1618 Chinese ambassadors present the Russian Czar Alexis with several chests of tea, which are refused as useless.


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Oops...

Meanwhile...in Holland and other places in Europe...tea was quite expensive ...even with adjustments made for our modern currency...

...and Holland - during the 1600's in particular - had a monopoly on the spice trade, as well..


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1621 Spices bought in the West Indies for $227 sold for $2 million in Europe.
1640 Dutch seize Malacca and control of most spice production in the East.
1650 Holland Controls spice trade from East Indies. Creates artificial shortage of Spice Island products

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The Dutch would pick up a ship-load of tea or spices for a relative song...and then dump the cargo in the ocean... then they could make 4 million dollars for their 450 dollar investment...(buy two ship loads and dump one of them in the ocean...which keeps your competitors from buying the cargo)

Prior to this time, Portugal owned the spice trade...competition for the trade and the trade routes could become...rather spicy. During such wars, the only mission of some ship's captains was to raid the trade ships of their opponents, and steal the cargos.

...and you've heard of Yale University? Well..the guy it's named after ...made his fortune in the spice trade...


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1672 Elihu Yale reaches India and starts spice business, which eventually provides the fortune with which he founded Yale University.

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...but I'm talking about tea...

Please keep in mind that during this time the Dutch pretty much had a monopoly on the tea and spice trade. With the resulting riches they made inroads into the "New World"...by founding New Amsterdam and places like the Bronx and Harlem in what we would later call New York state in America...


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1650 The Dutch introduce several teas and tea traditions to New Amsterdam, which later becomes New York.

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1650-1700 Tea parties become quite trendy among women across the social classes. Husbands cry family ruin, and religious reformers call for a ban.

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So...Holland lowered the price...


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1666 Holland tea prices drop to $80-$100 per pound.

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Tea was first marketed in the West for its health benefits...


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1657 The first tea is sold as a health beverage in London, England at Garway's Coffee House.

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...with reservations expressed by the medical community, of course...


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1661 The debate over tea’s health benefits versus detriments heightens when a Dutch doctor praises its curative side while French and German doctors call out its harmful side

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...and in England...trouble starts...


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1662 When Charles II takes a tea-drinking bride (Catherine Braganza of Portugal), tea becomes so chic that alcohol consumption declines.

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So...when you hear of people who were trying to refute the healthful benefits of tea...you might consider whether their pocketbooks were a bit skimpy ...because they didn't have any income from the tea trade...

Thus...the next time you hear someone decrying one thing or another - with red-faced, spluttering, saliva-drenched diatribes - learn a lesson from the past and ask yourself: "Just how much money are they losing?" and "How much power and control did they miss out on by refusing the opportunity to begin with?" ...and "Is their sour grapes just jealousy because the other guy's getting something when they aren't?"

What is really sad...you can see the same sorts of things going on in any schoolyard in the world...

Watch a buncha kids and see if you are acting any differently than they. Most governments, institutions and disciplines certainly aren't. Governments and other institutions among mankind, as you know, have people in them. Mostly... people who act like children. Mostly...people just like yourself.


"Yech! I don't want it! I don't like that."

"Wait! He's got some! I want some, too!"

"Why'd he throw it on the ground? I wanted it!"


...and don't think that the "aboriginals" on any continent on earth were or are any different...than those who proclaim themselves to be civilized.

In one very ancient culture...if you didn't keep your wife in coffee...she could divorce you...

...which is almost like starting a war over whether or not you have cinnamon for your morning porridge...and allspice for your pies.

So...as a result of their "advanced civilization" ...in Russia... they were without tea for a much longer time than in the rest of Europe...

And for those who are paying attention, this little diatribe of mine is all about The Physics of Consciousness and the Holographic/Holonomic Brain.

Remember Dr. Emoto's water crystals? (The properties of water.) How about The Harmony of the Spheres and DNA Music? It all ties in...to tea and spices ...and little children...and people like you ...who assume power and control over others.

What opportunities have you missed...that have you spouting 'red-faced, spluttering, saliva-drenched diatribes' ...over not having cinnamon in your oatmeal?

How long will you be without "tea" because you're more mature - and much more civilized - than your neighbors? your co-workers? your employees? other religions? ...or do you despise people who aren't working in government? ...or are you more valuable than someone who isn't college educated?

What is the "tea" in your life...that you have refused because "tea" is "useless"?

(Dates are from a timeline of tea: http://www.2basnob.com/tea-history-timeline.html)

Click to view attachment

http://aac.asm.org/cgi/reprint/39/11/2375

Are there similar antimicrobial properties for honey? Then you could put honey in your tea and really have something.

Honey is antimicrobial (to some extent) by way of its high [96% sugar: fructose, glucose and sucrose] content:

http://www.survival-center.com/foodfaq/ff9-swee.htm

http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/sugar.htm

Apart from that, it has more calories than and rots teeth better than table sugar [sucrose]. And, of course tooth decay is largely due to the action of oral microbes on sugar(s) converting them into acids that corrode the enamel of teeth. So some microbes are not only not inhibited by it, but they metabolise it, with clinical consequences.

My old PhD supervisor has beehives and brings us honey when he visits. Since a jar arrived with a coating of mould, we tend to slide each delivery towards the bin. I think he sight must be failing!