Hey #medievaltwitter does anyone have references to scholarship on the question of why medieval Europeans did not import tea? They had access to Chinese products, so why not tea? My search for "tea" on the IMB turned up bupkis.
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Replying to @sdavissecord
What an interesting question! In addition to things already mentioned, I'd guess tea=heavier than eg pepper per "portion" (40–60 times, by my very rough est.), would that be a factor in reducing supply/demand? Also recall reading spread of tea drinking in east linked to Buddhism?
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Replying to @caitlinrgreen
Thanks! Pepper was far from the only "spice" imported in bulk from China--all kinds of things like alum and dyestuffs and many, many other eastern products that could also have been heavier or lighter depending. And ceramics were way heavier, but they were imported into Muslim
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Replying to @sdavissecord
Oh absolutely—just pondering it as one factor amongst several that led to tea not becoming established in A. Asia/N. Africa/Europe in medieval era! Tea as relatively bulky Vs spices etc (linking tea and spices here as both need eating/drinking cultures >
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Replying to @caitlinrgreen @sdavissecord
> to be established in West Asia/Europe to make worth exporting, whereas pottery + dyes more straightforward luxury exports??)
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Replying to @caitlinrgreen
For sure and that was basically the question, right - why did they develop a taste for pepper, dyed silks, spikenard etc but not for tea. How did it fail to get established even when access per access wasn't the problem. Obvs no one answer, but fascinating to think about/
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Replying to @sdavissecord @caitlinrgreen
As you have shown so many times, Europeans imported and loved lots of foreign stuff! Just really interesting to think about what's not on the list of those things.
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Replying to @sdavissecord
Oh, absolutely! And I totally agree, it's a genuinely fascinating question! Incidentally, looking around, I gather there's some reason to think there may have been some post-Mongol tea drinking in parts of Persia & a 15thC ref to someone from Arabia obtaining some...
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(Laufer, Sino-Iranica, pp. 553–4)
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Replying to @caitlinrgreen
Excellent! Thank you for this ref - so cool!
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