Chinese workers pack congou tea into export chests, 1800.
Wellcome Center, London
Differing Views on the East India Company
Jillian Northern, Spring 2025
There are two sides to every story, and the rise of the East India Company in the 18th and 19th centuries offers a striking example of how global commodities like tea can both enrich a culture and conceal exploitation. The global significance of tea, especially in relation to British imperial power and economic interests, provides a lens through which both the celebrated and the more troubling aspects of this period can be understood. Though tea came to symbolize British refinement and daily ritual, its journey from plantation to teacup was steeped in colonialism, coerced labor, and international conflict.
In the work “For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History”, Sarah Rose sets the scene for the tea trade. She explains, “For nearly two hundred years the East India Company sold opium to China and bought tea with the proceeds.” In a reciprocal but destructive loop, “China... paid for the drug with the silver profits from tea.” This created a highly dependent and exploitative trade relationship between Britain and China, one that persisted long after the Emperor in Peking officially banned the sale of opium in 1729.
As a result of this lucrative trade, the East India Company grew into a powerful and politically influential force. According to the National Maritime Museum, “In the 1700s, the Company became a huge and politically influential organization, vital to the British economically” and how “based in Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, it was known as ‘The Honorable East India Company.’” The Company operated not only as a commercial entity but also as an imperial force, governing vast territories and maintaining its own private army. Its role in shaping British policy and society was significant, and the wealth it generated helped embed tea as a central part of British daily life.
This perception of power and prosperity is reflected in the 1803 painting “Ships of the East India Company at Sea” by Nicholas Pocock. The image portrays the Company’s naval strength and dominance in international commerce. The majestic ships, shown navigating open waters, symbolize Britain's growing control over global trade routes, particularly in commodities like tea, which shifted from being a luxury to a cultural staple in Britain. The painting emphasizes national pride and technological advancement during this era.
By contrast, a more sobering image appears in a 19th-century lithograph titled “A Tea Plantation in China: Workers Tread Down Congou Tea into Chests”, created by an unknown artist and now housed in the Wellcome Collection. This artwork depicts Chinese laborers preparing tea for export under demanding conditions. The scene exposes the labor dynamics behind the tea trade, reflecting the broader exploitation that fueled Britain’s economic expansion. As described in the journals of Robert Fortune, a British botanist who covertly acquired Chinese tea plants and knowledge, the Empire’s tea trade heavily relied on systems of coerced and underpaid labor.
Although the transatlantic slave trade was abolished in the early 19th century, the British Empire continued to rely on exploitative labor structures in its colonies and trading partners. Workers in India and China, as well as indentured laborers in other parts of the empire, were subjected to systems of control that echoed earlier forms of oppression. These realities were often hidden from the British public, who instead saw tea as a symbol of comfort, elegance, and national identity.
Together, Pocock’s painting and the lithograph from the Wellcome Collection reveal contrasting narratives about the popularization of tea in Britain. These visual sources illuminate both the global scale of tea’s rise and the complex, often troubling systems of labor and colonial power that made it possible. Today, tea remains a cherished symbol of British life, yet its legacy is steeped in the empire’s pursuit of power, profit, and control.
