Towards the ‘Cha’ Monopoly: Trade Rivalry and British Malfeasance in the Early Colonial Assam
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrjss.2025.v05.n01.045Keywords:
Tea Rivalry, Indigenous Entrepreneurship, East India Company, Assam Company, Tea MonopolyAbstract
The article aims to focus on the trade rivalry for Cha (tea) in early colonial Assam. After successful experimentation of commercial tea cultivation by the East India Company government in Assam, the European and Indian mercantile forces got attracted into the field like nothing but a sort of mania. The tea fever gave birth to Assam Company in 1839 and soon emerged as successful pioneer tea company in the world, challenging Chinese monopoly. East India Company soon handed over most of its areas under tea to Assam Company and by virtue of its hard toil, it was able to popularise the brand Assam Tea. The nexus of East India Company and the Assam Company wanted to be the sole producer in the field and hence tried to oust it rivals, especially the indigenous entrepreneurship, from the very outset. Local tea cultivators were treacherously suppressed in order to protect monopoly of European capital. This paper aims to focus on the growth of tea rivalry, between the Pioneer Companies namely the East India Company and the Assam Company and the European and indigenous private planters. Secondly, the article also highlights the malfeasants on the part of the nexus of colonial government and the Assam Company to curb the competition from the indigenous entrepreneurs like Raja Purandar Singha, Ningroola, and Maniram Dewan in particular.
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