Tea act of 1773

The loss of the American market resulted in the build up of huge stocks of unsalable tea with the British East India Company. The parliament had to intervene. The above act authorised the company to import teas direct to the colonies, thereby by-passing both the English merchant and the American importer. The BEIC was permitted to draw back the full 100% duty on re-exports from Britain, leaving only a 3% tax to be collected by the colonial customs. This was designed to under-price the Dutch suppliers of tea. The colonists however refused a bargain in tea on account of a matter of principal.

The company on the other hand proceeded with the plan and appointed agents to receive the tea on arrival at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. The agents so appointed however were not acceptable to the public, and with it the Colonial resentment was aroused.

** Resentment against the tea act took various forms. Several resolutions were adopted, and petitions forwarded to England. An organisation called the “son’s of liberty’ held protest meetings and pledged not to drink tea. Tea could not be purchased without a permit. Various substitutes were used in place of tea.

** Attempts were made to smuggle tea to America from England but a decision was taken by the “son’s of liberty” to prevent such landing. A company of artillery was formed and they vowed to burn every tea ship that came in.

** Philadelphia led in contesting the plan of the British government. A mass meeting was held on 18th October 1773, where hand-bills were distributed stating “by uniting we stand, by dividing we fall”. New York followed, and one of the warnings read “the language of the revenue act is that you have no property you can call your own, that you are the vessels, the live stock of Great Britain”. They openly opposed the policy of the government and they expected every free man in the country to prevent the landing of British tea.

** On 17th November 1773 news came from London that three ships of the BEIC with tea as part of the cargo was heading towards Boston. They were Dartmouth, Beaver, and Bedford.

** The first ship Dartmouth laden with 80 full chests and 34 half chests arrived at Boston on 28th November 1773. Others followed later. All other cargo was discharged. A request by the captain to take back the cargo of tea was disallowed. The last day for the seizure of tea for non payment of dues was 16th December 1773. That day witnessed the greatest gathering and a resolution was adopted to prevent at all costs, British tea reaching any part of the colony.

** As darkness fell, a party of about 90 men dressed as Red Indians boarded the ship at Griffin’s wharf, armed with hatchets and axes, and opened up each chest and emptied them into the harbour.

** Within the space of three hours 342 chests in all ships were damaged and thrown to the sea. The wharf where the tea was destroyed is marked by a commemorative tablet

** In England some sympathized with their kinsman across the sea, while others protested. The British government adopted strong measures to combat this trend, only to be followed by the war of independence which ended in the establishment of the American Republic.

** The Greenwich tea party followed on 12th December 1773, when a consignment of secretly unloaded tea was set on fire at the market square. A monument was erected at the spot to commemorate the event.

** Many others followed.

The Charleston
The Philadelphia
The New York
The Annapolis
The Edenton

It has been said that it might have been molasses or free rum that started the war of independence, but in fact it had been tea.

Tea Clippers -- had long been associated with the romance of the Tea.

** With the abolition of the EIC monopoly merchants demanded faster ships to transport mew season teas.

** Ann McKin was the first sizable ship with three masts unlike the East Indiaman of the EIC which had only two. With a registered 493 tons she was 143ft long and 31ft wide. Her weight carrying capacity however was limited.

** ‘Rainbow’ launched in 1845 with a 750 registry carried doubts as to weather it would float or sink. Her maiden voyage to China started in February and was back in New York, in September, having paid her cost of $45,000 and an equal sum to her owner as profits. Her second voyage was only 92 days out and 88 days back.

** With the abolishing of the navigation laws by Britain in 1849 American clippers were free to carry Chinese tea to England. The Oriental brought over 1000 tons of tea to London in 97 days. More American ships followed and they were obtaining twice the freight rates charged by the slow British ships.

** The first British tea clipper Stornaway was launched in 1850 by Jardine Matheson.

** With the discovery of gold in California in 1849 the fast American ships were diverted to passenger traffic which was found to be more profitable

** The American civil war of the 1860’s wracked the merchant marine for many years to come.

** This led to increased competition and rivalry between the British shipbuilders and during the period 1860 and 1870 no less than 26 tea clippers had been built in Britain the most famous being the Taeping -Ariel- Sir Lancelot and Cutty Sark.

** By the 1870’s wooden ships gave way to iron.

** Each year the tea clippers raced home with tea as the first cargo home would mean a premium of 6 pence per pound.

** The tea clipper race came to be looked upon as a sporting event, and heavy bets were placed on the result.

** With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, steam ships gained an advantage over the windjammers and during the latter stages the clippers were used on the Australian wool run.

** Blue Funnel cargo steamers took over the transportation of tea.

Planting Enterprise

The origin and rise of the planting industry in the island dates back to 1740 when the Dutch made a vain attempt at cultivating coffee in the low country. They could not have exported more than a 1,000 cwt in a year. Although coffee was known to have grown in Ceylon long before the arrival of the Portuguese and the Dutch perhaps introduced by the Arabs originally, its preparation as a beverage was totally unknown to the Sinhalese, who only used the young leaves for their curries, and the delicate jasmine like flowers for ornamenting their shrines of Buddha.

The success of the planting enterprise in Ceylon should fairly and squarely be attributed to that great Governor, Sir Edward Barnes, who came to Ceylon as Lieutenant Governor in 1820 for two years, and followed up as Governor from 1824 - 1883.He to an undeveloped country. Further, there was an underlying hesitation on the property developers to proceed with this task in the fear that their products would be seized for purposes of taxation. This fear had to dispelled and, as an initial step, a proclamation was read in September 1829 as follows-“for all such apprehensions, it is hereby enacted that no part of any coffee, cotton, sugar, indigo, opium, or silk of the growth of produce of the island or of any part of its dependencies, has hitherto been or will demanded or claimed by the government for a period of 25 years from this date”.

To prove his intentions, he went further by starting to grow tea in Gampola in 1842 under the guidance of George Bird.

Although his first attempt was not a complete success, he nevertheless laid foundation for the establishment of a plantation economy and furthermore he was able to infuse confidence in the general public to pursue development work in the country.

Despite all these assurances, the public were extremely slow to invest on land with the result the government had to pressurise the members of the Civil Service and the army to purchase land on favourable terms to be developed in coffee. The demand for land grew thereafter in consequence.

It was with the introduction of the West Indian system of cultivation by Robert Boyd Tytler, regarded as the “Father of Ceylon planters” that the great rush of began. In 1845, annual coffee exports had increased to over 200,000 cwt.

Doubtless, Ceylon proved the grave of many British sovereigns, but the money spent so freely, benefited vast numbers of the native Sinhalese and Tamils. The number of roads and bridges, villages and town, which sprang up, were all had been waste land and jungle and the way the Ceylonese planter followed the European planter, attested to the great change wrought through the influence of coffee throughout the mountain zone of Ceylon.

The financial crisis in Great Britain in 1846 extended its destructive influence to Ceylon and led to the stoppage of capital required to plant and expand the coffee plantation in the country. Governor Sir Henry Ward was once again able to restore confidence and by 1855 the industry was once again all ready for a take-off. Within 20 years, coffee came to be regarded as the backbone of the agricultural industry of the island and the mainstay of revenue.

The part played by the Sinhalese during the period is noteworthy. They soon followed the example set by the European planters and began to develop their coffee gardens throughout the hill country and qualified for about half stake in the total quantity exported during the period

The golden age of coffee was reached during the period 1868 and 1870 and exports averaged a million cwts a year, qualifying for a revenue intake of over pounds sterling 4 million as against 34,000 cwts valued at sterling pounds 120,000 exported in 1837- a marvellous development of a tropical industry in 30 years.

In 1869 apart from native holdings, the total extent under coffee was 76,000acres and the average yield from a land in full bearing was around 5 cwts, which entitled the owner to a profit of about pounds sterling 7 to 10 per acre.

With the opening of the railway between Colombo and Kandy and with an unqualified supply of cheap labour from south India and with God’s gift of a favourable climate, the stability of the coffee enterprise was assured, but its prosperity was only short lived. It was about the year 1869 that the first enemy of coffee, though insignificant in appearance, was spotted on a plantation in the remote corner of Badulla, which ultimately decreased the staple to about one-fifth in a matter of ten years.

The sudden rise in the price of coffee in international markets- a rise equivalent to about 50% in two years tended to obscure the vision of those concerned, to the insidious progress of the pest which, within a short period, worked deadly mischief.

Scientific investigations were called for and its history was written which spelled doom to the coffee planters. The same fungus had extended to the coffee districts of India and Java. Misfortunes never come singly. The collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank and other financial institutions followed, and Ceylon planters were forced to turn their attention to new products.

Was it nature that revenged herself, just as she had done in Ireland, when potatoes threatened to become the universal crop, as well as on extensive wheat fields elsewhere. It was from the wisdom of the old saying - not to have all eggs in one basket- that the introduction of new products commenced.

Coffee failed, Fortunes were lost, and bankruptcy was common. Depression prevailed. But, there were those who were able to hold on and after trying many products, tea finally came into its own.

Coffee was destroyed due to natural causes, but those who came before tea to establish a plantation economy in the country deserve a laudation in the most appropriate manner. The colony cannot afford the names of G.D.B.Harris, and their manager James Taylor A. M Ferguson and Sir Graeme Elphinstone. The planter would not have succeeded if not for the special aid obtained from the botanical gardens at Peradeniya and Kew gardens England, through the untiring and extensive research done by Dr Thwaites and Dr Triman. All their efforts towards the promotion of a plantation economy could not be overlooked. The former was the first to sound the alarm bell about the coffee fungus, and urged attention to cinchona and tea, and the latter did more than any other to encourage the cultivation of cocoa which proved an important subsidiary crop to coffee, and Willis did so much for the planting of rubber-yielding trees.

Then to new products

In Ceylon the great law of the “survival of the fittest” had been freely demonstrated for there were some products, which though experimented with have never proved a success. Sugar-cane had been tried and failed. Tobacco had been tried out, but retained only for local consumption. Cotton had not been much progress in the country.

The spice cinnamon had been an indigenous staple product for a considerable length of time. It was known to have grown in and around Colombo Moratuwa, and Negombo in cultivated plantations but as forest trees in the interior. Ceylon cinnamon was world renowned. The island had been for this spice. Merchants in Rome had been trading in cinnamon in the time of Augustus, contending themselves with nothing less than 100% profit when the price for the precious bark was pounds sterling 8 per pound. The main attraction for both the Portuguese and Dutch and to a lesser extant to the British. It remained the main source of revenue during the 16th and the 17th century. No systematic cultivation of cinnamon was undertaken until 1767 but remained a government monopoly until about 1843.With the abolition of the monopoly and increased production prices declined sharply. Inferior verities from the Eastern Archipelago flooded the Western markets which spelled doom to this staple export Ceylon could have produced finer cinnamon provided the planter was assured of a fair price. During the late years a great deal of cinnamon cultivation was abandoned to be used for coconut and other fruit trees.

Pepper had played a prominent part in countries export trade. A gift of 3000 pounds of cinnamon and pepper was given the king of Kandy to the king of Holland to invoke his aid against the Portuguese in 1602.The Dutch considered pepper a more important article than coffee, as they did not fear an over supply. Attempts were made by the British to encourage the cultivation of pepper but strong competition from India Java and Sumatra were so strong that our pepper was out-priced in world markets.

Cardamoms were freely cultivated and exported during the Portuguese time but neglected thereafter. After the crash some of the coffee planters began to cultivate it with profit but latterly it was propagated with much caution.

Cinchona cultivation helped to sustain the planter during the dark days of the coffee crisis with supplementary income but it did not provide him with a permanent benefit. It took a long time for the planters to take up to cultivating this medicinal plant. It was originally grown as ornamental trees, or as groves, or shelter belts. The sale of its bark, it was found most remunerative and gradually it dawned upon a good many that it was not only a fast growing tree, but a commercial product of high value. The steady failure of coffee that followed gave an impetus to the rush after cinchona. In 1880 the high water mark for the cinchona bark was reached when a price of 10s was realised, per pound was realised. It was estimated that in 1883 over 60,000,000 young plants were growing in the hill country, and a bright future was within their grasp. This dream was however short-lived.

The failure of coffee forced the Ceylon planter to harvest the bark from immature trees and exports ran up from 500,000pounds in 1879 to nearly 12,000,000 pounds in 1884 and to close on 16,000,000 in 1887. This depressed prices to unrealistic levels and by 1887 it had hit rock-bottom. Very speedily cultivation of cinchona was discontinued.

In Ceylon considerable attention had been given to the cultivation of India-rubber-yielding trees during the period 1880’s, to take the place of coffee, and great hopes expressed that the industry would become a profitable and a permanent one. But the rush into tea and the great ease with which returns could be got from this product, together with the long time required by rubber trees to mature, and the great expense in tapping and harvesting, discouraged further planting.

The cultivation of Cocoa which was first introduced to the country by the Dutch; it was not until 1872 that its systematic planting was undertaken, with all assistance provided by Mr R.B Tytler. During its peak performance about 13,000 acres were under cocoa, exports exceeding 20,000 cwts. It was however found out that it required more care, trouble, patience, and capital out-lay., than most other tried and tested crops. Further its cultivation was restricted to elevations of 2000ft-3500ft.Due to these reasons cultivation of cocoa was not perused.

The rush into tea no doubt was aided, to a great extent, by the prevalence of leaf disease. And afterwards of green bug on coffee, followed by over-production of cinchona. A steady decline in world prices for our cardamoms stopped its further production. This change would have come about much earlier had it not been for the limited knowledge the local planters had on the cultivation and processing of leaf.

India, by then, was well steeped in tea, having acquired the finer points in tea cultivation and manufacture, an industry entirely supplemented with British capital. They no doubt going to apply all the skills they had acquired in India to Ceylon.

Campbell, an experienced tea planter from India, introduced new methods of pruning and plucking, which increased the crop tremendously. Taylor, no doubt, was able to record a satisfactory measure of success in the cultivation of tea but most planters could not see much encouragement to cultivate tea in Ceylon due to low Yields. The new practice of pruning and plucking, introduced by Campbell, proved a worthwhile proposition for coffee planters to switch over to tea with an assurance of improved crop.

Another major drawback for the cultivation of tea in Ceylon was the fear that the Ceylon planter lacked the knowledge and the skill to prepare the leaf for overseas markets. The manipulation and curing of the leaf was considered the most difficult part of the tea planter’s work and the value of the manufactured leaf depended upon the skill and care with which this function was performed. It mattered not that the leaf had been produced under the most favourable conditions of climate, soil and manure, if the curing was defective. This problem too was satisfactorily resolved through the British connections in India.

When the coffee crash originated, it was not just tea that interested the local planters as a suitable substitute, but sufficient attention was drawn to the manner in which they developed new products to make up for the failure in coffee.

Tea was rapidly becoming the main staple of the planters of Ceylon which flourished in gardens scarcely, if at all, above sea level on the western cost and at altitudes inland up to plantations under the shadow of Pidurutalagala, at altitudes of 6,500 feet and it was hard to say what limits would have been placed on the area to be planted with tea in the country. Most of it no doubt was planted on abandoned coffee lands but there have been unexploited resources better suited for tea than any product. No tea bushes were reported to have failed, and everywhere the shrub was flourishing well.

The development of the tea industry could be assessed from the following export figures:
TEA:-

The chief development among new products was cinchona and the figures are given below:
CINCHONA

Ceylon could have supplied, on an annual basis, about seven to ten million pounds, and this level of production could have been maintained for a decade or more without difficulty.
COCOA

Cocoa generally referred to as the chocolate yielding plant, did not succeed as widely as was expected. It did flourish in certain districts as the export figures indicate.

CARDAMOMS

The expansion of the cardamom cultivation is reflected in the following figures

In contrast with their evidence of steady continuous progress with what may be called “new products” the displacement of Ceylon’ staple coffee consequent on the weakening efforts of the fatal leaf disease, could be seen from the following figures.

By the mid-1880s, tea was growing in areas at almost sea level to 7,500 feet. It was considered one of the hardiest on the long list of the sub-tropical plants and nowhere did it find a more congenial home than moist, hot Ceylon.

With tea being proved a winner, it was now becoming difficult to hold back disappointed coffee planters with the prospect of a reasonable profit of about Rs. 50/- to Rs. 80/- per acre to be made from tea, counting the crop at 300lbs and upward per acre, returning to the Island.

When the cultivation of tea was taking place at a feverish pace, the cry of over-production was raised but it was argued that if the English speaking folk in America take to drinking tea in place of their favourite coffee - there would be sufficient demand added to the present one. It was also pointed out that the great advantages possessed by the Colony - tea, of a superior quality, could be produced more cheaply in Ceylon than by its rival - India. With these favourable thoughts, the conversion of coffee to tea continued unabated.

In their frenzied rush for tea during the mid-1880s, the local planters did not, in any way, lose sight of the importance of maintaining the exports of other commodities in which the Ceylonese people were chiefly interested. These were cinnamon, essential grass oils and the products of the coconut palm (such as oil, copra and coir fibres). There was also plumbago - Ceylon's only commercial mineral.

Ceylon’s total value of staple exports for the period 1886-87 was reckoned at Pounds Sterling 2,774,416 - worked out as follows:

All went well for the tea industry until tea prices in London started on a downward slide commencing from the latter part of the 1880s and which lasted until 1902. This was the first check to the steady expansion to tea cultivation.

The spectacular rise of Ceylon from a mere military dependency to become one of the richest Crown Colonial was mainly due to the enterprise which Sir Henry Ward and Sir William possessed to divert surplus revenue toward the building of hospitals, schools public work and irrigation work throughout the country. It was said that “the well being of the native, the success of the civilian, the efficiency of the government are all bound closely up with good fortune of the plantation industry”.

The potency of the country expanded to a great extent on customs and railways and these two sources of revenue are most closely affected by the ruin or success of the planter. During the early stages of the plantation enterprise, between 1837 and 1877 the general revenue of the country increased from Rs. 4 - 7 million, but with the decline of coffee it fell to 2 million in 1883.

During the two years of the coffee crisis, the hard task of keeping up a progressive administration and the credit of the colony so as to secure the railway extensions and irrigation work already started despite the sharp fall in revenue fell on Sir Arthur Gordon, the task which only a few colonial Governors would have had to face. This challenge was undertaken in the most courageous manner and ended up a marvellous success. His successor, Sir Arthur Havelock reaped a splendid harvest of revenue from the rapid expanding of the tea industry which propelled the revenue to 21 million Rupees. Sir West Ridgeway who followed had about 25 million to deal with which was more than double of what Sir Hercules Robinson controlled when he administered Ceylon.