Under
Dutch rulers, Ceylon began as a country with cinnamon plantations. However,
when Britain occupied the country, private cinnamon plantations were banned.
The change was made for financial reasons to create a monopoly for a UK-owned
East India Company. When cinnamon growers lost money in an economically bad
time in 1833, cash crops became coffee. It ended in 1869 when a fungal disease
called coffee rust disease destroyed the coffee crop. But bad luck is an
occasion in disguise.
The
tea plant was brought to Ceylon by the British as early as 1824, but it was not
until 1867, when a British farmer named James Taylor began the first tea
plantation at the Lolokadera estate in Ceylon. They were planted on 21 acres.
Five years later, he built a whole factory and, one year after that, he started
selling tea in London.
Opportunities get harder and Ceylon catches it
Shortly
thereafter, the coffee plantations turned into a Ceylon tea garden. By 1888,
the area under tea plantations had increased by 21000%. Tea planters sent
delegates to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and sold over a million tea
packets. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Commerce and the Ceylon Tea Traders
Association were formed in the late 1800s and both of these organizations are
still present as a means of trading Ceylon tea Australia. The entrepreneurs felt that research
was always the basis of innovation and soon a tea research institute was
established that suggested the best way to grow and harvest the Ceylon Loose
Tea and Tea Bag. By the time tea was about to be auctioned, the train ran the
mountains and hiked the hills for 6 miles. Subsequently, tea umbrellas were
mounted on the steam vessels sent to their final locations.
