Oh, yes! Tea is at the root of building the national institution we today call America. A brief abridgment into America-Past will enlighten the reader as to how the interweaving of tea in our history became the watershed for America’s desire for national and capitalistic freedom.

The first tea was brought to the Colonies in 1650 by Peter Stuyvesant. He was the Dutch Director-General of the settlement expansion of New Netherlands from 1647 until the settlement was ceded to the English in 1664, later renamed New York. Upon acquiring this colony the English soon discovered that these Dutch settlers were confirmed tea drinkers; furthermore, they also discovered that this settlement consumed more tea than all of England!

However, tea was publicly unavailable for sale until the growing English populace became aware of the tea trade business in Boston, and soon tea gardens centered around natural springs were opening to help facilitate the growing ‘tea craze’ among the English. (The most famous of these tea springs was at Roosevelt and Chatham, which later became Park Row Street)

Tea – The Watershed of America’s Revolution! By 1720, tea became a conventional staple of trade between the Colony and Mother England and its center of establishments were in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia - the future centers of American rebellion. . Even during this early time tea was being heavily taxed, prompting independent minded American merchants into smuggling contraband tea into the colonies. Naturally, the directors of the then the East India Company seethed as their profits waned; so they pressured Parliament into action. Thus, the fore-wars of the American Revolution began …

Ill feelings between the English and the colonists were sown when Parliament schemed a framework of unfair politics upon the colonists at the conclusion of the French and Indian War - a colonial war fought between Britain and France from 1754 to 1763 over the conquest of Canadian territory in order to stabilize trade. Parliament attempted to assume the ressponsiblity for war costs upon the colonists, reasoning that it was for their benefit that the British fought.  And so Parliament presented the first round of tax measures by imposing the Townsend Acts upon the colonists, a series of acts levied to raise revenue in the colonies. This income was used to keep govoners and judges independent of colonial  control, to create an effective means of enforcing compliance with English trade regulations, and finally, to establish the precedent that British Parliament had the right of control over the colonies. The colonists rebelled against taxes imposed upon them without their consent and so, in turn, new, heavier taxes were leveled by Parliament for such rebellion. Among these was the tea tax that was to become the watershed of America's desire for freedom.

The colonists retaliated openly by purchasing even more tea – of course, bypassing the English, and turning to the Dutch. This new threat of finacial collapse coerced the East India Company to merge with the John Company in a desperate attempt to avert bankruptcy, and to appeal to Parliament for assistance. In response, the Tea Act of 1773 was passed, giving the Company greater autonomy in administering its trade in America. This granted the newly merged Company exemption from tea tariffs (which colonial competitors were required to pay) while permitting them to sell directly to the colonies, pocketing the difference. This British plot backfired when an unsuspecting boycott of tea actuated. The ensuing tea party was a bash that would forever be remembered in the annals of American history.   

The Tea Party that Changed the World! Activist members of the politcal organization known as the Sons of Liberty, including Samuel Adams and John Hancock boarded three ships in Boston Harbor on December 16^th, 1773. Disguised as Mohawk Indians, they dumped cargoes of Darjeeling into the sea. The Boston Tea Party instigated the closing of Boston ports and immediate occupancy of British royal troops. Colonial leaders met and revolution was declared.

America Capitalizes the Tea Trade! America began direct trade with China soon after the Revolution was over in 1789. America's newer, faster clipper ships out sailed the slower, heavier English "tea wagons" that had until then dominated the trade. This forced the English navy to update their fleet, a fact America would have to address in the War of 1812.  America was able to break the English tea monopoly because its ships were faster and America paid in gold. The new American ships established sailing records that still stand for speed and distance.

The first three American millionaires, T. H. Perkins of Boston, Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, and John Jacob Astor of New York, all made their fortunes in the China trade. John Jacob Astor began his tea trading in 1800. He required a minimum profit on each venture of 50% and often made 100%. Stephen Girard of Philadelphia was known as the "gentle tea merchant". His critical loans to the young (and still weak) American government enabled the nation to re-arm for the War of 1812. The orphanage founded by him still perpetuates his good name. Thomas Perkins was from one of Boston's oldest sailing families. The Chinese noted him as a gentleman of his word, which enabled him to conduct enormous transactions half way around the world without a single written contract.