For Private Circulation.
The EARLY HISTORY
of
the TEA INDUSTRY
in
NORTH-EAST INDIA
By
HAROLD H. MANN,
Reprinted
from the
BENGAL ECONOMIC JOURNAL
1918
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE TEA INDUSTRY
IN NORTH-EAST INDIA.
By Harold H. Mann, D.Sc.
During the period of my engagement as Scientific Officer to
the Indian Tea Association ( 1900-07 ) I had unrivalled opportunities
to collect materials concerning the establishment of the tea
industry in north-east India, both by having access to old reports
which were placed in my hands, more particularly by the courtesy
of the Superintendent of the Assam Company, by conversation with
people now no longer with us who remembered the early days of the
industry, and by examining the files of daily newspapers and
weekly and monthly periodicals which exist in Calcutta. This
being the case, I collected together a large number of copies
of some documents, and notes from others bearing on the subject,
for I felt that as the tea industry is practically the only successful
Indian industry in the establishment of which Government took
any large part, a study of it would probably be very useful in these
days when so much is being stated about industrial development.
For ten years these materials and notes have remained with me
unused. Their interest has, however, by no means diminished in
the interval,—and I trust that the record of the pioneer labours,
often against the strongest opposition and. most disheartening
circumstances, will be of some advantage and encouragement to
other pioneers m connection with the agricultural and industrial
development of India.
1 From its original introduction into use in Europe the supply
of tea had been a Chinese monopoly, and the trade in it to England
had been a monopoly of the East India Company. In the early
part of the nineteenth century, on the renewal of its charter, the
(4 )
East India Company lost its trading monopoly, and as the trade in
tea was one of the most valuable parts of its activities, it became
anxious to obtain a rival source of supply entirely under its own
control. Moreover, especially in the thirties of the last century,
Japan broke off all trading connection with the West, and suspicions
were rife^ that China would do likewise, and so at once cut
off the source of supply of tea from England.
As a result of these political changes and suspicions, great
anxiety arose for the production of tea in India, if such production
were by any means possible. It was already known that the tea
plant would thrive under very widely varying conditions. I It had
been naturalised in Brazil, where it had grown magnificently, in
St. Helena, in Java, in Prince of Wales' Island,—but the tea made
in these places was very unsatisfactory. Of that made in Prince of
Wales' Island (Penang) it was stated that it had " acquired the
appalling property of a nauseating and slightly emetic drug." It
was, furthermore, very much doubted whether tea grown in India
would not be useless in the same way. " Everywhere," said a
Calcutta writer in 1834,^ " it thrives, as far as mere vegetation is
concerned, but nowhere except in China has any successful effort yet
been made to render it a profitable product of industry. We have
a suspicion that this arises from causes which will be found a bar
to the profitable cultivation of the plant in India. Admitting that
localities for it may exist in our territories, approximating in
climate to its native country, we should fear that,, as the value of
tea depends upon its aromatic flavour, differences of soil may
produce changes as fatal as those which occur in tobacco and in the
vine, and that the hyson and pekoe and twankay and souchong of
India, will be very little like their high flavoured namesakes of the
celestial empire
In spite, however, of a somewhat general feeling at least of
doubt as to the likelihood of the success of tea growing in India,
( 5 )
there were sufficient believers in its possibility that in January,
1834, the Government of Lord W. Bentinck appointed a committee
to consider the question of introducing a supply of plants from
China, to decide the most suitable and likely place for growing
them, and to make arrangements for bringing the seed, and making
the experiment.^
In some respects this committee acted with more energy than
most similar bodies. They issued a circular (March, 1834) asking
all opinions which were likely to be of any value as to where tea
was most likely to be successful, and they arranged at once that one
of their members (Mr. G. J. Gordon)" should go to China and bring
back plants and seed, and also cultivators from China who knew
how the plants should be grown and how the tea should be prepared.
Both these actions of the " Tea Committee " have had results
which have continued to this day. The circular was issued and
Gordon vrent to China. The first resulted in the definite decision
that the tea plant occurred in Assam : the second brought about
the introduction of the first lot of China tea seed,—the curse of the
India tea industry.
But the discovery of the tea plant of Assam was only a
secondary result of the issue of the circular of March, 1834. Before
this, replies were received from people in every corner of India who,
on the strength of false analogies of climate and soil, convinced the
.Tea Committee that the proper places in India for tea cultivation
were in order of suitability ( 1 ) " On the lower hills and valleys of
the HimalayaRange." (2) "On our Eastern Frontier."
( 3 ) "On the Neelgherries and other mountains in Central and
Southern India." What was meant by the Eastern Frontier I do
not know. It seems doubtful whether Assam was referred to. By
the Himalayas, however, Darjeeling was certainly not meant, but
rather Mussoorie, Dehra Dun and the neighbourhood. The
»This Tea Committee consisted in the first instance of Mr .Tames Pattle.
Mr. G. .7. Ooninn and Dr. Lumqua, a Chinese doctor, who had long lived in Calcutta
* At a salary of Rs. 1 ,000 per month.
( 6 )
committee, led largely by Dr. Waliich, the then Superintendent of
the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, maintained the superiority of the
Himalayas in this region for several years,—I think, in fact, until
the committee was dissolved some years later.
But the circular had been received, among other people, by
Captain Jenkins, then in charge of the Assam Valley, and a man of
great enthusiasm for the development of that newly-conquered province,
and one who knew its possible products better than almost
anyone living. He lived at Gauhati, but he knew, as most of those
who had had experience of Upper Assam knew, that tea was already
existing in the country of the hill tribes ( Singphos ) at the northeast
of the valley, and, not only this, but was used for making tea
by the Burmese method.' This fact had been known at least since
1815. In that year it was spoken of by Colonel Latter, again in
1818 by Mr. Gardner, again in 1824 by Mr. Bruce who grew it in
his garden at Sadiya a year or two later (in 1826), Time and again
plants had been sent to Calcutta for identification,—by Mr. David
Scott, Commissioner of Assam, by Mr. Bruce, and by others. But
there seems to have been an extraordinary reluctance on the part
of the botanical authorities in Calcutta to acknowledge the existence
of tea in India. The matter could only be settled finally, of course,
if flowers and seed were sent,—but it was always apparently the
part of the botanists to doubt and deny, rather than to encourage the
idea that tea was present in the country.
On the receipt of the Tea Commitee's circular, however,
Jenkins passed it on to a young officer who was stationed at Sadiya,
named Lieutenant Charlton, who had also seen and drunk the
so-called tea which was growing in the country of the Singphos and
also near the Dibru river. He immediately sent to Calcutta ( on
8th November, 1834) not merely the tea but also samples of the
fruit and leaves of the so-called tea trees, and this enabled the
plants to be idejjtified with certainty as tea, identical with that of
China. Letpet Tea,
( 7 )
In informing the Government of this fact the Tea Committee
waxed enthusiastic and wrote as follows :—" It is with feelings of
the highest possible satisfaction that we are enabled to announce to
his Lordship in Council that the tea shrub is beyond all doubt indigenous
in Upper Assam, being found there through an extent of
country of one month's march within the Honourable Company's
territories, from Sadiya and Beesa to the Chinese frontier province
of Yunnan, where the shrub is cultivated for the sake of its leaf.
We have no hesitation in declaring this discovery to be by far
the most important and valuable that has ever been made in matters
connected with the agricultural or commercial resources of this
empire. We are perfectly confident that the tea plant, which has
been brought to light, will be found capable, under proper management,
of being cultivated with complete success for commercial
purposes, and that consequently the object of our labours may be
before long fully' realised."
The effect of this announcement on the policy of the " Tea
Committee " and of Government was immediate. Mr. Gordon who
had been sent to China to fetch seeds and tea makers was recalled,
as his mission was now considered unnecessary, and a scientific expedition
was sent to Assam to bring back authentic and full information
as to the extent and character of the tea there found.
In accordance with this decision Gordon returned, but not
before he had obtained and sent off several lots of tea seed from
China. As it has often been suggested that he w^as fooled by the
Chinese and put off with inferior seed, it may be well to give a
contemporary account, evidently inspired by Gordon^ himself, of
what he did and what seed he got. " The first parcel of the seed
was despatched personally by Mr. Gordon, in very good condition,
and having been procured from the Bohea hills, is supposed to have
been collected from plants bearing only the good sorts of black tea.
This seed on its arrival in Calcutta was distributed partly for
' Letter from the Tea Committee to the Government of India, 24th December 1834,
' Calcutta Courier, September 14, 1835.
( 8 )
cultivation in Assam, partly on the Himalaya bills. The second
and third batches were both despatched from Canton during
Mr. Gordon's absence, and from the channels through which they
were procured are supposed to have been only thf-. seeds of inferior
kinds of tea. Both these parcels were sown in the Botanic Garden
here; the last of them arrived out of season and in such a state as
not to vegetate, but from the second batch about a lac of plants were
procured, of which about 20,000 were sent up to Assam, as many
more to the garden at Mussoorie, and a couple of thousands to
Madras." There was evidently more than a reasonable suspicion
that part at any rate of these first importations represented not the
seed of the best of the Chinese tea plants, but any rubbish which
(not even being inspected by the Tea Commissioner in China) could
be palmed off on the unsuspecting Indian authorities. This was
not the case always with later importations, but some of the first
were certainly as doubtful material as could have been obtained.
The recalling of Mr. Gordon from China was a step about the
advisability of which much controversy arose later. Wallich, the
Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, whose influence
was then paramount, held that if tea really occurred in Assam, then
there was no need to import seed. He wrote^ :—" The committee
have maturely weighed the subject of the new discovery in Upper
Assam in all its bearings. The genuine tea grows there, or an
indigenous plant which may be cultivated to any extent. There is
no ground for supposing that the various sorts of tea seeds imported
from China will produce anything but the shrub in its natural
state, retaining nothing of the variety whose name the seeds bear :
it is therefore useless and unnecessary to import from China at a
great expense and great risk what may be had, as it were on the
spot, to any extent almost in a state of perfect freshness and
strength for vegetating. Your continuance in China, so far as
regards supplies of seed, is therefore useless and unnecessary."
This policy, as we have since proved by experience, was correct
:
» To Mr.TJordon, as Secretary of the Tea Committee on 8rd February 1835.
( 9 )
the reason given for it was as fallacious as could be,—and was one
of the points which led to bitter controversies a little later between
Wallich and Griffith, his colleague on the scientific deputation to Assam.
In the meantime the local progress had been coiisiderable. Tea
plants, originally supposed to be only found growing wild in the
Singpho hills, had been discovered in the Manipur hills by
Major Grant, in the Tippera hills, and in a number of new localities
in the Assam Valley. Further Lieutenant Charlton, who had supplied the
samples which had finally determined that tea occurred in Assam, had been
asked to experiment with the growth of the plant at Sadiya where he was stationed,
with Mr. Bruce, who had been in Assam for a number of years on his own
business and who had certainly grown the plant since 1826, as his assistant.
This latter arrangement was not to continue long. In the disturbed
state of the country, Charlton had to go out to subdue a rebellicm,
and in attacking a stockade he was wounded and had to leave the
province.' Bruce took charge of the experiments, and from this
time onward he becomes almost the principal figure in the local
development of tea culture for a good many years.
The scientific deputation to Assam to which I have referred
was appointed early in 1835 and consisted of Wallich, William
Griffith,—one of the most distinguished botanists who ever worked
in India,—and McClelland, a man of reputation, as a geologist.
They left Calcutta on 29th August, 1835, and went straight to
Sadiya, arriving in January, 1836. This deputation was not a very
happy party. It found the experiments in growing tea at Sadiya
in a very crude state. There had been tea nurseries at Sadiya but
they had been trodden down by cattle, and little could be seen. The
country was so disturbed that Wallich got frightened and wished
to return without seeing all the country. The others explored the
country fairly thoroughly, however, and the reports on what was
' Englishman, 1st September 1835.
( 10 )
found by Griffith" and McClelland" are among the most valuable
documents we have as to the condition of indigenous tea in Assam
in 1836.
The questions which they set themselves to answer were
—
( 1 ) Is tea indigenous to Assam 'i
( 2 ) Are the conditions such as to make it probable that a
tea industry will succeed ?
( 3 ) W hat are the conditions in Assam under which it is
most likely to grow successfully.
(4) Is there any necessity to import Chinese tea seed.
The first of these questions they left doubtful, and doubtful it
has remained. They found the tea plants scattered all over the
country to the south of the Brahmaputra in Upper Assam, while
there were none to the north of the river. They always occurred,
however, in the plains in groups, almost as if they had been planted,
and oiily in the Singpho hills did they become apparently more a
part of the ordinary vegetation of the country. These groups of
tea trees in the jungle, however, were exceedingly common. The
" Muttuck " country between the Dibru and Dehing rivers was full
of them, and other places like Gabro Purbut at the foot of the Naga
hills where tea had been found, were visited by Griffith and
McClelland. But the country had been in a state of war for
twentyrfive years on and off and completely desolated. The people
in the hill round the valley were known to know tea and to drink
it. Hence it was quite possible that these were remnants of former
tea gardens. In spite of this both Griffith and McClelland
considered it probably indigenous.
In discussing the second point, Griffith went at great length
into the similarity of Upper Assam to the tea tracts of China. He
concluded finally :
"
(1 ) that there is a similarity of configuration
between the valley of Assam and two of the best known tea
provinces of China; (2) that there is a similarity between
•" Transaction of Agri-Horticultural Society of India, Vol. V, 1837-38.
" Transaction of Agri-Horticultural Society of India, Vol. IV, 1837.
( 11 )
the climates of the two countries both in regard to
temperature and humidity; (3) that there is a precise
similarity between the stations of the tea plant in Upper
Assam and its stations in those parts of the provinces of
Kiangnan and Kiangsee that have been visited by Europeans; (4)
that there is a similarity both in the associated and the general
vegetation of both Assam and those parts of the Chinese tea
provinces situated in or about the same latitude." This conclusion
undoubtedly did a good deal to strengthen the confidence in IJie
possibility of Assam as a commercial tea-growing district, though
I doubt whether any of these statements are very accurate.
As regards the conditions under which tea would best grow in
Assam, McClelland {loc. cit.) had nothing to go on except the situation
of the indigenous tea which he found. Of this, he said :—" It
appears that the tea plant of Assam grows spontaneously under
slightly distinct circumstances as follows : (1) in the level plain ; (2)
on embankments or mounds lightly raised above the plain. Cuju,
Noadwar, and Tingrai are examples of the first, Nigroo and Gubrupurbut
are examples of the second. The first class of situations
are distinguished from the general plain by a porous structure and
the peculiar character of maintaining a dry surface under exposure
to, excessive moisture; the second by a structurt; less porous than
the first. In both the plants are situated at the verge of inundations
which prevail during the greater portion of the y'ear on the
adjoining lands. The important peculiarity of these sites is that
they are less secure from inundation by their elevation than by
their structure. Indeed the lower sites are scarcely raised more
than a yard above the adjoining flat plains, which are exposed to
inundation not merely during falls of rain, but also from the
overflowings of the great rivers." It is remarkable how clearly
McClelland saw the need for thoroughly efficient drainage if tea
'' The names of most of these sites will be at once recognised by those who know the Assam
tea industry.
( 12 )
is to flourish It would have been a good thing if everyone since
then had seen it equally clearly.
As to whether it was necessary to import Chinese tea seed,
there was, as we have already hinted, a violent difference of opinion
between Wallich and Griffith. The former held that there was no
need : the latter that Chinese seed is required I have quoted
Wallich, I will now quote Griffith. " The most thoroughly
philosophical course," said Griffith, " is to cultivate imprimis, on
the tracts alluded to, the best procurable plant taking at the same
time every precaution towards reclaiming the Assam plant The
first step must be therefore the importation of seeds with a small
proportion of the best plant from China : this is still more
necessary from the total annihilation of those previously
imported,—and the importation must continue to be, for some
years, for obvious reasons, an annual one."
Griffith's position was thoroughly logical. A wild plant is not
likely to give as good produce as one which has been cultivated for
many generations. But the result of its adoption has been disastrous.
As a result of it Gordon was sent back to China, for many
years China tea seed was brought over regularly, and every thing
was done to plant it instead of the " wild " indigenous tea of
Assam. Wallich was illogical, but he was right; Griffith was
logical, but the result of his recommendation was disastrous. It
shows how dangerous it is in such matters to reason by analogy.
The general result of the visit of the scientific deputation to
Assam was to commit the Government to go ahead in a definite
effort to introduce tea cultivation in Assam. Previously the work
had been very half-hearted. A nursery in the compound of the
bungalows of Charlton and Bruce at Sadiya or in a small plantation
at Chykwa,—the cutting down of the tret;s in a few of the
groups of tea plants in the jungle,—the importation of a few
Chinese tea makers, the whole under the general supervision of
Bruce,—this was all that had been done, and it had beeri done very
badly. As regards the nursery at Chykwa, Griffith reported out
( 13 )
of 20,000 plants put out, in August, 1835, not more than 500
remained alive and those " in the last stage of decline. The
ground was literally matted down with low tenacious weeds, and
it is a fact that on our arrival at the nursery not a tea plant could
be seen owing to the. uniform green colour of the surface." As
regards the tea colonies in the jungle, he said that Tingri, where
operations were commenced, looked unhealthy in 1836. " Great
parts exhibited considerable confusion : almost all the tea plants
had been cut down : the underwood was cleared away, and all the
forest trees either felled or in process of being so, the debris being
burnt on the spot among the still living bases of the tea plants !
From this time onward, however, the energy put into the
matter was very largely increased. Bruce, as Superintendent of
Tea Culture", put a large amount of energy into the work of clearing
the tea colonies in the jungle, allowing them to grow, and making
tea from them. The following note on his work published in 1839"
seems to give but a fair account of all that we owe to him.
" Mr. Bruce, a gentleman who by long residence in the province
had become habituated to the climate and well acquainted with
the country and inhabitants, was appointed Superintendent of Tea
Culture. His attention has previously been given to other pursuits,
and he does not seem to have possessed any knowledge of botany
or horticulture, or indeed any; special qualifications for the post,
but his intelligence and activity supplied every deficiency, and
enabled him to render very valuable service. He discovered that
the tea plant, instead of being confined to a few isolated spots, was
over a great extent of country" and though his researches
were at first vievved with great jealousy by the native chiefs, he not
only succeeded in removing their prejudices but persuaded them
to contribute their hearty assistance to his labours."
I do not pretend that Bruce ever discovered the way to grow
and make tea so as to be really profitable. As we shall see, nobody
" Asiatic Journal, Vol. 29 (1839), pp. 53-61.
.'^ He published a map of th«se in 1838, which shows how widely he must have travelled in
what then was almost pathless jungle.
(14 )
did this really until 1852,—but lie was an admirable pioneer,
found. out the habits of the tea.plant, got ovei joany of the initial
difficulties, made drinkable tea, and to him almost alone is due the
bringing of the cultivation and manufacture to such a point that
a commercial company was ready to take it up.
The first tea, good enough to send down to Calcutta, made in
Assam, was produced in 1886. Five boxes were made of tea
prepared from leaves ; gathered out of season, dressed
according to the process used for black tea, and with a
very imperfect apparatus, It was approved in Calcutta.
The then Viceroy (Lord Auckland) drank it and pronounced
it of good quality, and it was considered by those
interested that the question might be regarded as settled that tea
'Could be made in Upper Assam,' The following year still
better tea was made, and was pronounced to be a mercantile commodity.'
The difficulty of packing was beginning now to be felt,
and remained a serious problem for several years, until tea lead
was made on the spot,—a not very easy operation. In 1838 the
first tea was sent to England. I will speak of its reception in
Xondon a little further on.
The position of the cultivation and manufacture at the stage
we have now reached is well described in a small but very interesting
pamphlet published by Bruce in 1838. This" gives such an excellent
account of what tea culture and manufacture meant to Bruce
in those early days that I must quote a few passages.
" The tea plants of Assam have been found to grow, and to
thrive best, near small rivers and pools of water, and in those places
where after heavy falls of rain, large quantities of water have
accumulated, and in their struggle to get free, have cut out themselves
numerous small channels. On the top of this land you must
^•CalciMa Courier, 21st November 1836.
'" Calcutta Courier, 21st Ueeeiiiber 1836.
" Daily Neton, Calcutta, 2nd March 1838. '
'" Entitled " An Account of the Manufacture of the Black Tea as now practised at Suddeytt
in Upper Assam, by the Chinamen sent thither for that purpose, with some observations on the
culture of the plant in China, and its growth in Assam by 0. A. lirucc, Superintendent of Tea
Culture.'
( 15 )
fancy a thick wood of all sorts and sizes of trees and amongst
these the tea tree, struggling for existence : the ground here and
there having a natural ditch cut by the rain water, which forms
so many small islands, , ... the land tfeing never wholly
inundated in the rain, though nearly so. This kind of land is
called Coorkah Mutty." I have never met with the tea plants
growing in the sun, but invariably under shade, in thick woods, or
what we call tree jungle and only there and in no other jungle
whatever .... The largest tea tree I ever met with was twentynine
cubits high,.^° and four spans round : very few I should say
attain that size."
He goes on to say that he had failed always -in planting tea
when put in the sun : on the other hand, his transplants did very
well in the shade. He was astonished at the hardiness of the tea
plants and quotes the following experience. In one case the
Assamese villagers " took the tea plant to be so much jungle, and
therefore nearly cut all of it down close to the -ground, and set fire
to the whole, and then planted paddy or rice on the spot. The crop
of paddy had just been cut and brought in when we saw the plants,
the shoots were coming up from the roots and old stumps thick
and numerous .... I afterwards converted this piece of ground
into a tea garden on account of the Government, and now it is one
of the finest I have." Bruce says he succeeded in getting tea plants
to grow from cuttings, provided they were in the shade. If so, he
must have worked very carefully for it is decidedly not- easy to do
so. In regard to plucking of tea leaf, Bruce does not seem to have
attempted to go beyond what was at that time falsely understood
to be the Chinese method,—that is to say to pluck the whole of the
young shoots as soon as they had four leaves on them, do the same
when a second lot of leaves grew, and take a third similar crop,
—if it grew after such terrible treament.
The method of making black tea adopted by Bruce's Chinamen
is interesting to those who know the process as carried on at
" Nowadays still called Korhaui land.
™ Say 43 to 44 feet.
( 16 )
Present. "Withering of the leaf was always done by preference in
the sun and the leaves were taken down and clapped between the
hands several times during the process. The preparation for
rolling also included a short heating in iron, pans over a straw or
bamboo fire. The rolling was done, of course, by hand, very much
in the manner one sometimes still sees used at the very beginning
of the tea season. No definite fermentation process was included
and, after rolling, the tea was dried on sieves over charcoal. The
drying was done in several stages, and the intermediate times
during which the tea got cool gave the chance for some fermentation
to go on.
Such were the conditions of production and of manufacture
during the succeeding two or three years. New tea colonies were
found in the jungle and were opened and extended by local
Assamese labour almost entirely in the so-called Muttuck country,
and tea was made, in gradually increasing quantity by or under
the supervision of a number of Chinese who had been introduced
for the purpose. The whole development was assisted by the fact
that the British Government took over in the latter part of 1838
the direct administration of the territory of Poorunder Sing,
containing the greater part of what is now the Sibsagar district
of the Assam valley.
During 1837 nothing really more than samples of tea were
made. In 1838, however, enough was produced for a number of
boxes to be despatched to England, where their arrival was
awaited with great inleriest. On 6th May 1838, Captain Jenkins,^*
the Commissioner of the Assam valley, announced their despatch.
These reached England in the latter part of the year and were
brought to auction on 10th January 1839, There were only eight
chests and each chest was sold separately. The following contemporary
account of the sale will have considerable interest.
" The first importation of tea from the British territories in
Assam, consisting of eight chests, containing about 350 lbs., was
^ Letter to Lord Betitinck from Gauhati.
i 17 )
put up by the East India Company to public sale in the commercial
sale rooms, Mincing Lane, on the 10th January, 1839, and excited
much curiosity. The lots were eight, three of Assam souchong,
and five of Assam pekoe. On offering the first lot (souchong)
Mr. Thompson, the sale-broker, announced that each lot would be
sold, without the least reservation, to the highest bidder. The first
bid was 5shillings. per lb., a second bid was made of 10s. per lb. After
much competition it was knocked down for 21s. per lb., the purchaser
being Captain Pidding. The second lot of souchong was bought
for the same person for 20s. per lb. The third and last lot of
souchong sold for IQs. per lb., Captain Pidding being the buyer.
The first lot of Assam pekoe sold after much competition for 24.s.
per lb., every broker appearing to bid for it : it was bought for
Captain Pidding. The second, third, and fourth lots of Assam
pekoe fetched the respective prices of 25s., 27s. . and 28s.
per lb., and were also purchased for Captain Pidding. For the
last lot (pekoe) a most exciting competition took place,—there were
nearly sixty bids made for it. It was at last knocked down at the
extraordinary price of 34s. per lb., Captain Pidding was also the
purchaser of this lot and has therefore become the sole proprietor
of the first importation of Assam tea. This gentleman, we
understand, has been induced to give this enormous price for an
Article that may be produced at Is. per lb., by the public-spirited
motive of securing a fair trial to this valuable product of British
Assam.^^
As suggested in the above extract the prices given were
purely for the sake of advertisement. The tea was not good but it
was a curiosity, and its arrival was followed in the latter part of
1839 by another lot, this time of ninety-five packages eighty-five of
which were sold on 17th March, 1840, by auction as before. A very
complete account of this consignment was given by the East India
Company to the Indian authorities with careful criticism by nearly
all the leading London tea brokers.
" Asiatic .Journal, 1839,
( 18 )
The tea was evidently much better than the last, and was
valued from 2s. llb. to 35. 3d. per lb. It still fetched, however,
a fancy price nearly all going between 8*. and 11s. per lb. except
what was called toychong, evidently a very coarse material, which
fetched between 45. and 55. per lb. With regard to them
Messrs. Twinings and Co. of London" well summarised the general
opinion by saying, " Upon the whole we think that the recent
specimens are very favourable to the hope and expectation that
Assam is capable of producing an article well suited to this market,
and although at present the indications are chieily in reference to
teas adapted by their strong and useful flavour to general purposes,
there seems no reason to doubt but that increased experience in the
culture and manufacture of tea in Assam may eventually approximate
a portion of its produce to the finer descriptions which China
has hitherto furnished."
Thus six years after the Tea Committee was originally formed
and experiments commenced, we have really for the first time a
reasonable quantity of Indian tea put on the market. So far the
Government had borne the whole cost of the experiment, : and had
every reason to congratulate itself on the progress made. It had
been proved that tea existed in Assam, that it would grow, that
the leaf could be manufactured and that the manufactured tea was
a marketable commodity comparable with that obtained from
China. It now remained to convert a Government experiment .;
into a real commercial venture,—to take it out of the hands of the
experimenters and place it in those of businessmen, who would
have to make it pay. Between the present stage and that final one
when money could be made from tea culture there was still a long
way. to go. Many disappointments had to be faced and many
losses made, and the preliminary steps only were soon found to
have been completed. Twelve years more, in fact, had to pass
before tea culture could be considered a commercial success. The
story of those twelve years will form the subject of a second article.
" Ietter dated 12th February 1840,
( 19 )
11.
In my last article I traced the history of the tea industry in northeast
India to the time when tea from the plantations in Assam was
really on the market. This point was reached by the end of 1838
or the beginning of 1839, though the public were hardly satisfied of
the soundness of the undertaking till a year or so later. At that
time it, must be remembered the whole of the so-called plantations in
the AssamValley, chiefly consisting of groups of indigenous tea
plants in the jungle which had been cleared of other growth and
weeds and had been cut down so as to form leaf-bearing bushes, were
in the hands of Government under a Superintendent of tea culture.
This Superintendent, Mr. C. A. Bruce, the real founder of tea
cultivation in Assam, had opened out such axesm in many places.
Many of his gardens were near Dibrugarh, more near the Tingri
and other smaller rivers in Upper Assam, others were at the foot of
the Naga hills as far to the south-east as the well-known garden of
Gabro Purbut.
All that had been proved, however, by 1839 was that tea would
grow, and that commercial tea could be made for which a market
existed in London. But the matter was getting beyond the stage at
which the Government wished to control it. Their idea was only to
prove its success and then hand it over to private enterprise. Early
111 1839, hence, both in Calcutta and London, a number of capitalists
apparently approached Government for the transfer of the existing
plantations to themselves and for the creation of a monopoly of tea
cultivation in the AssamValley in their favour.
The first move was made in Calcutta, where a company termed
the Bengal Tea Association was formed in February 1839, with the
approbation of the Government."^ Almost immediately after
another company of London merchants came forward for the same
purpose. The Times, in April 1839, wrote as follows :—" A joint
stock company is forming in city for the purpose of cultivating the
newly discovered tea plant- in Assam. Their intention is, in the
' Englishman, June 29th, 1839.
( 20 )
first instance, to open a treaty with the Supreme Government in
India for the purchase of the East India Company's plantations and
establishments in Assam, and afterwards to carry on the cultivation
of tea there, for the purpose of importing it into this country. The
project has been taken up M^ith so much avidity, principally by the
mercantile houses trading vv^ith India and the leading firms in the
tea tr«ide that all the shares were appropriated in a few days and
before any public notice of it had appeared. The capital to be
raised is £500,000 and it is stated that a communication has already
been opened with the Board of Trade and the East India Company,
preparatory to a negotiation for the purchase of the Assam
territory."
The two—that is to say the Calcutta and the London companies
—combined their forces almost immediately. It was obvious that at
the stage things had reached there was no room for two such
ventures and by the middle of 1839 they had agreed to join interests.
This was suggested, as was stated in a meeting of the Calcutta
branch,^ in order that " the junction of such interests as were now
combined would induce His Honour in Council to consider that no
better guarantee could be given to the Government of Bengal for the
early establishment of this important trade upon a bold and
energetic scale." At this meeting a resolution was passed " that
the Bengal Tea Association do form a junction with the London
company on condition that the local management be conducted by a
committee of directors to be elected exclusively in this country."
Thus was originated the peculiar constitution of the pioneer tea
company—the Assam Company—in its early days whereby it had
two controlling bodies—one in London and another in Calcutta,—an
arrangement which seems almost to have invited disaster.
Ir^ the meantime, the formation of the Assam Company in
London, though it received the approval of the heads of the East
India Company, did not do so without opposition. This was
apparently partly due to a fear that the Company would be given a
' On May 30th, 1839.
( 21 )
monopoly, and partly to a belief that it had been engineered for
reasons not given out to the world. At a meeting of the proprietors
of the East India Company (June 19th, 1839) the opposition was led
by Sir Charles Forbes, and he got an assurance that no exclusive
privilege in Assam would be granted to the Company. This did not
satisfy him, however, and he stated that " he feared, although they
were told of the immense advantage which must result from this
plan, although it was said that the people of this country, as well as
the people of India, Mahomedans and Hindoos, would profit to an
infinite extent by this scheme,—that it, notwithstanding, would all
turn out to be a humbug."'
It was recognised that apart from actual technical difficulties
in the cultivation and manufacture which were not, as we shall see
later, sufficiently considered at the time, the chief obstacles to the
success of a truly commercial enterprise were the lack of labour and
capitial. Captain Jenkins, the administrator of Assam, described
the country as a land flowing with milk and honey, with provisions
abundant and easily procured, and only lacking these two
necessaries. The capital was now provided by the Assam Company,
the lack of labour remained, and as we know, has remained almost
till to-day one of the chief obstacles to the development of the tea
industry.
' It was well, however, that the difficulties in the provision of
labour and in the technical management of tea gardens and the
manufacture of tea were not fully realised by the promoters of the
proposed company. As it was, there was much enthusiasm both in
London and Calcutta, and as a result of the union of the two sets of
interests, the Government agreed to hand over two-thirds of the
experimental tea gardens m Assam to the new company. This being
the ease, a " deed of settlement " was made among the subscribers
to the Company to remain in force until a charter, or an act of
Parliament, was passed constituting them a company as was the
usual custom in those days.
' Asiatic Journal. Meeting held June 19th, 1839
( 22 )
The organisation of the Company was peculiar. As already
stated it had a double board of directors whose powers were divided
as follows. The duties of the Calcutta local directors were "the
local management of affairs in India in the purchasing, improving,
and clearing lands in Assam and elsewhere in India and of buying,
renting, or building necessary warehouses, offices, and other
buildings in India and in obtaining, employing and removing
officers, managers, clerks, servants, labourers and generally in
superintending and conducting all the business and affairs of the
Company there, and fulfilling contracts for that purpose.
" Provided always," as the deed goes on to say, " that they shall in
ail respects conform to these presents and any rules and regulations
made by a general meeting .... and any directions for their
guidance given by the General Directory of the Company."^
The Company having been formed, two-thirds of the experimental
plantations in Assam were handed over to the Company on
March 1840, and Mr. Bruce joined them as Superintendent of the
Northern Division with headquarters at Jaipur. The other
division of the Company's plantations had its headquarters at
" Nazeerah "' which has remained to this day the headquarters of
the Company. A gentleman named Masters was appointed as
Superintendent of this division. The arrangement with Government
was that the lands were to be occupied for the first ten years
rent free, and at the end of this time the assessments were not to be
higher than for rice lands generally. The cultivation of the poppy
for opium was entirely prohibited.
Labour difficulties began from the first day. Bruce had used
local labour, aided by a few Chinese, But in the first report from
Masters it was stated that there was little local labour, but that the
Assamese were beginning to work, " and for the important art of
tea manufacture, they seem particularly adapted, and likely to
supply eventually all the labour that will be required."^ This was
' Report Assam Co, , for 1840 (London), dated May 7th„ 1841.
* Now generally written Nazira.
• Letter quoted in report dated May 7th, 1841 (London).
( 23 )
obviously, however, not enough and great efforts were ma,de to get
labourers from outside. It must never be forgotten that Assam had
been almost depopulated before it came under British protection by
civil war and by an invasion from Burma. Any large enterprise
had therefore in a very large measure to provide its own labour.
The first attempt to fill this need was by the import of Chinese
coolies. A large number of Chinese coolies were brought round
from Singapore, but " they were selected without discretion. Every
man with a tail was supposed to be qualified to cultivate, manipulate,
and prepare tea. They were sent up without adequate control. At
Pabna they quarrelled with the natives, or the natives with them :
some sixty were captured by the magistrate, and consigned to jail,
and the rest refused to proceed without their brethren. Their
agreements were therefore cancelled arid they returned to Calcutta
committing depredations in their progress. On their arrival in the
City of Palaces, they seemed to revenge themselves on society, for
the papers were daily filled with police reports of the outrages they
committed. They were at length caught and sent off to the Isle of
France, the planters of which will doubtless consider that it is an
ill wind, indeed, which blows no one any good."^ The London report
of the Assam Company put it more shortly when it said that the
Calcutta Board imported " several hundreds of Chinese." " These
men turned out to be of a very bad character ; they were turbulent,
obstinate, and rapacious. Indeed they committed excesses which on
occasions endangered the lives of the people among whom we had
sent them, and it was found almost impossible to govern them. So
injurious did they seem likely to prove that their contracts were
cancelled and the whole gang with the exception of the most expert
tea makers dismissed." Thus ended the first attempt to bring
Chinese labour to the Indian tea plantations.
But labour had to be obtained if development was to go on, an^
hence a large number of " Dhangar Coles " were recruited. But
misfortune dogged the footsteps of the pioneers. Cholera broke
' Friend of India, September 9th. 1841,
( 24 )
Out among six hundred and fifty-two' of them who were proceeding
to Assam/and the survivors disappeared in one night and no trace
of them was ever found. Labourers from Chittagong were also
useless. And among such coolies as were on the plantations in
Assam, the mortality was very high indeed. Deaths occurred with
appalling frequency also among the European and other planters.
In the first year the Company lost the services of Dr. Lumqua, a
Chinese doctor long established in Calcutta who had consented to
assist the Company in its early stages in Assam and of four
Europeans from its small staff. The Assam Company, indeed,
began very early to feel the difficulties of climate and of labour
supply which have been among the greatest which the industry has
had to fight.
The absolutely unoccupied cha'-acter of the country, at any rate
in the area worked from Nazira is illustrated by two letters from
Masters. In the first of these he says " I have now been in this
district eighteen months, and know comparatively little about it,
owing to the dense tree forest and coarse high grass jungle with
which the land is all overrun, so that when travelling one can see
nothing but what lies in his immediate route and I am continually
finding fresh patches of ground occupied by the sites of former
villages or gardens or temples or tanks of beautiful water or small
patches of tea plants and immense tracts of waste land." A second
letter illustrates another aspect of condition. " It was with great
difficulty that I could procure elephants when I first came here : I
could not purchase one ^at any rate. ... A herd of elephants,
however, having gone off from Jorehaut in that direction " (towards
Gabro) "they were followed and thirteen of them secured."
Nevertheless in spite of the labour and health difficulties , the
Company had a considierable area of tea in cultivation by the end of
1840, and at the annual meeting in Calcutta (August 12th, 1841)
there was stated to be 2,638 acres in actual production. The
production was, however, by no means intense, for the average
number of plants per acre was only 457 ! As has already been
( 25 )
indicated, most of the area consisted of groups of tea plants found
in the jungle, cleared and cut down for leaf yielding. The total
amount of tea made this year was 10,7l21bs. The cost had, however,
been enormous up to the end of 1840. £65,457 had been sent to
India from London. Naturally a good deal of this had, however,
been absorbed in capital expenditure. A steam boat had been built
and purchased in Calcutta of which we shall hear later. A saw
mil) had been sent to Assam, to be set up at Jaipur, and no less than
Rs. 1,23,275 is put down in the Calcutta Board's report for " Labour,
lost and unproductive."
At this stage the Company was still sanguine in spite of
difficulties, and they ventured to estimate production in future
years, as rising to 40,0001bs. in 1841 and to 320,0001bs. in 1845 !?
We shall see how this estimate was falsified in every particular.
The condition of the whole enterprise at this time, the way in
which the management was in the hands of their Chinese tea
makers, and the unsatisfactory character of the European assistants
sent to Assam are well shown in the following quotations from
letters from Mr. Masters. On February 12th, 1842, he writes to
the Directors :—" You will please to observe that these tea makers
(Chinese) are very great gentlemen; even those who receive but
Es, 3 per month consider themselves so, and object to do anything
e|se but make tea. When spoken to, they threaten to leave the
service if they are insulted by being asked to work. Gradually this
will wear away as we shall soon have them under our control, and if
they continue saucy, we may take a convenient opportunity of
making a strike for two or three months, and when they lose their
pay, they will probably become sensible that they are dependent on
the Assam Company for their livelihood." Mr Masters hardly
gives one the idea of a tactful manager!
With regard to the European assistants who had been sent he
wrote in another letter. " Hitherto I have been overwhelmed with
'Calcutta Board Report, Assam Co., published in Friend 6/ India, 9th September 1841. The
Shareholders' meeting was held on llth August 1841.
(26)
assistants many of whom have been unaccustomed to agricultural
employment, but the greatest inconvenience attending the assistant
establishment is the unhealthiness of the climate; it so often happens
that after much difficulty has been experienced, and the assistant is
becoming acquainted with his duty, and he and the natives are
becoming a little reconciled, the assistant falls sick, and is obliged
to leave his post : if another is sent, the same difficulties and
inconveniences are repeated It must be evident to the Directors
that a passionate European entirely ignorant of the language and
entirely ignorant of every part of his duty can but be worse than
useless." I can quite understand Mr. Masters' annoyance, but my
sympathy goes out to the young Englishman, landed in a very
unhealthy country, absolutely in the jungle, with nothing to relieve
the tedium of continually driving coolies to work at a job which
neither he nor they understand. When we remember that the
amount allowed for an assistant's house was but Rs. 300, that there
was no sanitation, and that the unacclimatised European was
planted down, and got fever, most probably, before he had been there
more than a few days, and was never afterwards really free from it, —
we could hardly expect anything but despair, irritability, illness
and often a speedy death.
In the second London report,' though things are still stated to
look promising, there begins to be a doubt. Nothing more is, said
about the labour question and so we may consider that this is
temporarily solved. The kind of gardens at this time is well
illustrated by figures given both by Masters and Bruce. I quote
some at any rate of the names of the gardens, as. they may interest
those in Assam at the present time. Gabro Purbut consists of 44
poorahs,^" of which 10 poorahs were large plants, 20 poorahs
rniddling plants, and 14 poorahs small plants and seedlings. Satseia
• Report dated 9fch May 1842.
'» The figure given for the area of a poorah varies. It is poraetimes spoken of as 3 acres. In'
ihe present report it is given as 1'21 acres which I think is the figure which should be taken in
these reports.
{ 27 )
had 213 paorahs. Cherideo had 23 poorahs. Rokanhabbi had
350 poorahs nearly all just planted. Deopani had 20 poorahs. All
these names will be recognised as being still included in the Assam
Company's property. Masters states that he planted his seedlings
five feet apart, and he considers that the cost of clearing ahd
planting a poorah of tea will be Rs. 100, while the annual cost of
upkeep would be Rs. 50 per poorah. Taking a poorah as 1-21 acres,
these will be equal to Rs. 83-3 as capital cost and Rs. 41-7 as annual
cost of upkeep, per acre.
In the other division, in the control of Mr. Bruce, the sites of
several of the gardens will be recognised as being now in the Tingri
Tea Company's estates, and also in the company's working near
Jaipur. Kahung had 31 poorahs of tea, 11 poorahs newly sown.
Tingri (including Ballyjan and Tipling) had 34^ poorahs. Hoogrijan
had 31 poorahs, with an area of newly planted tea. The famous
4;ea seed garden, " Bazaloni " appears in this group in 1841. Near
Jaipur we find other gardens whose names still exist. In this
section we hear first of the definite planting of China seed. An
interesting estimate by Mr. Bruce is that it required one man coolie
on Rs. 4 per month to keep one poorah of tea in cultivation.
The presage of coming disaster seems to pervade the atmosphere
during 1842 and 1843 both in the reports of the Assam Company and
in the remarfe on the subject in the Calcutta newspapers. There
were evidences of mismanagement everywhere. The steamer built
for the Company as their means of transit to Assam proved a failure.
" The Assam Tea Company," says the Friend of India, after
having sent their new steamer on one trip up the Berhampooter,
have, on her return, offered her for sale. The cause is not made
known,—probably her inability to steam the current of the
Berhampooter." The amount of tea made in 1842 was far less than
might have been anticipated, and only amounted to 30,000 lbs., while
the net cost of the undertaking had been £160,000. Mr. Masters
" 19th May 1843.
( 28 )
from Assam, evidently feels, from his letters, that there is something
unsatisfactory in the methods of tea growing and plucking adopted.
By the latter part of 1843 it was certain that something was
amiss. The Calcutta directors sent a commissioner to Assam to see
what was wrong." Both Mr. Bruce and Mr. Masters were
summarily dismissed, and the report presented for the year 1843 is
doleful indeed. " Since we last met," says the report," " your
directors have seen much to diminish the confidence which they
expressed at the last meeting in the ultimate success of the Company?;
that confidence was necessarily founded on statements and calculations
prepared in the Province where our operations are carried on.
These data have since been altered by the parties who supplied them
in many material respects, and the produce of the year has fallen
short of the estimate in respect to quantity by one-third; at the
same time, the current expenses of the Company appeared not to be
diminished." They went even further than this, and wrote :—" We
have positively forbidden the local board in Calcutta to pass any
more bills upon us, and have enjoined them to reduce their expenditure
to the level of the means at their immediate command. We
can, therefore, safely pledge ourselves that no further call shall be
made upon the shareholders until your directors have shown
sufficient grounds for recommending you to prosecute the enterprise
in which we have embarked with renewed vigour."
The position was truly perilous for the shareholders. But, to
all appearances, a change for the better occurred. The Company
had so far not been under limited liability. But a special Act of
Parliament was passed in 1845-* which settled their position. It
was only to last till April 30th, 1854, declared a capital of fifty
lakhs of rupees in shares of five hundred rupees. The cultivation
of opium, sugar and coffee was prohibited.
»- Ml'. .T. M. Maekie. He reached Assam in October 1843.
" Presented (London) 23rd April 1844.
I' Act XIX of 1845.
( 29 )
In the meantime expenses at least had been reduced, and this
was something. The relationship between expenses and yield was
as follows :
—
( 30 )
that this was by any means the case. Certainly after the first
extravagance and mismanagement, the prospects appeared a little
more hopeful. But though a dividend had been paid, no real
profits had been made. The estimates of yield hac'i been
considerably falsified, and the same or a greater area showed sigiis
of giving less yield than in previous years. There seems to have
still been hopeless mismanagement, but, even more than this, it
became incireasingly evident that nobody knew how to grow tea so
as to maintain the yield of the bushes, let alone increase the amount
of tea which could be made for them. The concern had now in fiact
reached the stage when the method of planting and plucking teft
which had been learnt from the Chinese who had taught the
pioneers, had definitely broken down, and it was evident thdt
unless new methods could be found which would yield more tea and
maintain the yield of the bushes better, the industry must close.
The London Directors were the first to see this. Concentration
on a smaller area till success was obtained in this matter was their
policy, and in 1846 they, hence, closed down altogether the so-called
northern and eastern divisions of the company (the Tingri groiip
and the Jaipur group of gardens). But the position was first
really faced in the report for 1847, published in 1848. In this the
Directors definitely confessed failure, threw the blame on the
Calcutta Board, and they go so far as to confess that they afe
doubtful whether it is worth while to continue, as even with a policy
of great economy and very great care over expenditure, it was only
just possible to keep the concern from showing a loss. There seemed
no confidence as to its future capacity for profit It is curious to
find this only two years after Government had, with a great flourish
of trumpets, declared the industry established.
The position is well shown by the following extracts from the
Report of the Assam Company for 1847. " The General Directory
think it proper to mention to you that they find among the
proprietors, and even among their own body, a difference of opinion
( 31 )
prevails upon the vital question whether it is desirable or not to
continue the operations of the Company. On the one hand it is
contended that under the present system of management there is at
all events no loss, and that the last year was the first in which the
expenses in the province were kept within the estimate or nearly
so, and the anticipated outturns of produce was not only realised
but exceeded, while at the same time there is every reason to expect
an annual increase in produce from seedlings, and the vacant spaces
in our present cutivation being filled up .... and therefore it would
be unwise to throw away all that has been spent on the enterprise
at a moment when there appears so little chance of further loss and
much reason to hope that some part of the money spent may be
redeemed. On the other hand, it appears to be thought by many
that there are too small hopes of success and too limited an amount
of profit to be anticipated to render it advisable to continue our
operations."
The London directors actually in the sequel asked the Calcutta
Board to make them an offer for the whole company, and stated that
they " would feel inclined to recommend to their shareholders the
acceptance of any proposition that would give them a moderate
sum per share, rather than depend on the distant prospect of a
larger benefit." No offer was, however, made, and both the London
and Calcutta authorities determined to risk another year (1848)
of work.
We. have now reached the lowest point in the fortunes of tea
cultivation in Assam. The great hopes and prospects of a successful
tea industry seemed to have almost disappeared. The recovery
from that position was primarily due in the first instance to two
men,—one in Calcutta and one in Assam,—whose confidence in the
undertaking, whose business capacity, and whose integrity of
character drew the Assam Company from the brink of despair and
made a future tea industry in Assam immediately possible. These
were Mr. Henry Burkinyoung in Calcutta and Mr. Stephen Mornay
who took charge in Assam in 1847. In five years these men made a
( 32 )
bankrupt concern into one which it was recognised could at least
pay its way. There then followed the improved technical skill and
methods introduced and carried out by Mr. George Williamson on
the gardens in Assam, which made it into a very profitable industry.
The state of things into which affairs had drifted in 1847 was
well described in a Calcutta paper, a year or two later, when the
worst was over, as follows^^ :
—
" The mismanagement of Joint Stock Companies in India has
been so general, and its effects so disastrous to all concerned with,
or interested in them, that we regret we cannot afford space at
present to detail the measures by which the rapid downward
progress of this Company has been so timely arrested, and its rescue
from destruction on the very brink of ruin so promptly effected.
We presume that all the old hands, when they perceived the inevitable
fate awaiting their reckless mismanagement, with the instinct
of rats, left the concern, for we find none of their names in the
present board or in the management.
" If we are rightly informed, when the present authorities of
the company took charge of its affairs, they found that upwards of
21 lakhs of rupees had been expended Upon buildings and
cultivation, which it was found, on sending a new superintendent
to Assam ought not, under judicious and careful management, to
have cost one-tenth of that sum ; buildings which ought not at that
stage of their operations to have been erected, had been so slightly
constructed that they were already tumbling down, and but little
was to be found of the extensive clearing and planting which had
been reported from Assam, and paid for, and even those in existence
were in such a neglected state, that another rainy season would
have obliterated every trace of them. The credit and resources of
the company were exhausted : they were £7,000 in debt in London,
Rs. 40,000 in Calcutta, while the indispensable outlay required in
Assam to save the miserable wrecks there, almost drove the then
" Friend of India, 9th M.^y 1850.
( 33 )
Ideal directors to despair, and the more so, because the London
Board urged upon them the closing or even total abandonment of
the concern. They, however, possessed discernment enough to
perceive the capabilities of the enterprise under better management
and with a spirit, firmness, and confidence that does them
infinite credit, raised funds on their own individual credit and
responsibility to make one more effort to retrieve the affairs of the
company."
That this was not too dark a picture can be seen from the official
documents of the company. Mr. Burkinyoung, the Chairman
of the Calcutta Board of Directors, wrote in 1848 : " You
as well as ourselves, have of course long been aware that whilst the
paid up capital of the company had been entirely sunk by the close
of the year 1844 or nearly so, its expenditure had not been devoted
to the true interests of the undertakings and the extended properties
which such a sum should have opened out so far from having been
raised, a most limited and insufficient area of tea cultivation was
in possession of the company, the chief portion of the capital
having been devoted to extraneous and useless purposes, and, in
eiTect, so far hopelessly squandered." It does seem remarkable, in
fact, to find that the area really under cultivation in 1848 was only
400 to 500 pooraks {sa,y 300 to 600 acres).
With business management, however, the concern showed a
profit of £3,000 in 1848, and the report for that year^^ shows new
hope, and new confidence. Out of the debt of £7,000, £2,000 were
paid. And the prospects was sufficiently promising to propose a
new call of £1 per share (£10,000) to extend the real cultivated area.
On the technical side the production of tea, as will be
recognised by all who know tea in Assam in these later days, the
authorities were still only feeling their way. The maximum yield
per acre on the company in 1848 was 275lbs. of tea. The
largest yield in the year was obtained in April and the season
Dated London, May 4th, 1849.
( 34 )
finished in September,
follows :
—
March . .
April
May
June
July
August
September
The actual yield month by month was as
18,269 lbs.
41,125
36,391
37,523
31,920
26,079
19,345
To us nowadays this would appear, even with China plant, to
show that the bushes were being overplucked in the early part of
the season, and were never allowed to grow properly before the
leaf was taken. This state of affairs continued, however, for some
years longer.
Progress was very gradual. The Calcutta directors wished
to go ahead : the London Board, having had their fingers burnt so
many times, held them back. In 1849 the northern and eastern
divisions (Tingri, Jaipur, etc.) were re-opened : on this the London
Board expressed " their fear as well as displeasure." But the area
was slowly extended, and what was more, in spite of the
expenditure on this, small profits were made. The crop in 1849
was 216,0001bs. The debt was reduced rn this year to £2,500, and
in the next season, with a net profit of £5,025, the whole
disappeared. At last the first genuine dividend out of profits was
paid in 1852 (for the 1851 season).^'' It only amounted to
2^ percent., but it proclaimed to the world that the company,
having made consistent though small profits from 1848 onward, was
no longer the bankrupt concern it had been supposed to be, and had,
at least, possibilities of success.
This was followed by a dividend of 3 per cent, in the following
season^^ and then the two men who had brought the Company from
>» Report dated May 31st, 1850.
^' Report dated May 7th, 1832.
Report dated May 6th, 1853.
( 35 )
despair to a moderate amount of success—Stephen Mornay in Assam
and Henry Burkinyoung in Calcutta—retired. One cannot
exaggerate the debt which the tea industry owes to them. Their
successors improved their results,^—but they it was who made a tea
industry appear possible in north-east India.
The new manager in Assam was Mr. George Williamson,
perhaps the greatest figure in the development of the Assam tea
industry, and afterwards the founder of the Calcutta firm of
Williamson Magor & Co. ; the managing director in Calcutta was
Mr, W. Roberts, afterwards well known for his connection with
the Jorehaut and other very successful tea companies. Williamson's
report in 1853, after taking charge, was very interesting. He had
been there under Mornay and had studied tea planting as nobody
had done up to that time. He found a yield over the whole of the
gardens of 196lbs. of tea per acre'^'^ only. The local cost of tea was
between five and six annas a pound. He recognised the evil of
China plant which had been used in putting out many extensions.
Speaking of one garden (Kachari Pookri) he says " it also possesses
an advantage .... in having no China plant, the inferior yielding
of which in respect to quantity, is now a well established fact."
He notes the great lack of labour, and the unhealthiness of the
places, and speaks of serious attacks of cholera " which continued
with unremitted virulence for three months."
But so far as I can judge, Williamson's success was primarily
due to his recognising that if tea leaf is to be plucked, the tea
bushes must first be allowed to grow. The season thus tends to
become later. Little tea is obtained in March and April, and when
the Directors get alarmed, he re-assures them that all is right.
" Injudicious and ignorant plucking may seriously injure the plant
and even cause its death by rendering it more liable to be attacked
by white ants and worms." The result of his policy was a singular
increase of yield per acre. Apart from bad business methods, the
'"' The figures are given per pooftth. I have converted these into yields per acre.
( 36 )
Bon-recognition of that on which Williamson now insisted was, I
feel, the biggest cause of the early failures. The lack of technical
skill and knowledge had made large success impossible until 1852.
But now with business management, and a man, who had
studied the tea bush and its yielding, in charge, things went ahead.
The area, crop profit and dividend for the years following are
shown below :
—
Year.
( 37 )
The pioneers of the tea industry are nevertheless men of whom
we may well be proud. Jenkins who got the experiments
established; Bruce who showed that tea making in Assam was
possible; Mornay and Burkinyoung who proved that tea would
at least pay ; and Williamson who showed how to cultivate tea in
a really profitable manner,—all these names deserve remembrance
and recognition. Building on their foundations progress was
rapid. The next ten years showed an almost inconceivable development,
and such profits as led to speculation and almost to ruin in
1866 and the years following. That is, however, another story.
The foundations of one of the greatest of Indian agricultural
industries had been well laid by 1856, and tea cultivation and
manufacture had been placed on the track which had led, through
many vicissitudes, to the position which it holds to-day.