Tea by Laura Martin

Author:Laura Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8048-3724-8
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Catherine’s influence on England was not only immediate and domestic, but long-lasting and far-reaching as well. Portugal was faced with great competition from the Dutch for trade in the East. Nevertheless, it was still a quite wealthy country, as reflected by Catherine’s wedding dowry. Catherine brought five hundred thousand pounds in ready cash, but more importantly, the marriage union opened up new trade routes, as England was granted free trading rights in Brazil and the Portuguese East Indies. Tangiers and Bombay were thrown into the pot as well, and control of these islands passed to England. Catherine, by nature of her dowry, became an important link between England and Asia.

As a direct consequence of the marriage and the dowry, the British also gained an even stronger foothold in India and made Bombay its base of operations. The British East India Company was granted a new charter from the king that gave it a complete monopoly over all trade and commerce in China and India.

During the latter half of the seventeenth century, tea continued to be more of a novelty for the aristocracy than anything else. By 1675, however, it could also be purchased in food stores, and its popularity continued to grow steadily until, by the end of the seventeenth century, most of the British middle and upper classes were drinking tea daily. It was still expensive, however, and for the working class, tea remained a luxury.

At this point, both black and green tea were being shipped to England. By most accounts, the British imported forty thousand pounds of tea in 1699, and much of this popularity can be attributed to the availability of sugar. Tea, coffee, and chocolate are all inherently bitter, and the addition of sugar to all these exotic imports made them much more palatable. The upper and middle classes, who could afford it, used refined white sugar, while the lower classes drank less-expensive, poor-quality tea mixed with coarse brown sugar or molasses. A cup of high-quality, sweetened tea was an unusual treat for most people.

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