The Trouble with Tea: The Politics of Consumption in the Eighteenth-Century Global Economy

Studies in Early American Economy and Society from the Library Company of Philadelphia

by Jane T. Merritt

How tea’s political meaning shaped the culture and economy of the Anglo-American world. Americans imagined tea as central to their revolution. After years of colonial boycotts against the commodity, the Sons of Liberty kindled the fire of independence when they dumped tea in the Boston harbor in 1773. To reject tea as a consumer item and symbol of “taxation without representation” was to reject Great Britain as master of the American economy and government. But tea played a longer and far more complicated role in American economic history than the events at Boston suggest. In The Trouble with Tea , historian Jane T. Merritt explores tea as a central component of eighteenth-century global trade and probes its connections to the politics of consumption. Arguing that tea caused trouble over the course of the eighteenth century in a number of different ways, Merritt traces the multifaceted impact of that luxury item on British imperial policy, colonial politics, and the financial structure of merchant companies. Merritt challenges the assumption among economic historians that consumer demand drove merchants to provide an ever-increasing supply of goods, thus sparking a consumer revolution in the early eighteenth century. The Trouble with Tea reveals a surprising truth: that concerns about the British political economy, coupled with the corporate machinations of the East India Company, brought an abundance of tea to Britain, causing the company to target North America as a potential market for surplus tea. American consumers only slowly habituated themselves to the beverage, aided by clever marketing and the availability of Caribbean sugar. Indeed, the “revolution” in consumer activity that followed came not from a proliferation of goods, but because the meaning of these goods changed. By the 1750s, British subjects at home and in America increasingly purchased and consumed tea on a daily basis; once thought a luxury, tea had become a necessity. This fascinating look at the unpredictable path of a single commodity will change the way readers look at both tea and the emergence of America.

Genres: History, Microhistory, Nonfiction, Tea

224 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2017

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Trouble with Tea, historian Jane Merritt recounts tea’s history in global trade starting in the middle of the seventeenth century through the end of the American Revolution. Merritt focuses on the economic importance of trading tea during this period for both the British Empire and colonial America. She also highlights how tea took on symbolic meanings, often contradictory, during different phases of colonial America. Merritt’s central argument is that tea had a significant impact on both British and colonial policies leading up to and during the American Revolution and that this impact significantly shaped the events that led to the creation of the United States. By understanding the economic and symbolic significance of the tea trade, the importance of the Townsend Acts, the 1773 Tea Act, as well as protests like the Boston Tea Party and others can be understood more clearly.
Merritt traces the popular consumption of tea in the British Empire, beginning when it was first brought to the English court in the 1660s. Tea quickly became a popular luxury item in England, generating huge amounts of revenue for the king, which helped finance the expansion of the British empire. The East India Company acquired huge amounts of Chinese tea on behalf of the British government to sell to its colonies. In exchange, Parliament granted them charters and special privileges.
To American colonists, tea quickly became a popular staple of everyday life, while the British considered it a reliable source of tax revenue. When Britain began taxing the colonies, tea consumption became highly politicized. When parliament repealed the Townsend Acts in response to protests in the colonies, the only tax to remain was on tea. Merritt suggests that there were two reasons for this. First, the British government wanted to prove that they maintained the right to tax the colonies. Second, after a series of bad investments, the EIC was on the brink of bankruptcy. Parliament considered the EIC “too big to fail,” and creating a monopoly for taxable EIC tea in the colonies was a way to prevent the EIC’s collapse. By maintaining this tax on tea, Parliament could generate much-needed tax revenue but also prop up the EIC, whose failure could be catastrophic for the British economy.
This story is inherently interesting. Understanding tea’s significance to both British imperialists and American colonists paints many of the well-known events during this period in a new light. The British decision to maintain a tax on tea when other taxes were repealed takes on a whole new meaning. When the colonists threw tea overboard during the Boston Tea Party, they weren’t just protesting taxes in the colonies. They were also protesting the people, companies, and the imperial system that brought tea to America. The destruction of tea symbolized a larger critique of the British Empire that couldn’t have been understood without this context. Merritt also suggests that the tea trade played a major role in getting the Constitution ratified. Debates surrounding free trade vs protectionist regulation took into account potential revenue from the tea trade in Asia. Towards the end of the book, Merritt suggests that American demand for tea played an important role in establishing America’s commercial trade empire. Tea seemed to be at the center of a lot of important discussions.
One downfall of the book is that it sometimes reads like an economic journal. There are long stretches describing complex financial processes that can be difficult to understand, although the use of charts and graphs does help somewhat. Merritt’s thought process, however, is logical throughout, and she provides numerous primary accounts to support her claims. Overall, the book is definitely useful for someone interested in gaining a deeper understanding or additional context on British tax policies leading up to the American Revolution and the colonists’ responses to them.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

By looking at the cover, you'd think this book was directed at the general public, but it's really not. The topic is fairly interesting but the writing is dry and deeply academic. If you are the sort of person who knows the basics of the Seven Years War without any prompting (personally, I could've used half a sentence to remind me of the dates and who fought in it) this is for you. But I was more interested in the actual personal experience of tea drinkers at the time and came away disappointed (there's tons of information on how Bohea tea was taxed and who sold it and for how much, but what kind of tea WAS it? how did people drink it? how does it relate to me, a modern tea drinker? so many questions unanswered...)

[Tabitha Reyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a History course in college. I found it repetitive conceptually, and that it would have benefited from another edit.

[Anne Twiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful little book about the economic history of the American Revolution. I recommend reading it concurrently with McCullough's John Adams on a road trip to Boston.