How Britain Stole Tea
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- Опубликовано: 16 сен 2024
- Richard Tilney-Bassett is a documentary filmmaker and photographer based in London.
Instagram: / richardtilneybassett
Portfolio: theglasspasspo...
By the 1800s Britain was deeply in love with the humble cup of tea… not to mention the significant tax profits its import provided. But Britain’s East India Company was less enamoured with being subject to the whims and closed trading practices of its sole supplier - China. So they devised a plan to secure their own tea production operation, which involved enlisting the talents of Robert Fortune - a plant hunter - to steal his way into China’s interior to procure the necessary secrets.
Music
Valiant - Luar
Intro - Luar
/ luarbeats
/ @luarmusic
Memories - Ryan Taubert
Vague - Amaranth Cove
A Place Beyond Belief - SLPSTRM
Sources
For all the Tea in China - Sarah Rose
Darjeeling - Jeff Koehler
A Journey to the Tea Countries of China - Robert Fortune
Wellcome Collection (CC by 4.0)
Library of Congress (CC by 4.0)
David Rumsey Map Collection
This is sensational, mate. Spent 16 years in full-time state education in the UK, and this video contains more history on this subject & the British Empire than received during that entire period.
What did the British not steal from other countries? I would like to know...
My dad used to joke with us that the queen of England had sticky fingers, and we would always laugh and argued that the queen can buy whatever she wants because she’s rich so why would she steal,and my dad would say how can she buy things that weren’t for sale? 🤯
Because no other countries were producing it!
Democracy and parliamentary democracy. We gave it to you. Get over it. Britain had to stop your people Making women widowers walking into fire. .
@ Adrienne toussaint actually a lot,
We invented a lot,
Guarantee you have a light bulb in your house (light bulb was invented by a brit. Thomas Edison stole it). You like watching TV. Invented by a brit
How about you're phone do you like using you're phone guess what it was invented in the UK,
You obviously like the internet wonder who could have invented. The world wide web,. Ow yeah a Brit,
They did give the world English. A fairly useful language.
Wait. What??? They stole tea too? Damn! 😂
Great documentary. Nice graphics, well written narrative, and just the right length to enjoy a cup of chai!
Great piece dude. Your style reminds me of Johnny Harris. Being an Indian this story hit me in the feels.
Best feedback I could hope to get; love his work! Thank you!
oh it hit you right at the G spot, dear Indian, huh
Being Indian it hit you in the feels? Did you grow up in the 1800s? 🤣 You know that the East India Company is gone now right?
@@Humannbeing I don't need to grow up in 1800s to see effects of colonialism. After east india company crown took over India. India is still a part of commonwealth.
@@sanketpatil497 It has been far too long past that now. Far past that. What could still effect India today thats to do with colonialism?
Wonderful piece!
Add to this tale, all the sea faring merchant ship companies, middlemen, stockholders, wholesale and retail merchants, et al, who too made a fortune by dipping their feet into this Great Steal.
Just another tidbit I gathered recently. The reason tea became popular is because the slave plantations in the Caribbean and North America produced sugar which was added to tea making it a more popular drink. And tea in India was cultivated in plantations with indentured labourers whose circumstances were barely better than slaves.
Very good narrative and well told. Did you know the term "Chai" in India actually means tea? Chai is the Chinese pronunciation meaning Tea.
It's actually Cha but some dialects does say chai
@@AmelieZh Chai is far more common although some regions pronounce it as cha.
@@thechosenone1533 i think she means in China. its called cha there, but chai in India
It's not that Indian tea is cheap, but Indian tea growers are slaves and don't have to pay wages. Those who were tricked by the British to grow tea in Darjeeling were Buddhist monks from Fujian Province, China.
❤️da Mera
This was excellent man. You deserve more reconition. I'm subbed.
Wonderful video! Thank you!
Awesome, we’ll done Brit’s I’m gonna have a cuppa right away.
The quality of this video is amazing. The audio could use some work but still great video.
This video alone made me subscribe to you. You need way more than just under 300 subscribers.
It must have taken you a very very long time to have put this video together. It is nicer than many television channels and professional RUclips videos from those news and so on 😁😁
mate this is good, short, but dense in quality, in the tea term speaking, your video is a high class, very well put!
Fantastic doco as I sit in my own tea house shrine drinking a wonderful pot of Twinings Earl Grey tea! And appreciate tea even more from this well put together program 😊.
One of the best videos I've seen on RUclips! I just said to Ollie I wish we could steal your filmmaking powers - Sebastian
Beautiful storytelling
Drinking tea after watching this is awesome .
Britain also caused alot of the border dispute between countries lol
What an amazing video 👍 thank you
great video - super informative and to my knowledge, very accurate (never had heard of the botanist who stole the plant)
Such an excellently made and informative video. Thank you!
Very factual and pertinent!
The import of tea started not to drink but as by product of packing material used in transporting porcelain on sea voyages. Originally this was just thrown away at a time when beer drinking for all was standard, while the wealthy could drink chocolate. While the tea typically seen in UK is very different to that seen in China. This tea when exported was virtual all within the empire, hence why even today you see roughly three parts, the way China and the area drinks tea and the teas it drinks, the way the UK and places like Austral drinks tea and the type of tea they drink , and large parts of the world being coffee rather than tea focused for they where never part of the empire.
Tea was always a drink in China and way too precious to be thrown away as packaging materials.
Great historical recap! I wish the British had learned how to make more than just red tea.
interesting content
Clearer/louder audio would be a spot to work on. Otherwise really great, subscribed!
Perfect Cup of Tea////and Cucumber Sandwich///ha ha hee hee////
This is a so disgusting piece of dark history Thank you so much for this video.
why? the Chinese got tomato, corn, potato brought by Europeans
how tf?if you say imperialism then i say britain was in the right(exept in the opium part) . I think you don't know how bad monopolies are
True, but English will never call their cruelty and crimes for what they are
*Laughs and sips tea in British*
@@NoName-hg6cc we banned Slavery's, built infrastructure in India which according to my Indian friend are the only decent buildings standing today. We stood up and defeated fasism.
Why not have a go at the Turkish, Spanish or French. Sick off it.
gongfu loose leaf still better than tea bags 🗿
to be fair Britten was not the only country taking what they could get, just like France did. however most was bought by trading . like lumber from Hawaii and Indonesia
بارك الله لكم
So they didn't steal Tea? They worked with Chinese tea professionals and grew their own. So odd that you would explain that and then label it 'stealing'
A white person talking about this. Blessed are you 😭😭😁
How did you make image appear and wipes gradualy in your editing..im mew to editing want go learn
Music is too loud, bud. At times can’t hear you
The video is so nice, but the music gets in the way a bit.
GREAT 9MINUTES but the voice chosen for the narration is way too low and therefore not clear. Maybe re-do with a different clear voice might be better
What was in that China tea?
I believe the boiled tea help the body and help blood flow. That is why they drink tea after meal to help clean out the guts
Thanks.
Polyphenol, antioxidant
J.V.Darnell
强盗盗贼 本质从未改变
We're the tai-pan😁🚀
They have stolen gold, artefacts, drained India out of wealth and numerous other colonies and you have pointed out tea😅😅? Good initiative but it's like pointing out a few grams of gold after having looted the entire mine itself ☺️😅
Boring narrative. You do realize Britain OWNED India just like she owned all of her other colonies as well, don't you? How is it stealing when it's yours in the first place anyway? 🤦
@@charananekibalijaun8837 They did not own all of India. A lot were kind of like vassals (princely states). They confiscated a lot of property and taxed a lot of villages. Also, britain broke a bunch of treaties and obligations like the nawab of bengal. It is stealing because they did not own their subjects property, they confiscated it which is illegal... What if US took properties of american citizens in puerto rico?
@@OnlyOneHunnids you mean like they took Hawaii? lol
@@OnlyOneHunnids it's all in the treaties, like this for example:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Allahabad
They earned the right to tax the subjects. You might call it stealing, but that doesn't make it more true. History cannot be distorted. Propaganda will always fail in light of historical truth my friend
@@charananekibalijaun8837
TAXATION IS THEFT.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_as_theft
What Mr Tilney-Bassett did not properly highlight or adequately focus upon here, in this otherwise informative & interesting short video-documentary, was that generally, in Georgian & Victorian times (And also in all of the other eras preceding them too!); that opium & now other so-defined narcotics, was then along with tea, coffee, sugar & other raw-materials were all viewed much differently than they are nowadays! In fact, they were similarly lumped together & regarded as just normal trading commodities (NOT as we do now, regarding opium & other narcotics, as being illegal substances & contraband!!), & accordingly, they were historically then legally handled & transacted just the same as timber, cotton, tobacco, alcohol, iron-ore or any other natural resource of those days were, as well!
In reflecting & evaluating history, you cannot effectively or impartially view actions or events through modern-eyes & formulate any accurate or reasonable opinions, when regarding any historical matters, if such ideas are then based on spurious & preconceived notions of contemporary moral or ethical superiority or likewise that subsequently influence any such viewed hindsight’s with then resulting skewed, opinionated & unsound judgements & viewpoints!! Such tendencies also often serve to only emphasize & promote the often intended Negative aspects of the subjects, at the real cost of more complete, accurate, balanced & unbiased depiction or narrative that would also highlight all the relevant Positive outcomes, in more equitable & accurate assessments of all the facts as being presented!!
Nevertheless, in this specific case, despite many arduous challenges & dangers prevalent, but still though his persistence, his historically recorded & recognized own best-efforts, Mr Robert Fortune & those of his erstwhile employers’, the British East India Company’s, their initiative & enterprise eventually paid off handsomely! Britain 🇬🇧 & subsequently, independent India 🇮🇳, Bangladesh 🇧🇩 & Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 & others were thus also able to secure the huge economic benefits of creating their own, respective transplanted, internal ‘TEA GROWING & MARKETING INDUSTRIES’, which is still & has been huge domestic-workers employer, in all three countries for the past 180 years that have contributed vast amounts of jobs internally & importantly earned for all their respective economies billions £ ,€ & $ etc in foreign trade earnings & tax revenues over many generations for these countries!! It also broke the hitherto Chinese monopoly (Of more than 3,000 years duration!!) of this commodity & industry & this lowered prices & increased availability & accessibility for all the world’s consumers in Tea Products to enjoy their own “Cuppas”, without hitting their pockets (All of Us!) ever since too hard, either!!
A truly successful example of capitalism & the Free-market working to overcome supply & availability challenges & trade-embargoes, to consistently deliver a valuable daily commodity at affordable rates into all our homes & work-places!
*GIVE ME THE PLANT*
Based
My foot they give us democracy.
British stole only tea? You are so merciful.
Not really
I buy mine from asda
The queen divided many nations, today her home is divided. Life is a full circle. What goes around, comes around.
Hi Good morning, ,
What a whiny concept: "stealing tea from China".... How about stealing potatoes from South America or chickens from Malaysia? Or Africans stealing motor cars from Germany? Stop all this incessant whining about "appropriation" and "stealing". China didn't own tea... In fact, we should applaud the liberation of tea from monopolists for the benefit of humankind.
god I love globalization
everyone wins
Purchased
not pretentiously stealing if the Earth gifted it to us, Stealing would be the wrong labelling for Roberts work!
It’s not STEAL.
Stolen? Funny.
Stolen, such a funny labelling for Roberts work the Earth gifted us the fine treasure of tea.
I don’t understand how people see this as stolen art or stolen work it’s simply inaccurate.
Man you have only subscribers
It is very sad
UK is a joke..😂
Also known as: globalisation.
We were better. Cry about it 😂😂
What's this "we" shit? Are you seriously taking credit for anything that happened centuries ago by nobody you're descended from? LMAOOOOO!
The British, the French and the Dutch were pirates at the Caribbean sea stealing gold 🪙 and silver from the Spanish ships🏴☠️🦜🏴☠️☸️🛳️
The Spanish stole everything from the Americas and Filipinas lol
Spain stole it from the Aztecs and Incas !!!!!
So were the Spain
How did no one notice he was white?🤨🤪🫤
The eyes and nose would have been a giveaway
Book.of.shashi.taroor