spent money to buy Anhui tea merchant Lao Wang (not Black Anhui, modern tea business, dominated by Anhui), he also put on a long coat, shaved his head, sewed a false braid, mixed into the tea garden of the old Wang family Songluo Mountain, and secretly learned the tea making process for a long time.
In 1849, 13,000 tea seedlings and seeds were shipped to India, but unfortunately, these tea seeds were not satisfied with the soil and water, and they all died.
In 1851, the goods went to Wuyi Mountain and learned the black tea craft. And with a mature tea-making team, via Hong Kong, to Kolkata. 20 years later, India has Darjeeling black tea.
This tea theft, which tea scholars have called the largest economic theft in history, is well known to the British.
If there is a perverse theory that tea originated in India. The British can justifiably say: Tea originated in India, and I brought tea to India, where is this theft?
When the sun does not set the Empire is still there, it is superfluous to say more. However, the British are well aware that China is a civilization that exists in a national situation. In case the feng shui takes turns one day, leave yourself a way back.
Finally, maintain the world's tea pricing power
After the British grew Darjeeling black tea in the colonies, black tea production technology gradually diverted to its colonies.
Today, the world's major black tea producing countries, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, etc., were originally British colonies.
Britain mastered the production process, the colonies had raw materials, and with the blessing of the Industrial Revolution, mechanized tea companies rose. Britain bypassed China's tea supply chain.
(History has cause and effect.) Why there are tea leaves in India, Sri Lanka and other countries, and the rise of mechanized tea companies such as Lipton, in the context of a specific era, are traceable. ）
In 1871, 20 years after tea theft. China exported 1.7 million quintals of tea and 115,000 quintals of Indian tea.
By 1877, China exported 2.15 million quintals of tea and 700,000 quintals of Indian tea.
In 1900, China exported 83,700 tons of tea and India exported 87,200 tons of tea, at this time, India's tea exports surpassed China's.
In 1905, China exported 82,800 tons of tea and India exported 98,300 tons. After a sharp decline in tea exports, the financially unsustainable Qing died within a few years
By 1945, China exported 0.48 million tons of tea, while India exported 167,600 tons of tea.
Chinese tea, in decline on the national market, britain and its colonial tea-producing countries have completely bypassed the supply chain of China's tea industry.
To this day, as the suzerainty of the original colony, Britain still controls the pricing power of the world tea market.
Every year, tea auctions in the international market are operated by the British behind the scenes, and tea-producing countries such as India and Kenya also want to set up their own auction centers and use raw materials to increase their position in international tea pricing.
But at present, the pricing power of the international tea market is still in the hands of the British.
Write at the end:
Behind a piece of tea, the bitter honor and disgrace of a nation.
Looking back at history, it should be understood that the root cause behind all this is actually national strength.
When the country was strong, tea, as the four major luxuries of ancient times, created endless wealth. When the country is weak, a tea tree born on the mainland and grown up in China will also be changed.
Today, China's strength, as well as the field-checked tea king with jinxiu tea ancestors and qianjiazhai tea kings, no one dares to provoke a dispute over the origin of tea.
Or, even if someone wants to use this topic to brush up on the sense of existence, it is just a jumping beam clown, and it can't set off a storm.
More concerned is the pricing power of the international tea market.
The modern era was taken away when the country was weak, and it will return with the rejuvenation of the nation, which is a process of ripening.
When China's productivity completely surpassed that of the West, britain could not hold on to even if it wanted to keep the pricing power of tea, just as the Qing Dynasty could not see its own tea trees.
When Eastern civilization crushes Western civilization again, China will surely regain the pricing power of world tea.
The next tea industry is bound to be a competition in the field of tea technology.