Impacts of Changes in the International Geopolitical Landscape on the Tibetan Tea Trade—From the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the Republican China Period

Abstract

The sale of Yunnan tea to Tibet began in the late Ming dynasty and the early Qing dynasty, and grew rapidly with many routes of horse caravans entering Tibet. However, for a long period, Tibetan tea produced in Sichuan remained the primary variety sold to Tibet, and it enjoyed irreplaceably important status. In the late Qing dynasty, especially after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the relationship between Tibet and the central government weakened under British armed intervention. The sales volume of Tibetan tea produced in Sichuan kept dropping due to unsmooth roads leading to Tibet, excessively high prices and especially the dumping of Indian tea. In the meantime, with the opening of marine corridor of Yunnan tea, the cost of marine transport of Yunnan tea to Tibet was reduced greatly, and its sales volume in Tibet kept on rising. In the early Republican China period, Yunnan tea became the main variety of inland tea in place of Tibetan tea produced in Sichuan. The marine corridor rose when Indian tea was dumped in Tibet after the two Britain-Tibet wars, frustrating Britain’s attempt of monopolizing the Tibetan tea market while supplying daily necessities to the Tibetan people, and playing an important role of maintaining connections between Tibet and inland China.