Understanding Tea from China in Eighteenth-century Europe Hanna Hodacs, Center for the History of Science, Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Stockholm & Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick, UK.

Thea bohea, from Carl Linnaeus, Amœnitates academicæ, vol.7, p.160, t.4 (1769) Carl Linnaeus

It is amusing to note that the Europeans, the wisest of all, conquer the most distant regions of America, and there with the greatest difficulty excavates precious silver, and with greatest danger repatriates it to Europe, in order to, with no less danger, carry it to another part of earth, to the East Indies, only to exchange it for the leaves of a certain shrub. All household utensils in China would be made of silver by now, if it had not been used to pay the Mongols for food and work at the silk manufacture. These ignorant Mongols burry all their treasures in the earth before they die, in the belief that they will benefit from them in a future life, thus the same silver will on this continent (Asia) be reunited with the earth, which it in another (America) was excavated from. Perhaps the time will come when a prince conquers the Mongol Empire, re-excavate the same silver and sends it back to Peru, for such are the changing the destiny of things. Linnaeus Potus Theae 1765

“…in recent years the planting of mulberry trees and the production of silk in southern Europe have made ​​so much progress that a time will come when we no longer need to fetch silk from China. The art of making porcelain vessel has recently been perfected in Saxony, Prussia, France, and our motherland, that these vessels to form and color outperform the Chinese. Only tea leaves singles out the Chinese.” Linnaeus Potus Theae 1765

Sales Catalogue, Swedish East India Company, Public Sales 1754