Chapter TEA of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

imposition in that year of a duty upon tea. And the first western mention of it occurs in the next century, in the notes of the Arab traders, which speak not only of tea, but of this fact of its being subject to a royal impost. Tea does not appear to be mentioned by the medieval Arab writers upon Materia Medica, nor (strange to say) do any of the European travellers to Cathay in the 13th and 14th centuries make mention of it. Nor is there any mention of it in the curious and interesting narrative of the Embassy sent by Shah Rukh, the son of the great Timur, to China (1419–21).¹ The first European work, so far as we are aware, in which tea is named, is Ramusio’s (posthumous) Introduction to Marco Polo, in the second volume of his great collection of Navigationi e Viaggi. In this he repeats the account of Cathay which he had heard from Hajji Mahommed, a Persian merchant who visited Venice. Among other matters the Hajji detailed the excellent properties of Chiai-Catai (i.e. Pers. Cha-i-Khitai, ‘Tea of China’), concluding with an assurance that if these were known in Persia and in Europe, traders would cease to purchase rhubarb, and would purchase this herb instead, a prophecy which has been very substantially verified. We find no mention of tea in the elaborate work of Mendoça on China. The earliest notices of which we are aware will be found below. Milburn gives some curious extracts from the E.I. Co.’s records as to the early importation of tea into England. Thus, 1666, June 30, among certain “raretys,” chiefly the production of China, provided by the Secretary of the Company for His Majesty, appear:

“22m lbs. of thea at 50s. per lb.=£56 17 6 For the two cheefe persons that attended his Majesty, thea.…6 15 6”


In 1667 the E.I. Co.’s first order for the importation of tea was issued to their agent at Bantam: “to send home by these ships 100lb. weight of the best tey that you can get.” The first importation actually made for the Co. was in 1669, when two canisters were received from Bantam, weighing 143½ lbs. (Milburn, ii. 531.) [The earliest mention of tea in the Old Records of the India Office is in a letter from Mr. R. Wickham, the Company’s Agent at Firando, in Japan, who, writing, June 27, 1615, to Mr. Eaton at Miaco, asks for “a pt. of the best sort of chaw” (see Birdwood, Report on Old Records, 26, where the early references are collected).] A.D. 851.—“The King (of China) reserves to himself…a duty on salt, and also on a certain herb which is drunk infused in hot water. This herb is sold in all the towns at high prices; it is called sakh. It has more leaves than the ratb’ah (Medicago sativa recens) and something more of aroma, but its taste is bitter. Water is boiled and poured upon this herb. The drink so made is serviceable under all circumstances.”—Relation, &c., trad. par Reinaud, i. 40.

c. 1545.—“Moreover, seeing the great delight that I above the rest of the party took in this discourse of his, he (Chaggi Memet, i.e. Hajji Mahommed) told me that all over the country of Cathay they make use of another plant, that is of its leaves, which is called by those people Chiai Catai: it is produced in that district of Cathay which is called Cachanfu. It is a thing generally used and highly esteemed in all those regions. They take this plant whether dry or fresh, and boil it well in water, and of this decoction they take one or two cups on an empty stomach; it removes fever, headache, stomach-ache, pain in the side or joints; taking care to drink it as hot as you can bear; it is good also for many other ailments which I can’t now remember, but I know gout was one of them. And if any one chance to feel his stomach oppressed by overmuch food, if he will take a little of this decoction he will in a short time have digested it. And thus it is so precious and highly esteemed that every one going on a journey takes it with him,

and judging from what he said these people would at any time gladly swap a sack of rhubarb for an ounce of Chiai Catai. These people of Cathay say (he told us) that if in our country, and in Persia, and the land of the Franks, it was known, merchants would no longer invest their money in Rauend Chini as they call rhubarb.”—Ramusio, Dichiaratione, in ii. f. 15.

c. 1560.—“Whatsoever person or persones come to any mans house of qualitee, hee hath a custome to offer him in a fine basket one Porcelane…with a kinde of drinke which they call cha, which is somewhat bitter, red, and medicinall, which they are wont to make with a certayne concoction of herbes.”—Da Cruz, in Purchas, iii. 180.

1565.—“Ritus est Japoniorum…benevolentiae causâ praebere spectanda, quae apud se pretiosissima sunt, id est, omne instrumentum necessarium ad potionem herbae cujusdam in pulverem redactae, suavem gustu, nomine Chia. Est autem modus potionis ejusmodi: pulveris ejus, quantum uno juglandis putamine continetur, conjiciunt in fictile vas ex eorum genere, quae procellana (Porcelain) vulgus appellat. Inde calenti admodum aquâ dilutum ebibunt. Habent autem in eos usus ollam antiquissimi operis ferream, figlinum poculum, cochlearia, infundibulum eluendo figlino, tripodem, foculum denique