1. Do people in your country drink a lot of tea?

Which nation comes to your mind first when

you mention tea?
2. Where does tea come from? When did it get to Europe?
3. How did tea become a British habit?

A cup of tea: A British icon?

Wherever you go, right across England, you'll find cups of tea being served from the
everyday cafe to the Ritz Hotel. However, the tea British people drink is not English at all.
The story of tea is part of England's history. It's the story of trade and ships and empire, the
story of medicine and hygiene.

The Tea Trade

England was the last of the great European nations to enter the Chinese and Indian tea trades.
It was the Portuguese, founding the colony of Macao on the south-east coast of China in the
16th century, who first developed a taste for it. They were followed by the Dutch and French.
The first imports of tea to England came in the mid-1650s.
However, it was only in 1662 when King Charles married Catherine of Braganza, daughter of
the King of Portugal, and she brought with her not only the tea-drinking habit, but the
territories of Mumbai (Bombay) and Tangier, as part of her dowry, that tea became a fashion.
These enabled the East India Company to establish a permanent operational base in India,
from where they could supply the English domestic market.
For a brief period during the 19th century, the tea trade relied on great sailing ships known as
clippers. These ships were designed for the long and arduous journey along the Eastern trade
routes, which involved sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.
The tea clippers fell in disuse in 1869, when a route through the Mediterranean Sea and via
the Suez Canal opened, and steam engines replaced sail.

The East India Company

The East India Company, which enjoyed the monopoly of the tea trade for so long, was
founded by Elizabeth I on December 31st, 1600. It had the right to trade in the East Indies for
15 years, but the monopoly was extended indefinitely by James I in 1609. Tea was initially
imported from India, until a trading post was founded in Guangzhou (Canton) in southern
China in 1711.
The Company saw the beginning of its decline in the 19th century. In 1834, the British
government enabled other companies and private citizens to import Chinese tea as they
wished. Then the Navigation Acts of 1849 allowed foreign companies to bring tea to Britain.

Answer the questions:

When was tea imported into England for the first time?
Thanks to whom did tea become a fashion in Great Britain?
What was the name of the sailing ships which were used for tea trade?
When did people replace those ships with the steam engine?
Who founded the East India Company?
What changed the tea trading route and when?
Why did the East India Company begin to decline?

True or False?
From 1609 tea could be imported from China.
The Dutch were the first European nation to enter tea trades.
A Portuguese woman brought the tea drinking habit to Britain.
Clippers were designed to sail through the still part of the ocean around the south of Africa.
When the Suez Canal was opened, the clippers were no longer used.
Until 1711 tea was imported only form India.
The Navigation Acts from 1849 allowed the tea export from Britain.