History of Ceylon Tea

Scottish reflections in the ‘Ceylon Cup of Tea’

Years ago, when I was passing through a China Town, which is a standard to almost any major city, I came across a shop that sells specialty teas. China being the mother of all beginnings related to Tea, I went in, and the owner happily explained all varieties on display. When he showed one of the expensive varieties he had, I have to pause and take a deep breath. Lived in a country famous for its ‘Ceylon Tea’ the name ‘Monkey-pick-tea’ didn’t sound real, mostly due to my ignorance. I have heard about monkeys being used/employed to pluck coconuts, but with Tea? Who then manures and does the pruning, questions popped up, and for a moment thought the name of being a genius marketing ploy.

Later only I came to know that the tea bush (Camellia sinensis) without pruning can grow up to 15 feet or more in the wild. In the inaccessible cliffs of Wuyi mountains in China’s Southeast province of Fujian, monkeys were trained to break and throw back tea tree branches during the silk road days. Over time, this term referred to a Chinese tea shop owners ‘best’ or ‘top shelf’ tea.

James Taylor

The story of tea is so close to the psyche of the nation. Tea exports still take the lead of all our collective economic welfare, as opposed to the rapid transformation of many Asian nations away from their traditional export markets to reap the benefits of new technology and knowledge-based economy. A young Scotsman’s name is synonymous with the strong spread that resonated with the branding of ‘Ceylon Tea’. Besides what is been written by others, James Taylor’s continuous letters to his tightly knit family from 1851 in London awaiting passage to Asia at the age of sixteen, till 1891 just before his death offers a fascinating view of multi proportions as to his and history of Tea in Ceylon. The bulk of the correspondence, some 83,000 words in total is preserved in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Taylor was born in the North-East of Scotland in 1835 to a modest family, father being a wright (carpenter). Typical of countless young Scots who sought their fortunes in the British Empire and beyond as part of their coming of age, Taylor’s destiny was set on the Island of Taprobane from the beginning to the end. In fact, Scots were very much sought by the Imperial investors for their thrift, energy, and resistless determination and most of all having been exposed to the advanced and widespread Agricultural enterprise at home.

Coffee

Scotland though an ancient nation mostly governed by principalities and aristocratic jurisdictions, after 1707 became part of the Political and Economic union. The empire that they become part of is always British and not English. The Ceylon Government census from 1871 to 1901 shows that almost Scots held a quarter percentage of all British subjects in variety of roles but notably in the agriculture sector. Taylor naturally became part of that enterprise as a yet to be proven apprentice by the owners. During that time of ‘Coffee mania’ which came to a peak in 1870, Ceylon exported more than one million hundredweights to the London market. Taylor enthusiastically predicted that coffee is a splendid investment and for the 1858 crop his Lool Kandura estate could produce more than 3,000 hundredweights or about 150 tons and could bring a profit exceeding £ 5,000 to the owners for that season. No one could have guessed however, that less than two decades later the entire Ceylonese coffee industry would have vanished due to the decease ‘coffee rust’ caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix.

Agrarian Capitalism

The Scottish Agrarian enterprise which includes expansion of multiple trades associated with agriculture grew from a semi-subsistence base to a condition of advanced capitalism between 1760 and 1830s that was copied and applied all around the world. It is interesting that ‘Wealth of Nations’ written by Prof. Adam Smith (1723-1790) known as the ‘Father of Economics’ was attached to Glasgow University in Scotland. It was about the doctrine of ‘free enterprise’ creating wealth, leading to today’s libertarian markets ruled by market forces. While the Northern hemisphere was awash with free market philosophies and accumulating wealth more than one need, the Southern hemisphere was basking in a different kind of collective enterprise as being a socially conscious sedentary agrarian society.

‘ChellaThurai’

When I was growing up in the Eastern coastal city of Batticaloa, my father like so many of his compatriots and fellow city folks cultivated paddy across the lagoon in the hinterland. I am not sure whether he could be called a farmer by definition as he had a day job in town and cultivation of paddy was more like a week-end job. In fact, most of the work at paddy field was done or administered by a hired hand from the village called ‘Chellathurai’. Short, wiry, not with ideal hearing and highly stained few teeth that is left due to chewing betel constantly, he visited our house at least monthly on notifying the progress of the field and to replenish food supplies and getting paid. Though he did not come from a sophisticated science and capitalist economy-based agriculture the Scots were familiar with, his views on weather patterns, pests, animals, levees, seedlings, and soil enhancers were very well listened to as it was passed from many generations. After harvest he was given gunnies of rice paddy based on the contract. The rest were shared among our relatives and many months of rice supply was stored for our personal consumption. In essence there was no seriousness in accumulating greater commodity or cash, far exceeding the reasonable need.

When visiting my father, like many from his times Chellathurai did not wear shirt but a folded and wrinkled ‘shalvai’ (shawl) over his shoulder and an aged, long worn ‘verti’ from his waist down to his barefoot or folded at his knees. Though the shawl was folded I have seen him using it for multiple purposes, to protect from sun and rain and even use it as a bedlinen when he wants to take a quick nap. Coincidently, the origination of Scottish kilt and its uses are almost identical that of ‘Salvai’. The ‘Plaid’ which is part of the attire was used as bedding and in the case of Shepherds provided protection against all weathers in the highlands. Bishop Leslley commented in 1578 that it was for use and not for ornament, ’drape a length of wool fabric over the body like a shawl and keep it in place pleated by the waist with a belt and buckle.’

Environmental concern

When James Taylor arrived at ‘Lool Kandura’, he was given the first responsibility to clear almost 3,00 acres of virgin forest. He awed that there were enormous trees of 10 – 11 feet in circumference of very hard wood, red coloured like mahogany. As per James Webb, author of the ‘Tropical pioneers’, ‘the extensive removal of rain forest for planting in Ceylon is nowhere carried out to this scale in the entire British empire.’ This widespread deforestation mostly happened between 1840 -1870 resulted in significant ecological change. This transformation resulted in massive loss of topsoil in the middle and upper highlands, which limited the options for later alternative land use. Though the results for the expected mass profits were clearly visible, Webb did not hesitate to side-shift the responsibility on native Kandyan farmers. He blamed the destruction by the ‘slash & burn’ tactics employed in the chena cultivation by the natives did greater harm to the environment than clearing forest for coffee planting. It is obvious that the saga of mass cash crop enterprise owned and operated by the Imperial investors was all about profits and it hardly hold weight in comparing meagre subsistence farming by the natives for self sustainment.

Complaint about natives

Taylor was no different from other Europeans who did see the native population as lazy and inadequate. But again, their own insignificant observation about the natives provides the answer that they were looking for. ‘The Sinhalese would find it offensive to work for others….considered like slavery….they will work hard enough at their own small plots of land … other than felling trees and erecting estate buildings for higher remuneration they would feel offensive to do meagre work like weeding, pruning and harvesting.’ The ‘proceedings of the Planters association’ for 1862 was equally scathing, blaming the native’s refusal resulted in dependency for labour from India.

The European managerial class wanted to see through their own lenses of Agrarian capitalism and rigorous work ethics to accumulate wealth, rather than through the native subsistence agriculture and cycles of labor, limited to the daily needs that upheld collective social security than individual wealth in society.

Tamil migrants

Since the estates were in dire straight to keep pumping profits, a kangany system was put in place where a scout or foreman of the estate would return with migrants recruited from South India. Many argue this sometimes a seasonal and part of a circulatory migration rather than permanent as the numbers fluctuated depending on the season. According to Taylor, they would cross the Palk straight and trek through jungle roads and paths for 1-2 weeks covering almost 150 miles to reach the estates. Many did not make it, becoming victims to disease and animals. Besides record suggest that Kanganys did not spend even a third of the coast advance, resulting hundreds dying of starvation, many were thrown into the sea or left behind by the roadsides.

Unaware, unprepared and not used to the damp cold weather many migrants ran away as per Taylor and many died prematurely long before realising their dreams if any. While the planters lived in stone-built bungalows the estate workers were put into straw and daub lined huts, many without proper doors, at times 10 or more in single rooms. Taylor’s letters describe that ‘these naked fellows cannot take the cold at all. It kills them. I have to pick half dying on roadsides who are refusing western medicine.’ The death rate has been estimated at a quarter of the total labour force on plantations. Taylor repeated his calls for a medical doctor in Hewaheta district and attributed deaths to laziness or apathy of the workers and kangany who did not reveal the sickness on time. The high death rate continued throughout the 19th century and hospital records show that 21 percent of all migrant workers admitted to District-hospitals eventually died.

Recruiting workers from tropical settings and not providing proper clothing and housing but calling them naked and half dead shows that human life was not valued highly under the circumstances then.

Views from authority

Some scholars argue that this inhumanity arose from the influx of estate managers or superintendents from the Caribbean immediately after emancipation where slaves were treated differently, not to mention Britain’s direct involvement with slavery.

Taylor also might have been influenced by the resounding Lowland opinion critical of certain segments of the Gaelic and Celtic culture as being slothful and feckless to become victims during the great potato famine after 1846. It was easier for those who bought that race based evil of corrupt indolence to spread it along with other labour cultures based on traditional pre-capitalist world. It was unfortunate that planters both in Assam and Ceylon held the same conventional view that all their workers were lazy and feckless. This is the workforce that they had complete authority over and whose daily toil of blood and sweat depended on the processing of profitable commodities for sale throughout the empire.

Tea

When coffee was almost through the exit door by the mid 1880s the Scot ingenuity explored initially growing Cinchona (to obtain Malaria prevention bark) as a cash crop and later Tea, as the soil and climate perfectly matched. Never in the history of agriculture such extraordinary supersession and development was set within a knowledge economy than that of tea taking the place of coffee and Cinchona in Ceylon. With these developments Ceylon overtook China as the prime exporter with 35% of the share to the British market by 1896. Opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the steamship revolution aided lower cost and bigger profits for the Investors. The mechanisation with considerable engineering skills by Taylor to roll (crush) the leaves gave decisive advantage against the hand rolling practices of China.

The Colonial government which consisted by many from the landed proprietor class encouraged many of its civil servants and military officers to invest in Ceylon plantation economy directly than from overseas, and relaxed rules for land ownership, having an eye to expand its coffers. The infrastructure developments demanded by the Investors came to pass with the improvement of roadways and the opening of the Colombo=Kandy railway in 1867. This significantly reduced the transportation costs from the plantations to the Colombo docks by almost 60-75 percent, which the Indian planters hardly had and benefitted.

Clash of values

Though numerous advanced techniques in planting, building, surveying, and engineering learnt in Scotland were applied to improve the production, the bottom line of the colonial investors were profits. The cross-drains to improve the roads, the stone walls built without mortar and using spouts and iron pins to fetch water from faraway streams showcased James Taylor’s innovation and resourcefulness. Unlike other Europeans who preferred meat, vegetables and potatoes, Taylor preferred ‘Rice & Curry’ for all three meals, probably unable to resist the confluence of spices and coconut milk the same soil produced.

Eastern value system that was not always conducive to Western free market theories can learn aspects from the West’s perseverance, individual responsibility, innovation to accumulate wealth and competitiveness in a knowledge-based economy. Potato economy is not the best for a better world compared to paddy economy, but we cannot run against the world economic stream and live in the past to be left behind. As the Scottish professor Adam Smith said, only self-interest and extra productivity would bring surplus wealth to fund social welfare.

Final journey

The Ceylon press of July 1892 reported that the owners of the Lool Kandura estates, ‘Oriental bank Estates Company’ sought Taylor’s leave of absence due to lethargy of being resident of the estate too long. Taylor’s refusal to take leave resulted in the dispense of his services. An ultimate showcase of the Free Market/Potato economy falling victim for the same when the goals are not met, or services not needed.

Almost a year after dismissal, Taylor died on 2nd May 1892, almost spending 40 years at the estate. Reputedly a group of 24 estate workers carried his large body (said to have weighed 246 pounds) alternating all the way to Mahaiyawa cemetery near Kandy, about 18 miles away. That was the ultimate show of affection and bereavement by Eastern traditionalism Taylor sometimes showed indifference to. ‘Sami Dorai’ (Master of the highest) resting on the shoulders of ordinary workers in his final journey. The native soil that allowed Tea to flourish will now embrace the Master who had never set foot to his native soil after arrival.

The Empire

The heritage of James Taylor would be on display in a few months at the upcoming crowning of a new King in the United Kingdom as Queen mother’s lineage belongs to the Scottish Royals. At a time, the ‘Ceylon Tea’, once crowned by the Colonial-rulers marking its 156th anniversary in the Island, the empire of the past simply been remembered by a grand ceilidh (Big party in Gaelic). World leaders would be in their best, many from the former colonies in their national costumes. Scottish tartans spangled ceremonial and military attires would adorn Bag-pipe parades.

Away from the glitzy glamour, sings and praises, gun salutes and jet flyovers, the occasion for me would bring memories of ‘Chellathurai’ and his wrinkled and discoloured ‘salvai’ (shawl) over his bare shoulder – symbol of the paddy culture, to say the least.