Shennong accidently discovers tea while testing other plants, which would be seen as medicine. (2737 BCE)
Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC) started to use tea more and more especially in medicine.
Tang Dynasty (618A.D.) Tea started to become more of a beverage instead of medicine, seen in everyday life. Becoming more developed in tea production.
1630s Qing Dynasty, power and economic benefits would increase because of the increase in trade with tea to Africa, Asia, and European nations.
1660s Growth in power would expand for China due to trading tea through the East India Company. Tea plantations would contribute heavily to the growth in power.
1760s British would follow in Chinas footsteps and expand their power by trading tea to North America, after receiving it from China and seeing their success.
Mid 1760s power shifts to smugglers due to taxing in the colonies on the imported tea helping many people make money, and making the British lose a lot of income.
Bibliography
Benn, James A. Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2015.
Karetzky, Patricia. ‘Imperial Splendor in the Service of the Sacred: The Famen Tea Treasures’. Tang Studies 2000, no. 18–19 (2000): 61–85.
Benn, James A. “7: Tea comes to Japan: Eisai’s Kissa Yōjōki.” In James A. Benn. Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History, 145-171. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2015.
Pauli, Simon. A Treatise on Tobacco, Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate. Translated by Dr. James. London: T. Osborne, 1746. Eighteenth Century Online Collection.
Liu, Yong. The Dutch East India Company’s Tea Trade with China, 1757-1781. Tanap Monographs on the History of the Asian-European Interaction, V. 6. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
