As one of the three major items representing oriental culture (the rest are porcelain and silk fabrics), Chinese tea has crossed the ocean since the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and has entered the field of vision of Westerners in the Netherlands, Britain, France and other countries. In the United Kingdom, in particular, tea eventually became one of the most popular national beverages across the country.
It should be said that before the British East India Company began to monopolize the tea trade and stole tea trees from China to grow tea in India and Sri Lanka, only China produced tea in the world. According to statistics, before the first industrial revolution, nearly one-third of the world's silver flowed into China in the tea trade alone.
How important was "tea" to Britain? important enough for Britain to start a war over it
In a certain sense, tea can be understood in this way, just as kimchi is to Korea, vodka is to Russia, and tulips are to the Netherlands. There is a folk song in England that says, "When the clock strikes four times, everything in the world stops for tea." This also shows the importance of tea to the British, and the UK has also formed its own unique tea culture, and the afternoon tea we often hear about actually originated in the UK.
In history, the British drank tea in the past by the restrictions of transportation origin, the main route in history was mainly through sea transportation from Wuyi to Jiangxi, and then through the Ganjiang River over Meiling, and then down the river to Guangzhou, mainly Wuyi, Fujian, these Anhui Jiangxi along the way to gather tea, there is no now boasting that God can cure all diseases and immortality Pu'er tea. Instead, it was transported to Britain through the Maritime Silk Road, but later the demand for Chinese tea was reduced due to the cultivation of tea in overseas colonies such as India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya.
Tea is also related to the fortunes of the United Kingdom, and the origin of several wars that affect the world is related to tea and Britain, such as the fuse of the North American Revolutionary War is the Boston Tea Party, and the Opium War with China was the first triangular trade of tea, which is related to the financial balance of Britain and the Qing Dynasty, almost the rise and decline of the British colonial empire, and tea is accompanied all the way, before industrial mass production and processing The high taxes on the Chinese tea trade are a large part of the government's revenue, such as Russia's claim that tea taxes accounted for half of its national tax revenue in the nineteenth century, so the Tsar Crown Prince came to Hankow to inspect the tea factories in Hankow, China, and the root cause of the Boston incident was the chain reaction caused by the British exemption of the East India Company's tea tax.
How important tea is in the UK, we can see from the war, and Britain's adherence to tea during World War II is a good reflection of this. In order to hold the homeland, a large number of troops from overseas territories were drawn, but soldiers guarding tea plantations in India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and other places were forbidden to participate in the war.
In World War II, Britain even set up more than 500 secret bases to store tea, and the first in the list of materials purchased by the British army was ammunition, and the second was tea. Even the British Army tanks were equipped with equipment for making tea. Prime Minister Winston Churchill demanded that tea be provided to each British ship in a timely manner. At that time, ordinary citizens wanted to emulate the aristocracy, so drinking tea and tasting tea became fashionable.
The word "tea" has long since transcended the meaning of "tea" in the UK. It's more about commercial profits, and historically, because the British are so fond of tea, tea has become one of the most profitable contraband. At that time, Britain had not yet established its position as the world hegemon, and tea and sugar, which were relatively expensive imports, were still precious in Britain, so those who could enjoy these two things must be powerful tycoons and enjoy a noble status. It also became a status symbol.
The British people also have their own climate and health needs to drink tea, which is the most fundamental, and it is beneficial to the body in order to endure for a long time. Located in the northwest of Europe, the United Kingdom belongs to the temperate maritime climate, rainy and humid all year round, tea has a good warming effect, and can greatly enhance the body's immunity. In addition, for the British people, who occupy the mainstream of the diet with dairy products, tea can also cleanse the intestines, which is also an important reason why the British love tea.
Whether it is ancient or modern, the Chinese products that the British people care about the most, besides porcelain, are tea. Especially in the late Qing Dynasty, when tea drinks were popularized in Britain, the British had a great demand for tea in China, so that most of the gold and silver that Britain got from the Americas flowed to China.
To sum up, tea, as a famous important commodity imported from the East to the West, may only be a favorite drink ingredient for the British on the surface, the protagonist of the British "black tea culture", and it is also a popular drink for contemporary health.