Ben Waber reviewed The empire of tea by Alan Macfarlane
An Incredible History of the Economic, Political, and Public Health Implications of Tea
5 stars
The Macfarlanes have put together a compelling history of how tea influenced the economic, political, and public health fortunes of the world, seen mostly through the lens of the British. The data arrayed here is persuasive - on the economic side, the volumes of tea that were produced fueled global trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, and this further impacted the political fortunes of China, India, and the UK. The UK's efforts to buy tea with silver and then opium from China are laid out in gruesome detail, as are the appalling conditions and push for tea cultivation in the UK's new Indian holdings. There's not nearly enough information from non-Western sources until the chapter on tea workers, where important and insightful interviews with workers themselves are included. The public health side is less convincing, with the authors arguing that tea was primarily responsible for Japan's city agglomerations due …
The Macfarlanes have put together a compelling history of how tea influenced the economic, political, and public health fortunes of the world, seen mostly through the lens of the British. The data arrayed here is persuasive - on the economic side, the volumes of tea that were produced fueled global trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, and this further impacted the political fortunes of China, India, and the UK. The UK's efforts to buy tea with silver and then opium from China are laid out in gruesome detail, as are the appalling conditions and push for tea cultivation in the UK's new Indian holdings. There's not nearly enough information from non-Western sources until the chapter on tea workers, where important and insightful interviews with workers themselves are included. The public health side is less convincing, with the authors arguing that tea was primarily responsible for Japan's city agglomerations due to its health benefits. While boiling water is obviously a good way to get rid of certain pathogens, the evidence here and beyond is circumstantial and correlational, although it definitely merits more research. The idea that the UK was able to go through the industrial revolution in large part because of tea consumption is at the very least an intriguing, unique hypothesis that I would like to see research on. Highly recommend