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自18世纪初到19世纪末近200年的时间,茶叶一直是中国最为大宗的出口商品,英国则是中国茶叶的最大进口国。在垄断和高税收政策之下,最初英国国内茶叶掺假问题严重,18世纪英国国会三次出台法令试图对此加以规制。1784年《减免法案》出台、中英两次鸦片战争之条约港制度的确立等都为中英茶叶贸易的扩大提供了契机,但中英两国的贸易中的茶叶质量问题也更加凸显。为此,英商在中国通商口岸推出了质量控制措施,清政府也试图做出有限度的整治。英方还积极开拓印度茶业,鼓吹印度茶之质量纯净,并不断完善法案,客观上提高了茶叶出口的质量门槛,最终中国茶叶对英出口在1880年代晚期进入全面衰退。
Tea has been the largest bulk of China’s exports since the early 18th century and the late 19th century, while Britain is the largest importer of Chinese tea. Under the monopoly and high taxation policies, initially the problem of adulteration of tea in the country was serious. In the 18th century, the British Parliament enacted three decrees trying to regulate it. The promulgation of the “Exemption Act” in 1784 and the establishment of a treaty port system between the two Opium Wars in China provided an opportunity for the expansion of the tea trade between China and the United Kingdom. However, the quality of tea in the trade between China and Britain also became more prominent. For this reason, the British businessmen introduced quality control measures at the Chinese ports of commerce, and the Qing government tried to make a limited remediation. The British side also actively explores the Indian tea industry, advocating the pure quality of Indian tea and constantly improving the bill, which objectively improves the quality threshold of tea exports. As a result, China’s exports of tea to Britain eventually entered a full-scale recession in the late 1880s.