One of the earliest to allude to the subject was Giovanni Botero[3] in 1596, in his treatise on the causes of the magnificence and greatness of cities; he remarks that “they (the Chinese) have also an herb, out of which they press a delicate juice, which serves them for drink instead of wine, it also preserves their health and frees them from all those ills that the immoderate use of wine doth breed unto us.”
It will be observed that in these early accounts much stress is laid on the beneficial action of tea in preserving health and curing disease, and this was in all probability the first use to which the shrub was applied. Thus one of the Sloane Manuscripts, dated 1686, gives a long list of “qualities and operations,” attributed by the Chinese to the tea plant. It was said to purify the blood and kidneys, cure giddiness and pains in the head, vanquish superfluous sleep and heavy dreams, open obstructions, clear the sight, strengthen the memory, sharpen the wits and quicken the understanding.
About the year 1657, Thomas Garway of the Exchange Alley issued a sheet proclaiming the virtues of tea; the alleged qualities being almost identical with those given in the Sloane Manuscript just mentioned. This was a sort of advertisement of his place of business and he tells us that “many noblemen, physitians, merchants, and gentlemen of quality” sent to town for the “said leaf,” and “daily resort” to his house in Exchange Alley to drink tea. He informs us that prior to 1657 it was only used as a “regalia in high treatments and entertainments,” and for presents for princes and grandees.
Another early reference is from an advertisement in the “Mercurius Politicus” for 1658. “That excellent, and by all physitians approved China drink, called by the Chineans, Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee is sold at the Sultaness-head, a Cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.”[4]
A further early reference is by Thomas Rugge[5] which may be seen in a manuscript at the British Museum. “About this time the parliment that was forced out the 13th day of October, 59; it was called by all sorts of persons the Rump, because they war soe few in number; and there war also att this time a Turkish drink to be sould, almost in every street called Coffee, and another kind of drink called Tee, and also a drink called Chocolate which was a very harty drink.”
It is rather difficult to reconcile this account of the prevalence of the use of tea as a drink with that of other writers of the period. Thus Pepys writing a year afterwards under date September 25, 1660, says: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.” This clearly points to the novelty of the practice in 1660 for Samuel Pepys was Secretary of the Admiralty, and a public man of keen observation, and it is almost impossible if tea was commonly sold as a drink at this time that he should have been unaware of the fact. Macaulay[6] also mentions that about this time tea “had been handed round to be stared at.” It seems therefore clear that the herb was quite recently introduced in 1660, and it is possible that Rugge under the name of “tee” is referring to hot infusions of other leaves for it is well known that herbs were commonly used for making different sorts of teas as sage tea, &c.[7]
The first official notice of tea is in the Act of Parliament (12 Carolus II., c 23), by which a duty of eightpence was charged on every gallon of coffee, chocolate, sherbet, and tea made for sale. In 1662 Charles II. married Princess Catherine of Portugal, and the Poet Waller has immortalised tea-drinking by a birthday ode in her honour.
The muse’s friend, tea, does our fancy aid,
Repress those vapours which the head invade,
And keeps that palace of the soul serene
Fit, on her birthday, to salute the Queen.
Two years later the King was a recipient of the then valuable gift of 2lb. 2oz. of tea from the East India Company.
In Pepys Diary under the date of June 28, 1667, we read “Home and there find my wife making of tea; a drink which Mr. Pelling, the Potticary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions.” Tea, therefore, was just coming into vogue. In 1669 the East India Company received two canisters containing 143¹⁄₂ pounds; the price at this time was sixty shillings a pound. The Company imported 4713 pounds in 1678, but this amount probably glutted the market, for in the six subsequent years the imports were quite inconsiderable. In 1697-99 the imports averaged 20,000, in 1700-08 they reached 80,000 pounds, in 1728 over a million pounds, in 1754 four and a half million, in 1763 six million, and in 1779 nearly ten million pounds.[8] It is not necessary to follow the imports during the whole of the 18th century, speaking generally it was found that excessive duties led to smaller imports, and at the same time to a large increase of smuggling and other irregularities.