It is impossible to explore the culture of the East, of China especially, without encountering the importance of tea. China has a long tradition of tea drinking, and was responsible for acquainting the East and the West. Tea gained popularity throughout the Western world, particularly in Britain, and demand for it increased, China entered a challenging period in their history. Exploring this story shows tea as a social, economic, and political commodity, the catalyst for this conflict and change. Economically, tea led to Britain's exponential economic growth and globalization. Certainly tea was not the lone source of these disturbances, but it was an important one. These excerpts from human history are not intended to reconstruct the story of tea. However, studying tea and the dynamic ways societies have interacted with it provides insight into the rich history of a product that humankind has loved for millennia.
The nineteenth century witnessed the most explosive episode in the history of the tea trade: the Opium Wars. This turmoil centered on economic and outright military conflict between the British Empire and the Chinese. The strength of the tea trade in Western Europe by the mid-seventeenth century led to numerous attempts to supplant the dependency on China with European plantations. Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, led this cause, participating in multiple failed attempts to retrieve and grow tea from China. For the tea-drinking Europeans, China remained their lifeline, something Britain hoped to change. The Seven Years' War (1756-63) and the American War of Independence (1775-83) extinguished the East India Company's silver reserves, which until that point had been the goods used to purchase tea from the Chinese. Vi...
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...eals. Mair and Hoh reinforced this in their study of the conflict, offering, "The long fuse of the 19th-century Opium Wars was lit by the unhappy confluence of two parties profoundly ignorant of each other's history and culture . . ." As for China's economic progress after the conflict, Mair and Hoh offered this tragic footnote: " . . . ¬China's doors were forced open, and the country descended into more than a century of economic hardship, foreign invasions, civil war, revolution, and the collapse of the country's ancient tea industry."
The history of tea both in and out of China is long and far-reaching. It is not limited to violence, either economic or physical. Neither is it a story of peace. Understanding tea's material history, and its orbiting elements, as a change agent yields insight into the clashes of culture and ideology that populate human history.
They have levied war, excited rebellions, dethroned princes, and sacrificed millions for the sake of gain. The revenue of mighty kingdoms has centered in their coffers. And these not being sufficient to glut their avarice, they have, by the most unparalleled barbarities, extortions, and monopolies stripped the miserable inhabitants of their property and reduced whole provinces to indigence and ruin. Fifteen hundred thousand perished by famine in one year, not because the earth denied its fruits, but this company and its servants engrossed all the necessities of life, and set them at so high a rate, that the poor could not purchase them. Thus having drained the sources of that immense wealth, they now, it seems, cast their eyes to America, as a new threat, whereupon to exercise their talents of rapine, oppression, and cruelty. The monopoly of tea is, I dare say, but a small part of the plan they have formed to strip us of our property.
The global flow of silver effected the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century economically because silver made the world go round, socially because everyone was dependent on some sort of trade, and politically because silver was a high priority to important world powers. In this document based assignment, it would have been convenient to have a document about the opinion of either a Potosi Indian or a peasant from the commercial city of Hangzhou because both points of view would give further insight into the negative side of this time periods lust for silver, and how the insanity ruined lives.
In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott.
The West India Tea Company found themselves bankrupt due to the amount of smuggled tea America was buying. People were buying smuggled tea because it was so much cheaper than the tea England was forcing them to buy. The company's plan was to select three major cities in America to get rid of their competition. They would hire other handlers in Philadelphia, Charleston, and New York. By having the tea sold in America, they could avoid the high taxes of England. After they had eliminated their other competitors, they would charge much more for the tea that they were selling (Francis 1). When the colonists heard that the East India Company was selling tea to these cities, almost all of them were furious and wanted England to be aware of it. The patriots worried that they would start liking England because of the better tea prices (Maier 516). Soon tea was shipped to America for distribution to agents of the company, who ...
All trade in China was channeled through the city of Canton and was regulated by a group of Chinese merchants known as the “cohong” who imposed irregular taxes. No direct contact between the foreigners and Chinese were allowed. Such limitations and conditions caused dissatisfaction among the foreign merchants, in particular the British, who ...
At the end of the eighteenth century, China’s goods were much desired by Britain. However, the Chinese saw Europeans as savages and did not want to trade with them. During trade, there was an imbalance in China’s favor, because the Europeans were forced to buy Chinese goods using silver. The Western Imperialists began to grow opium poppies from in India, and then smuggle them into China. China soon became addicted to the drug and spent most of it’s money on the purchase of it from the Europeans and Americans. This shifted the balance of power to be in Europe’s favor.
The Opium War not only embarrassed China, but as a consequence, it also had a lot of dramatic social and economic effects as well. China’s view of the Western world along with the relationship changed drastically. Due to the war, there were a lot of internal battles and struggles as well as economic downfall especially in Canton where a lot of trading was focused on prior to the war. This left a lot of people in China without jobs, which resulted in China completely losing all power and control that it had to the Western nations. This allowed these nations to gain power over them, which was not foreseen prior to the war. As a result, China’s goal of abolishing the trade of opium throughout their country resulted in many “unfair treaties” being signed and a drastic change in their economic and social development.
In the early years of China, the Chinese began a period of establishment in the world with ideas and teachings of new religions, changing powers, and building empires. In a nutshell the Chinese were progressing toward new technology, writings, and belief systems. The Chinese saw many dynasties come and go as well as many ups and downs experienced with societies over the course of history. As all nation’s go through change, the Chinese experienced changes from other lands far away and produced many concepts in which helped other realms to see change for themselves. The Chinese used many inventive innovations to prosper as an economic power and stabilize intellectually. Change mixed with innovation proved to be the roots of China’s success as a powerful nation to be reckoned with for the vast numbers appeared in China’s favor.
Rebellions had broken out around 1796 and 1804 and again in 1813, and the Manchus were losing their control over the immeasurable region (Jayawardena, 1986, p.168). French, Dutch, British and American boats, utilizing Macao as a base, entered similarly as Canton where specie and opium which shaped 57% of Chinese imports in 1838 were traded for tea, porcelain, silk and cotton products (Jayawardena, 1986, p.168). This restricted exchange, on the other hand, could not fulfill colonialist intrigues. The Industrial Revolution had introduced a time of development and Western nations requested that China opened up as a business opportunity for the products of its manufacturing products and factories as source of raw materials (Jayawardena, 1986, p.167). The British pursued the first war animosity on China; once the Chinese were defeated the British took over Shanghai. Once new rules and regulations were forced and agreed by the Chinese; the colonizers was still not satisfied attacking the Chinese again. Generally, China 's prevailing philosophy had been Confucianism, and according to this ideology the significant social institution is family. This is where everyone in the society has to position their role and for women it meant the obedience of her husband and if she is not married, her father (Jayawardena, 1986, p.169). In addition, women were expected to
The thought of opium as a topic of conversation in China throughout the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century brought about discussions that varied from arguments for its legalization and praise of its distributors to the complete ban of the drug and punishment for all users and smugglers. For those who acted as proponents of the narcotic, they sincerely believed that this necessary evil was one of the only aspects of the economy that could effectively propel China into the same class as that of the world’s supreme powers (Janin 6). Those who condemned even the slightest interaction with opium or its derivatives opted for the more “honorable” route, in that, they pledged to rid their country of such horrible vices in order to follow a purer path throughout their daily lives (Mackay 124). It was from these arguments that made these debates rampantly widespread throughout the country, with neither side effectively telling the truth about the future of China and ultimately being left to the voice of those in charge of the economy, since they are the ones who control what is worth importing and exporting. If the use of opium were permitted, then the impact would have been generally positive, in that, there would be fewer smugglers to worry about breaking the law, and more profit actually being given to the Chinese government since they would actually be included. On the other hand, basing this drug trade on purely moral and some economic terms, then the people of China will constantly be in a state of intoxication because they will no longer be able to think and process clearly, while the economy of the Chinese government might also not be able to possess the buying power that they would have previously had when they unc...
The British Empire economy was partially helped by Opium; it contributed to its prosperity during the 19th century by giving them the opportunity to obtain profits out of Opium trade and maintain their wealth. British are tea addicts and lovers, and consumed it in large quantities; they also had a great demand of other Chinese commodities such as silk and porcelain, they had to import all this from China. The imbalance in commerce betw...
Allingham,, Philip V. "England and China: The Opium Wars, 1839-60." The Victorian Web: An Overview. 24 June 2006. Web. 06 Apr. 2011.
The geography of China was something like a fence. This isolation made the people of China feel like their country was prestigious and secluded from the rest of the world. With deserts and the Himalayas running along most of the border, it was extremely difficult to cross over one of the most dangerous mountain ranges in the world and a few other scorching deserts with the little transport they had during that time. The only way merchants could come into the country was the southeastern coast of China where most of the prosper cities resided. What led China to become conceited was because they had an abundant of goods that most of the world wanted. In 1760-1830s, China was famous for its porcelain (rich Europeans loved it), silk, and of course, tea. Since this Eastern Powerhouse’s goods were so popular, therefore, there were only a few things that interested them to trade with. It seemed as if tea was a drug for the Europeans because for them it was just so addicting, to the point they would do anything just to get more and more. The only things that were worthy for trading with the Chinese were gingko (type of plant), shark fin, a soft type of wood (used for incense) and silver. As the demand for tea rose, Britain gradually ran out of silver to trade with, and was desperate to find what China wanted. Then, the British resorted to trading opium. China was very picky of their opium. There was a certain kind of make they wanted, it was a compact ball wr...
There are many things that most people take for granted. Things people do regularly, daily and even expect to do in the future. These things include eating meals regularly, having a choice in schooling, reading, choice of job and a future, and many more things. But what if these were taken away and someone told you want to eat, where and when to work, what you can read, and dictated your future. Many of these things happened in some degree or another during the Chinese Culture Revolution under Mao Zedong that began near the end of the 1960’s. This paper examines the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie and a book by Michael Schoenhals titled China’s Culture Revolution, 1966-1969. It compares the way the Chinese Cultural Revolution is presented in both books by looking at the way that people were re-educated and moved to away, what people were able to learn, and the environment that people lived in during this period of time in China.
The 1911 Revolution kicked out the Qing Dynasty and broke the barriers to different developments in China. However, the 1911 Revolution has only provided a framework of a republic and made changes in some particular aspects related to immediate problems and difficulties in society. Hence, the relationship between the revolution and the subsequent development of China was very weak. On one hand, I do not agree with the latter part of the statement that the 1911 Revolution brought new problems to China. The conflicts and problems that China suffered in the early/ mid 1910s were mainly due to the weakness of the military force, conflicting political organizations and disorder in society. On the other hand, I agree with the first part of the statement that the 1911 Revolution did not bring peace to China afterwards. In the following paragraphs, I am going to focus on explaining the reasons of emerging new problems in China and also illustrate my points on the factors of the 1911 Revolution which could not bring in peace to China related to the conditions of the country.