ABSTRACT
Indian Tea Trade almost paralysed – many gardens closed – thousands of labourers unemployed. The Drink Empire Tea campaign was developed in the spring and summer of 1931, just before the Labour government fell, and it began in September just as a new Tory-dominated National Government was forming. Most scholars have studied empire shopping through an examination of the successes and failures of the Empire Marketing Board (EMB). The EMB had promoted numerous empire goods, but it was initially reluctant to help Indian tea planters until Ceylon, East African growers and large wholesalers and retailers proved receptive. Several years before the Drink Empire Tea campaign began, Lord Beaverbrook, Canadian press baron and conservative politician, and supportive business groups waged what Beaverbrook called an ‘Empire Crusade’. John Mackenzie argued some time ago that inter-war businessmen and politicians hotly debated what the public knew or cared about the Empire.
