The British Empire: A source for good or evil? February 2014 | Page 7

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The British Empire is a power based on the tea trade. In fact, it exports and imports of tea
across the world.

1892 newspaper advertisement for the tea company Lipton

One of the major commodities exported
from India to Britain was tea. The East
India Company began commercial tea
production in Assam in the 1820s. A
growing industry, by 1900 there were
around 4000 tea estates in north and south
India and over 2000 in Ceylon (now Sri
Lanka). This popular drink generated a
hugely profitable industry, and a tea culture
emerged in Britain with its own
quintessentially English customs and
rituals. The advertisement below against
from the tea manufacturer Lipton, promises
a cuppa direct from ‘the tea garden to the
teapot’. The romanticised image depicts a
beautiful
Indian
plantation
worker
consuming a comforting beverage. Clearly
it does not reflect the harsh realities of life
as a tealeaf picker.

Vocabulary 
• Assam : It's a state situated on the tip of India
and a black tea grown in northeastern India.

Questions
Doc 1 Draw lines to match the places and the
products:
Ceylon Canada England Africa Tasmania

• East India Company : originally chartered as
the Governor and Company of Merchants of
London trading into the East Indies
• Commodity: an article of commerce,
something of use, advantage, or profit

Flour

Bananas

Tea

Cheese

Apples

Jamaica
Oranges

Doc 2 Make a complete description of the map.
Doc1,2,3  towards the test:
Create a paragraph on trade and food in the
British Empire