The Tea Industry in India: A Review of Finance and Labour, and a Guide for Capitalists and Assistants

The origins of tea-brewing in India and China are still lost to history. In this 1882 guide to the Indian tea industry, Samuel Baildon (a tea-planter about whom little is known) describes some of the earliest theories and legends surrounding it, including both botanical speculations and the Chinese stories of Bodhidharma, the Indian monk said to have introduced tea to China and Japan. Well-versed in the investment opportunities of the Indian plantations, Baildon also provides a frank tour of the nineteenth-century industry. He includes advice for investors, who he insists must not try to assist the managers of their plantations, and for potential tea-planters, who he strongly discourages from the profession if they enjoy free time, reading, or friends. With specific and anecdotal accounts of the plantations written for newcomers to the trade, this candid guide now represents an invaluable resource for students of colonial history and agriculture.