From the very beginning, Upton Tea Imports has been proud to offer quality tea education in our quarterly catalog to accompany our premium tea selection. Join us in revisiting our classic article series Reversals of Fortune in the Tea Industry, where we examine fascinating turns of events in tea and trade history with surprising outcomes.
At the beginning of this week’s installment, we find France and England, ancient rivals with a feud fueled by trade tensions, at war once more at the end of seventeenth century. Trade’s dramatic effect on England’s power meant that they could raise money without increasing taxation, positively influenced by the prosperity of trade.
In an age where wars were won with gold rather than iron, how did a series of misfortunes preface the success of the tea industry through the rise of the British East India Company? And how did the great fire of London lead to the creation of a national bank which would carry the nation to prosperity?