Once those British Navigation Laws had been changed, the Americans took full advantage of the open market and quickly started sailing into London as well as their own home ports. They could offload their tea in Holland, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain, but not Britain. The only problem for the American companies was that until 1849, the British government forbade foreign ships to import tea into any British port. The first of the British clippers, the Torrington, was launched in 1846 and soon she and others were making names for themselves in the competition between the two countries. The weight of the chests and the solidity of the way in which the cargo was packed gave the ships extra stability and power on the homeward journey. The eye-catching clippers were designed like large yachts - sleek, graceful, and fast - but with enough stowage space to carry more than a million pounds of tea. More followed and by the time the English East India Company realized just how fast these new ships were, the Americans were already in control of the more efficient shipment of tea from China to Europe. In 1845, the first of the true American clippers, the Rainbow, was built by a New York company, and then came Sea Witch in 1846. But apart from the Ann McKim, the frigates were still taking too long and traders and consumers were growing impatient. Merchants had no problems at all in selling new cargoes of tea for a premium rate as soon as they were unloaded onto the London or New York dockside. Although there had been a short-lived reduction in interest in tea as a result of the Boston Tea Party, the trade in America and Europe was increasing and the public was beginning to clamor for more tea. Although her capacity was small, she proved to be the fastest ship sailing back and forth to Canton. Then came the Ann McKim in 1832, designed and constructed specifically for the China trade by Isaac McKim, also of Baltimore. The two-masted Baltimore Clipper was built in America. The First of the Fast Ships In 1812, the demand for more goods from the East and the need for faster transportation led to the construction of the first of the clippers. The East India Company's ships, often known as 'tea wagons' because of the slow and ponderous voyage, were too small and too slow to carry the amount of cargo the growing demand for exotic Oriental goods the public now demanded. It would take a further six or eight months for the tea to reach the London docks, and so teas that had been picked and processed in the Spring didn't reach the customer in England until the autumn of the following year - 18 months or so after the fresh leaves had been plucked. Once the goods had been stowed away and the heavily loaded ships had set sail, it was a slow and hazardous journey back home. They bustled around the port for several months, selecting the goods they wanted and bargaining over prices, and by the time the ships were loaded, it was the middle of winter. By the late 1680s, Dutch, Portuguese, and English merchants were all milling around the port, caught up in the frenzied and noisy business of exporting tea, porcelain, silks, and spices to Europe and America. If the cargo survived wars and storms, raging hot sun and floods, it usually reached Canton some time in September. The new teas were picked in April and May, processed in the local factories and then carried miles overland by coolies to the various waterways that ferried the chests and baskets of black and green tea down to the port. PREV BACK TO MAIN NEXT History Tea History: The Age of Tea Clipper Ships Februby Jane PettigrewĪs the Europeans began trading tea with China in the early 17th century, and for the next two hundred years, all the activity of selecting the most suitable teas, haggling over the price, loading the chests on to the waiting cargo ships, and completing all the necessary paperwork went on in the port of Canton, forty miles inland on the Chinese river Zheijiang.
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