Moving Away from the Chinese Monopoly
While China was willing to trade with Britain, it was not willing to reveal its secrets regarding the actual growing of tea. Britain decided they had to break this monopoly China had on tea.
Arguably one of the greatest corporate espionages of all time had taken place at this time. A Scottish botanist grew pigtails to blend in with the Chinese merchants and steal tea from China.
All the while tea had also been discovered in Assam, India. This tea, as compared to Chinese tea, had larger leaves and stronger liquor. Seeing as how at the time India belonged to the British, the British were glad to grow tea on Indian soil, which resulted in tea spreading through the Indian sub-continent.
As the smoke cleared up from this “tea war” between China and Britain, it was clear that Britain had China beat in tea production and simultaneously had broken the monopoly China had on tea as a whole.