Tea, Sugar and Slavery
Of all the evils that have affected mankind, slavery or human bondage ranks among the worst. Slavery, in all its various forms from ancient empires like Rome to the ante bellum American South to the slave labor of Hitler’s Third Reich and the Soviet Gulags has ruined millions of lives and degraded many cultures throughout history.
In addition to the direct impact on individual lives, Western Civilization suffered lost opportunity because millions of people were denied the opportunity to succeed.
Slavery is often associated with the cultivation and production of agricultural commodities like cotton, tobacco and sugar where human labor was required to produce and refine products to meet growing world demand.
The story of sugar and its relationship to tea is a case in point.
The British Empire expanded trade worldwide and one of the principal high value products that fueled this expansion was tea. The British developed markets and brought tea to the western world on a mass scale. Between 1700 and 1900 tea in many varieties was cultivated and introduced to every western coountry.
Of course the primary market for tea was the British homeland and through aggressive marketing supported by favorable tax legislation, tea became the main beverage of Britain for all classes of British society.
The British, who had developed a national sweet tooth, liked to add sweetness to their tea, particularly black tea. At first they added honey as a sweetener and most honey was produced by Catholic monasteries and abbeys as a way to produce revenue. But, as the Protestant Reformation took hold in Britain, the monasteries disappeared and the British had to find an alternative sweetener.
Eventually cane sugar became not only a substitute for honey but enjoyed immense popularity and demand for sugar grew rapidly. Annual per capita consumption of sugar in Britain rose by 350 percent, from four pounds in 1700 to eighteen pounds in 1800.
Tea and sugar became a combined commodity in Britain in the 1800s and tea drinking also affected associated biscuit and bread consumption as part of the tea experience. China could meet the demand for tea but demand soon exceeded supply for sugar.
Britain produced sugar through its colonial network in the Caribbean islands like Barbados and Jamaica but a local labor shortage constrained supply. Although cane sugar was high quality and remains an important source of sugar even to this day, sugar production was hard, grueling and demanding work. A tour of historic sugar cane plantations today quickly reveals the terrible conditions surrounding the cutting, and reduction of liquid sugar to raw sugar. More demands were put on the sugar supply by developing markets for molasses and rum in the American Colonies.
Sources of local labor were quickly depleted and the British turned to the slave trade. Soon British ships would leave the Caribbean with their holds full of sugar and return to the islands with their holds full of slaves. During the slave trade period 15-20 million African slaves were uprooted from their homeland and transported to the plantations. The evil practice was finally abolished in the period 1834-38 after the public outcry from anti-slavery groups succeeded. The damage was considerable and the effects of slavery are still with us.
It was often said that where tea went, sugar followed and the end was the evil of slavery. Evil can penetrate even the most innocent of products like tea.
About The Author:
Jon Stout is Chairman of the Golden Moon Tea Company. For more information about green tea,oolong tea and chai tea go to goldenmoontea.com
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