I have a tea problem, drinking far too much since my teens. The addiction is bad, though cheap as addictions go. My justification is that there are so many problems to which a cup of tea is the answer. Who doesn’t think it’s a lifesaver right now, as the dark descends and the cold creeps in?
Luckily, I needn’t be ashamed of my tea dependence any longer – in fact, I should be proud, even patriotic, about it. Because new research by Francisca Antman shows widespread adoption of tea drinking in late 18th-century England wasn’t just central to the development of our national culture, it literally saved lives.
In 1784, the Commutation Act drastically cut the tea tax from 119% to 12.5% and soon even peasants were slurping two cups a day, with tea imports increasing sixfold between 1761 and 1834. What does a cuppa need apart from tea leaves? Boiled water – which (accidentally, given we didn’t then know dirty water spread disease) meant much healthier water in an era well before the 19th-century arrival of sewers. Plus tea was cheaper than beer, the other source of disease-free hydration.
Death rates fell from 28 to 23 per 1,000 people over that same period. The role of tea imports is confirmed by drops in deaths from waterborne (eg, dysentery) more than airborne (eg, tuberculosis) diseases. Improvements were also greatest in areas of lower water quality. There were economic as well as health benefits, allowing the clustering together of people (and their… waste) in the factory towns of the Industrial Revolution.
This all happened by accident, in a period in which public health interventions didn’t much exist. Much like today you might say. Anyway, I’m off to put the kettle on.
• Torsten Bell is chief executive of the Resolution Foundation. Read more at resolutionfoundation.org
