The Fourth Plate

The historic London auction in 1839 and the story of how Assam tea broke the centuries-old China monopoly 

By Gautam Kumar Saikia

For centuries, China was dominating the global tea trade. But on January 10, 1839, in a crowded auction room on Mincing Lane, London, that monopoly was busted. 

Eight humble chests of tea from Assam made history and changed the dynamics of the industry. 

Here is how it started: 

On November 21, 1836, the Calcutta Courier reported a historic first: the arrival of five boxes of tea prepared in Assam by Chinese tea-planters. 

Made from tea plant leaves, cultivated using indigenous seeds, the samples reached Calcutta through Mr. Gordon, Secretary of the Tea Committee. When Viceroy Lord Auckland tasted the tea, he declared it of good quality. In hindsight, that was the first official endorsement of Indian tea. 

More samples were sent from Assam two months later. To provide an opportunity for Chinese experts to train Assamese workers, these teas were prepared out of season. 

The application of advanced Chinese techniques for manufacturing of tea in Assam proved to be a breakthrough.

Charles Alexander Bruce documented these early cultivation methods in his 1838 pamphlet, revealing the conditions in which Assam’s tea grew: “The tea plants of Assam have been found to grow, and to thrive best, near small rivers and pools of water,and in those places where after heavy falls of rain, large quantities of water have accumulated, and in their struggle to get free, have cut out themselves numerous small channels. 

“This kind of land is called Coorkah Mutty. I have never met with the tea plants growing in the sun, but invariably under shade, in thick woods, or what we call tree jungle and only there and in no other jungle whatever. The largest tea tree I ever met with was twenty-nine cubits high, and four spans round: very few I should say attain that size.”

Bruce described the black tea processing method: leaves were withered in sunlight, hand-clapped and heated briefly in iron pans over straw or bamboo fires. No definite fermentation process was followed. After hand-rolling, the tea was dried on charcoal sieves in multiple stages, allowing cooling periods that facilitated fermentation. This technique continued for several years. This might be considered primitive today, but it worked!

By 1837, Assamese workers expanded cultivation throughout the Muttuck region under Chinese supervision, with the quality steadily improving.

On December 12, 1837, a large sample of Muttock tea made from Assam jats reached the Government of India. The Governor-General declared it “marketable quality” if it could reach Europe undamaged, recommending trial shipments to London’s Honorable Court of Directors.

The first commercial shipment proved nearly catastrophic. 

Twelve boxes arrived in Calcutta on January 31, 1838, but improper packaging had damaged the tea during transport from Assam. On March 20, 1838, The Tea Committee reported to the Government of India: “Owing to deficient packing and dampness during transport, a considerable portion of the tea amounting to what would have filled five boxes more, was either wholly spoiled, or so much deteriorated, that no process could restore it to anything like fair quality.”

The committee rejected all that portion “unfit to be sent home” with the goal of “deeming it primary that the first sample transmitted to Europe maintain its quality” rather than arrive damaged and face “the severe test of examination by the tea inspectors in London.”

Captain Jenkins, Commissioner of the Assam valley, dispatched the tea to London in May 1838. The shipment reached England later that year. After refiring to prevent spoilage, only eight chests weighing 350 pounds total (158.757 kilogram) were offered at Mincing Lane’s commercial sale rooms for auction with each chest to be sold separately. 

On January 10, 1839, London witnessed the first public auction of Indian tea. London’s tea brokers had never seen anything like it and  Mincing Lane’s commercial sale rooms buzzed with unprecedented excitement.

Some accounts captured the drama:

“The first importation of tea from the British territories in Assam, consisting of eight chests, containing about 350 lbs., was put up by the East India Company to public sale in the commercial sale rooms, Mincing Lane, on 10th January, 1839, and excited much curiosity. The lots were eight: three of Assam souchong and five of Assam pekoe. On offering the first lot (souchong) Mr. Thompson, the sale-broker, announced that each lot would be sold, without the least reservation, to the highest bidder.”

What happened next stunned everyone.

The first bid was 5s. per lb., a second bid of 10s. per lb. After much competition it was knocked down for 21s. per lb., the purchaser being Captain Pidding. The second lot of souchong was bought by the same gentleman for 20s. per lb. The third and last lot of souchong sold for 16s. per lb., Captain Pidding being again the buyer.

But Captain Pidding was just getting started.

The first lot of Assam pekoe sold after much competition for 24s. per lb., every broker appearing to bid for it. Captain Pidding secured it. The next three lots fetched 25s., 27s. 6d. and 28s. 6d. per lb – all to Captain Pidding. For the last lot (pekoe) a most exciting competition took place: there were nearly sixty bids made for it. It was at last knocked down at the extraordinary price of 34s. per lb.”

The room erupted. 

Captain Pidding had just paid 34 shillings per pound, nearly 34 times the production cost, for tea that could be made for one shilling per pound. He now owned the entire first importation of Assam tea, prompted, according to reports by “the public-spirited motive of securing a fair trial to this valuable product of British Assam.”

The Court of Directors understood the auction’s true significance.  Despite the tea’s compromised quality due to refiring, they had received “very favourable reports” from “respectable brokers and tea dealers” across Britain. 

More importantly, they recognized that “it can only be considered as a fancy price, occasioned by great excitement and competition created by the novelty of the sale.”

Captain Pidding’s dramatic purchases achieved their purpose. Within weeks, serious commercial interest emerged. 

Messrs. Stearns and Rowley offered the first private contract in Indian tea history “for five hundred or a thousand chests at 10.5 d to 2s per lb.

Their assessment was professional and promising, noting that this is “as good tea as may be usually imported from Canton, the only difference appearing to us being in the method of curing or drying the leaves. We character the tea in question as preferable to but middling tea or brisk slightly burnt flavour (not objectionable) and possess strength.”

A second shipment of 95 packages followed in late 1839, with 85 chests auctioned on March 17, 1840. Quality had improved dramatically:“The tea was evidently much better than the last, and was valued from 2s. 11d. to 3s. 3d. per lb. It still fetched a fancy price nearly all selling between 8s. and 11s. per lb,” reported the East India Company. 

Messrs. Twinings and Co. summarised public opinion: “Upon the whole we think that the recent specimens are very favourable to the hope and expectation that Assam is capable of producing an article well suited to this market.”

Sixteen years after the discovery of Assam tea in 1823, that historic auction in Mincing Lane changed everything. 

What began as eight chests selling for “fancy prices” broke China’s tea monopoly and launched an industry that would transform global tea trade.

Today, Assam produces more than half of India’s tea, a direct descendant of those first experimental leaves that Captain Pidding bought for 34 shillings a pound, not for profit, but to give Indian tea “a fair trial.” 

His intuition, indeed, paid off beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.

(Note: s denotes shilling, d- pence and lb- pound. Before decimalisation in 1971, the UK sterling currency was divided into pounds, shillings and pence. One pound was made up of 240 pence, with 12 pence to one shilling and 20 shillings to one pound)

Bibliogrphy

Griffiths, P. (1967). The First Phase: I Assam. The History of the Indian Tea Industry. Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 5 Winsley Street, London W 1, pp 61-75.

Mann H.H. (1918). The Early History of the Tea Industry in North-East India. Printed by the Calcutta General Printing Co. Ltd., 300 Bowbazar Street, Calcutta. Reprinted by the Bengal Economic Journal.

(This is an extract from Gautam Kumar Saikia’s upcoming book to mark the completion of 200 years since the discovery of Assam tea.)

Watch the AI generated video that summarizes the story