Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire - Tapa dura

In November 1961 I placed an advertisement in the Personal Column of The Times: 'Tobacco or Tea Estate; young man (21), good A-levels (Science), now fruit farming, seeks position view management.' I only had one reply. A Mr Maclean Kay wrote to say he owned a tea estate in Nyasaland, now Malawi, and was in Britain looking for a manager. If I was interested, I should arrange an appointment to meet him.

So began a five-year sojourn in the tea plantations of colonial Malawi. Within weeks Roy Moxham was managing 500 acres of tea and a 1000-plus workforce. His presence there, at the very end of Empire, was not fortuitous: after all tea production had been started in Africa by the British.

When tea reached Europe and America from China in the 17th century it was more of a medicine than a beverage, its high price restricting its use to the wealthy. Initially the British government imposed a heavy tea tax, which led to murderous smuggling and eventually to the Boston Tea Party. When imports from China became too huge the British started to grow opium to finance them, resulting in war and the British humiliation of China. Britain then decided to plant tea in its own empire - in India, Ceylon and finally Africa. Over one million workers were moved to the plantations, like slaves, bought, sold and stolen. When the British lost their empire, they retained control of much of the world's tea business, and high profits and low wages still flourish in the time of the teabag, multinational tea brands and supermarket strangleholds.

Tea is now the world's most popular drink. Yet behind its wholesome and refreshing image lies a violent and murky past, one entertainingly, though often chillingly, exposed here by Roy Moxham, with his trademark mix of scholarship and humour.

Roy Moxham is the author of Tea - Addiction Exploitation and Empire (2003), The Great Hedge of India (2001) and The Freelander (1990). Born and brought up in Evesham, Worcestershire, he went out to Africa in 1961 as a tea planter in Nyasaland, later Malawi. He spent 13 years in Eastern Africa before returning to London to set up a gallery of African art.

Subsequently, Roy Moxham qualified as a book and paper conservator. After working at Canterbury Cathedral Archives he became Senior Conservator of the University of London Library. Following retirement in 2005 he devotes his energies to writing and giving talks. He spends half his time in London and the other half travelling, principally in India.

Reviews:

The Great Hedge of India
'Both scholarly and funny - a rare combination. It surprised me and I hugely enjoyed it.' Eric Newby

'Moxham has written a parable at once light-handed and melancholy about the cruelty and folly of Empire.' Sunil Khilnani, Financial Times

Tea - Addiction, Exploitation and Empire
'A very well-written book and enlightening on all aspects of the desirable shrub.' Financial Times

'A masterful historical study.' Good Book Guide