SUGAR 91 



should be dependent on foreign countries for its sugar, seeing 

 that enough cane sugar can be produced in our tropical depen 

 dencies to supply all our needs, while in addition to this beet- 

 root and maple sugar can be produced in the more temperate 

 parts of the empire. 



CHAPTER IX 



TEA, COFFEE, CACAO 



TEA (Thea camellia). Chinese, tsha. 'I did send for a cup 

 of tee (a China drink) of which I had never drunk before.' 

 This entry occurs in Pepys' Diary under the date October 25, 

 1660. Tea had been introduced by the Portuguese into 

 Europe in the sixteenth century, but it was not until nearly 

 a hundred years later that it was brought by the Dutch to 

 Amsterdam, and from there was exported to London. It is 

 amusing to read that ' tea was then so scarce in England that 

 the infusion of it in water was taxed by the gallon, in common 

 with chocolate and sherbet. Two pounds and two ounces 

 were in the same year formally presented to the king by the 

 East India Company as a most valuable oblation > . 1 



Still earlier we hear of two old people who boiled the leaves 

 and spread them upon their bread, but the water, in which 

 the leaves had been boiled, they threw away. For many years 

 the price of tea was high, some of the best kinds costing as 

 much as 10 per pound. 



As to the original home of the tea-plant, authorities differ ; 

 some maintain that it is a native of China, others that its 

 real home is Assam, and that it was introduced from Assam 

 into China at a very early date. However this may be, 

 it was China which supplied the world with tea until 1833, and 

 no one suspected that the plant grew in any other country. 

 In that year it was decided to make tea plantations in Assam. 

 The ground was cleared and plants and experienced growers 

 1 Quarterly Review 



