by Stephanie Hanson Part 2 The British East India Company used opium as a way to raise revenue from the Chinese people to then buy the tea that the English people clamored for. The powerful company practically destroyed the agricultural economy in parts of India, where opium began to dominate the landscape -- opium that …
Day: September 9, 2009
Tea Quality
There are over three thousand varieties of tea, and it would be nice if there were a way to gauge the quality of your tea, even perhaps to grade it. There is, but since tea grades do not follow a worldwide standard, communication is difficult. Green and oolong tealeaves are usually whole and not graded, …
British East India Company, part 1
by Stephanie Hanson Part 1 On New Year’s Eve, 1600, Queen Elizabeth chartered the East India Company. She could hardly have known the lasting impact that that charter would have over the next several centuries. When the English saw the success of the Portuguese in trading with China, they jumped in, along with the Dutch …
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