The East India Company loses its China monopoly
The Company's exclusive right to the China trade ended in 1834, and within five years Britain had a company growing tea in Assam. The two facts are directly connected.
1834
Fixed by record. A surviving record fixes this to the year.
Documented. Attested in the historical record, and sourced to it.
What happened
The Charter Act ended the Company's exclusive rights in the China trade. Private British firms entered the tea trade in force, competition and volume rose, and the urgency of finding a source of tea inside British territory increased sharply.
Why it matters
It is the hinge between the two halves of tea's modern history. Before it, Britain buys tea from China on China's terms; after it, Britain sets out to grow its own — in Assam within five years, in Darjeeling within a decade, and in Ceylon within four.
Who was involved
The English East India Company
companyLost its monopoly on the China trade under the Charter Act 1833, effective 1834
The British Parliament
stateLegislated the monopoly away
Connected events
- 1757 to 1842 — The Canton system: one port, one season, one set of merchants
- 1839 — The Assam Company, and the start of plantation tea
- 1839 to 1842, with a second war 1856 to 1860 — The Opium Wars, seen from the tea trade
- 1848 to 1851 — Robert Fortune's expeditions into China
What this touches
Producing countries
Compiled from published sources by people who are not historians of this region or period. Where accounts conflict the disagreement is reported rather than settled.