The European market for tea and the Swedish East India Company c Hanna Hodacs & Leos Müller (University of Warwick & University of Stockholm)

Key commodity in 18th century Eurasian trade Tea Key commodity in 18th century Eurasian trade Part of new trade; together with Atlantic sugar, coffee, porcelain and cottons Compared with ”old” or ”VOC” 17th-century trade in spices and silks 1700-1720, a shift: EIC and Ostend Companies shaped new trade patterns in which Canton played a key role.

What characterised the 18th century trade in tea? Chinese market for tea Global monopoly on tea Hong merchant encouraged competition between European purchasers but kept control over supply European Market for tea Small companies provided for markets outside the realm of the state in which they were based (via Smuggling to Britain) Created a competitive Pan-European market for tea

Ostend Company and SEIC EIC, VOC, Ostend Company: The key actors introducing tea in Europe. Direct trade from Canton/VOC imports tea from Batavia 1718-1728: a window of opportunity Ostend Company: a Flemish and Scottish enterprise Imported as much as EIC, the two actors accounts for 84% of total European tea imports! 1727-1731: trade suspended Anglo-Dutch political pressure Shift to Gothenburg, SEIC established in 1731 (Colin Campbell, Niklas Sahlgren, Scottish/Flemish network)

SEIC, 1731-1813 ”The most successful enterprise in Swedish history” (E. F. Heckscher) 131 expeditions, 4 charters, An important actor in the tea trade 1731-1783 carried 10-15% of the tea imported to Europe Same volumes as the French, Danes and Dutch A ”Canton Tea Company” , hardly no India trade! Business strategy: know-how, money and people from Ostend (especially between 1731-1756)

Layout of paper: Introduction (Ostend connection) + description of different types of tea Analysis of tea in sales catalogues 1733-1759 Printed catalogues with annotations Volumes, buyers, prices Analysis of correspondence between traders in tea Charles Irvine’s letters, Ostend man, SEIC supercargo On competition, the circulation of quality and price information Conclusion

18th-century tea types Chinese origin – Chinese terminology Black teas: Bohea, Soatchoun, Congo, Peckoe, Linchisin Green teas: Heysan, Heysan-Skin, Bing (imperial tea), Singlo Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Ceylon tea, etc. all 19th century products.

Sources – Sales Catalogues Unique material Tea the dominating good (in volumes and value) Printed information: Information on the number of chests, later on cattees, Swedish pounds, including package (weight of chest) Annotations: Buyers, prices per pound Quality Chest identity number: Followed chest from Canton to end retailer in Britain?

Catalogue of Fredericus Rex Sueciae, 1733

Detailed information on cargo

Ship Gothenburg 1742 (tea unit is catee)

Diagram 1: SEIC’s tea imports, 1742-1759 (Swedish pounds= skålpund)

Diagram 2: Congo, Peckoe, Soatchoun and Singlo, 1742-1759 (Swedish pound=skålpund)

Volumes and types Sales: an increase in volumes More sales per year E.g. 1754, three ships returning 2.3 million pounds tea for sale!) Diminishing variety Bohea: 85% over the period 1742-59 (in volume) The rise of Congo in the 1750s

Prices – trends A large number of lots sold at same prices (Bohea) but also diffentiation (between 27 and 38 öre smt per pound) Exclusive teas: more price fluctuation Grill paid 124 öre smt per pound Soatchoun!!!! Green teas more expensive On average Hysan above 100 öre smt per pund

Table 1: Ship Prins Carl (1756) Buyers All tea lots Bohea Lots Congo N Sahlgren 297 135 110 C Arwidson 200 73 C Arfwidson 85 J Scott 65 C Irvine 42 G Carnegie 33 J More 63 Scott & Comp 37 J Irvine 62 R Parkinson 30 31 M Holterman 59 A Grill 27 26 53 25 Bagge & Comp 23 50 C Campbell 21 47 15 Beckman & Beyer 19 G Bellenden 13

Buyers A few dominating buyers 55 buyers all in all Niklas Sahlgren 297 lots of 1463 Christian Arfwidson 200 lots of 1463 55 buyers all in all The 10 most prolific buyers bought 943 lots (64%) The 10 least prolific buyers bought 17 lots (1%) Group 1: Scottish/British buyers: J Scott, J More, Charles and John Irvine, George Carnegie, Robert Parkinson, J Chambers, W Chalmers Group 2: Swedish buyers: Sahlgren, Arvidson, Holterman, Bagge, Ström, Sandberg Group 3?: German buyers: Schale, Scholl

The correspondence of Charles Irvine Fierce Pan-European competition! Public sales (Company auctions or whole sellers’ auctions) Price and quantity information widely avaliable – well functioning Pan-european market for tea? Trade networks (Scottish connections) Circulation of insider information re. quality of specific chests or sequences of chests

Hypothesis Publically available information (re. e.g. quantities of tea for sale each season) influenced prices at first round of public sales (Company auctions) Insider information, circulated among networks, on qualitative aspects, influenced prices at second round of public sales (whole sellers’ auctions)

Expert knowledge on tea Whole sellers in the Low Countries (Amsterdam and Rotterdam) Final words assessing qualities of tea Access to tea imported by all continental East India Companies Access to market for tea

Tea stapel market Amsterdam & Rotterdam Information nodes Staple market for Chinese tea Information nodes Interconnectedness, linking Canton, to Gothenburg, to Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Hamburg Producers (inland China) or consumers (in Britain) not (yet) included in the correspondence Quick development

Tea and the European market for Chinese goods Tea – became the most important goods in the Eurasian trade (second half 18th century) Europeans could not grow tea at home (while they could produce silk and porcelain) Is tea therefor irrelevant in a history of how Asian imports influenced European production (and consumption)?

No… Consumption Logistics Transaction costs Tea was served in Chinese porcelain Logistics Porcelain a ballast for the tea Transaction costs A mass market for tea helped lowering transaction costs on porcelain, silk, lacquer wear etc

The Swedish tea trade and a geography of consumption of Chinese goods Most Swedish tea – re-exported to the Low Countries What happened to the other Chinese goods? Did the Swedish imported silk and porcelain continue to travel with the tea? Or did the mass market for tea in the Low Countries and Britain give the poor people of Sweden access to Asian luxuries which otherwise would have been beyond their means? The Swedish tea trade can help illuminate a geography of consumption of Chinese goods that does not necessarily match the geography of European wealth

The chronology the trade in Chinese goods Tea: a perishable good Europeans wanted a regular supply Silk and porcelain: Objects with different life span European silk and pottery producers pushed new trends which influenced taste & fashions The consumption of Chinese goods in Europe had different rhythms A disharmony between the tempo of the tea trade and the trade with more durable goods?

Questions… Can a geography and chronology of the tea trade help illuminate what might have been only partially overlapping markets for Chinese goods in Europe, working out of sync with one another? Is this maybe why the Swedish East India Company imported an ever smaller variety of Chinese goods? Or does it reflect advances in European manufacturing? Or both?