Subjects
Tea and the Tea-Table in Eighteenth-Century England
General Editor: Markman Ellis
Volume Editors: Richard Coulton, Ben Dew and Matthew Mauger
978 1 84893 025 4: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
In the eighteenth century tea and coffee were both recent arrivals to English culture and commodities of conspicuous and luxurious consumption. Unlike coffee however, tea retained its luxury status – its high cost and associated rarity making it a favourite drink at Court. It also came to be seen as a domestic drink and one more often drunk by women, in contrast to the male-dominated coffee-house.
But the history of tea gains a more political edge after the East India Company transformed the market in the mid-eighteenth century. Increased consumption brought with it taxation, smuggling, and conflict between Britain and the Colonies, leading to violent action at the Boston ‘Tea Party’ in December 1773. Tea was also railed against by the Methodist preacher John Wesley, who saw the increase in tea-drinking as the corrupting influence of consumerism on the poor.
This four-volume, reset collection takes as its starting point the earliest substantial descriptions of tea as a commodity in the mid-seventeenth century, and ends in the early nineteenth century with two key events: the discovery of tea plants in Assam, India in 1823, and the dissolution of the East India Company’s monopoly on the tea trade in 1833. The majority of the material here is rare and has not previously been the subject of scholarly study of this kind.
- The works included have no modern editions, with many being very rare
- Most of this material has never been edited to an academic standard before
- Tea, like coffee, continues to have a major intellectual and cultural resonance in the twenty-first century
- Will allow scholars to assess the unique contribution made by tea to British and American culture
- Includes a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a concise bibliography of relevant secondary material
- Consolidated index in the final volume
Sample pages
Contents
Volume 1: Literary Representations of Tea and the Tea-Table (Editor: Markman Ellis)
Nahum Tate, Panacea: a Poem upon Tea (1700); ‘On Tea Tables and Visiting Days’ (1707); Peter Anthony Motteux, A Poem upon Tea (1712); Letters for and against Tea-Drinking (1722); ‘Discourse II. Of the Expensive Use of Drinking Tea’ (1722); ‘Discourse II. Melancholy Considerations of the Universal Poison’ (1722); Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany (1723); Tea. A Poem. Or, Ladies into China-Cups (1729); James Bland, ‘Of her Temperance’ (1733); John Waldron, A Satyr against Tea (1733); Tea, a Poem. In Three Cantos (1743); John Lockman, To the Long-Conceal’d First Promoter of the Cambrick and Tea-Bills (1746); The Tea Drinking Wife, and Drunken Husband (1749); A New Tea-Table Miscellany (1750); George Colman, ‘Number LX. Thursday, March 20, 1755. A Dialogue Between a Tea-Table and a Card-Table’ (1755–6); ‘Epistle XI. A Description of a Public Tea-Drinking’ (1773); Timothy Touchstone, Tea and Sugar (1792); The Art of Making Tea, a Poem, in Two Cantos (1797); Hans Busk, ‘The Tea’ (1819)
Volume 2: Tea in Natural History and Medical Writing (Editor: Richard Coulton)
Thomas Garway, An Exact Description of the Growth, Quality and Vertues of the Leaf Tea ([c.1670]); Samuel Price, The Virtues of Coffee, Chocolette, and Thee or Tea ([c.1690]); J[ohn] Ovington, An Essay upon the Nature and Qualities of Tea (1699); Daniel Duncan, Wholesome Advice against the Abuse of Hot Liquors (1706); James Cuninghame, ‘Part of Two Letters to the Publisher from Mr James Cunningham, F R S and Physician to the English at Chusan in China’ (1707); The Volatile Spirit of Bohee-Tea ([c.1713]); Of the Use of Tobacco, Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, and Drams (1722); A Treatise on the Inherent Qualities of the Tea-Herb (1750); John Coakley Lettsom, The Natural History of the Tea-Tree (1772); Count Belchilgen and J A Cope, An Essay on the Virtues and Properties of the Ginseng Tea (1786); H Smith, ‘An Essay on Foreign Teas’ ([1795]); Jean-Baptiste Breton, ‘Monkeys Gathering Tea’ (1812); The History of the Tea Plant ([1819])
Volume 3: Tea, Commerce and the East India Company (Editor: Matthew Mauger)
Humphrey Broadbent, The Domestick Coffee-Man, shewing the True Way of Preparing and Making of Chocolate, Coffee and Tea (1722); Great Britain, Commissioners of Excise, Instructions to be Observed by the Officers Employ'd in the Duty on Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate, in London (1724); The Case of the Dealers in Tea ([1736]); [Matthew Decker], Serious Considerations on the Several High Duties which the Nation in General (as well as it’s Trade in Particular) Labours Under (1743); Considerations on the Duties upon Tea, and the Hardships suffer’d by the Dealers in that Commodity (1744); Jonas Hanway, ‘Essay on Tea’ (1756); Stephen Theodore Janssen, Smuggling Laid Open, in all its Extensive and Destructive Branches (1763); Pehr Osbeck, A Voyage to China and the East Indies (1771); The Chinese Traveller (1772); John Entick, ‘Empire of China’ (1774); [William Smith], Tsiology; a Discourse on Tea (1826)
Volume 4: Tea and Politics: the Boston Tea Party (1773) and the Commutation Act (1784) (Editor: Ben Dew)
The Present State of the English East-India Company's Affairs (1773); Boston, December 1, 1773, At a Meeting of the People of Boston, and the Neighbouring Towns, at Fancuil-Hall (1773); Boston, December 2, 1773. Whereas it has been Reported that a Permit will be given by the Custom-House for Landing the Tea now on Board a Vessel Laying in this Harbour (1773); Mechanic, To the Worthy Inhabitants of New-York (1773); Poplicola, To the Worthy Inhabitants of the City of New-York (1773); Christmas-Box for the Customers of the Pennsylvania Journal (1773); The Report of the Lords Committees (1774); Arthur Lee, A True State of the Proceedings in the Parliament of Great Britain and in the Province of Massachusetts Bay (1774); John Cartwright, American Independence the Interest and Glory of Great Britain (1774); An Impartial History of the War in America, between Great Britain and her Colonies, from its Commencement to the End of the Year 1779 (1780); James Hawkes, A Retrospect of the Boston Tea-Party (1834); Association for the Protection of Trade against SMUGGLING of Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, and Cocoa Nuts, &c (1780); Advice to the Unwary: Or, an Abstract, of Certain Penal Laws now in Force against Smuggling in General (1780); Richard Twining, Observations on the Tea and Window Act, and on the Tea Trade (1784); Tim Twisting to Dick Twining; or, a Seaman to a Teaman (1785); A Narrative of the Conduct of the Tea-Dealers (1785); Francis Baring, The Principle of the Commutation-Act established by Facts (1786); Jona. Thompson, The Commutation-Act Candidly Considered (1786)