ABSTRACT
From its original introduction into use in Europe the supply of tea had been a Chinese monopoly, and the trade in it to England had been a monopoly of the East India Company. In the early part of the nineteenth century, on the renewal of its charter, the East India Company lost its trading monopoly, and as the trade in tea was one of the most valuable parts of its activities, it became anxious to obtain a rival source of supply entirely under its own control. As a result of the political changes and suspicions, great anxiety arose for the production of tea in India, if such production were by any means possible. Tea plants, originally supposed to be only found growing wild in the Singpho hills, had been, discovered in the Manipur hills by Major Grant, in the Tippera hills, and in a number of new localities in the Assam Valley.
