Did tea and beer bring about industrialization?

Tea and the Industrial Revolution

A Cambridge professor says that a change in drinking habits was the reason
for the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Anjana Abuja reports.

A. Alan Macfarlane, professor of

anthropological science at King’s College,
Cambridge has, like other historians, spent
decades wrestling with the enigma of the
Industrial Revolution. Why did this particular Big
Bang – the world-changing birth of industry -
happen in Britain? And why did it strike at the
end of the 18th century?

B. Macfarlane compares the puzzle to a

combination lock. ‘There are about 20 different
factors and all of them need to be present before the revolution can happen,’ he
says. For industry to take off, there needs to be the technology and power to drive
factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour, easy transport to move
goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a
market-driven economy and a political system that allows this to happen. While
this was the case for England, other nations, such as Japan, the Netherlands and
France also met some of these criteria but were not industrialising. All these
factors must have been necessary. But not sufficient to cause the revolution, says
Macfarlane. ‘After all, Holland had everything except coal while China also had
many of these factors. Most historians are convinced there are one or two missing
factors that you need to open the lock.’

C. The missing factors, he proposes, are to be found in almost even kitchen

cupboard. Tea and beer, two of the nation’s favourite drinks, fuelled the
revolution. The antiseptic properties of tannin, the active ingredient in tea, and of
hops in beer – plus the fact that both are made with boiled water – allowed urban
communities to flourish at close quarters without succumbing to water-borne
diseases such as dysentery. The theory sounds eccentric but once he starts to
explain the detective work that went into his deduction, the scepticism gives way to
wary admiration. Macfarlanes case has been strengthened by support from notable
quarters – Roy Porter, the distinguished medical historian, recently wrote a
favourable appraisal of his research.

D. Macfarlane had wondered for a long time how the Industrial Revolution came
about. Historians had alighted on one interesting factor around the mid-18th
century that required explanation. Between about 1650 and 1740，the population
in Britain was static. But then there was a burst in population growth. Macfarlane
says: ‘The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years, and this happened
in both rural areas and cities, and across all classes. People suggested four
possible causes. Was there a sudden change in the viruses and bacteria around?
Unlikely. Was there a revolution in medical science? But this was a century before
Lister’s revolution*. Was there a change in environmental conditions? There were
improvements in agriculture that wiped out malaria, but these were small gains.
Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century. The only option left is
food. But the height and weight statistics show a decline. So the food must have got
worse. Efforts to explain this sudden reduction in child deaths appeared to draw a
blank .’

E. This population burst seemed to happen at just the right time to provide labour
for the Industrial Revolution. ‘When you start moving towards an industrial
revolution, it is economically efficient to have people living close together,’ says
Macfarlane. ‘But then you get disease, particularly from human waste.’ Some
digging around in historical records revealed that there was a change in the
incidence of water-borne disease at that time, especially dysentery. Macfarlane
deduced that whatever the British were drinking must have been important in
regulating disease. He says, ‘We drank beer. For a long time, the English were
protected by the strong antibacterial agent in hops, which were added to help
preserve the beer. But in the late 17th century a tax was introduced on malt, the
basic ingredient of beer. The poor turned to water and gin and in the 1720s the
mortality rate began to rise again. Then it suddenly dropped again. What caused
this?’

F. Macfarlane looked to Japan, which was also developing large cities about the
same time, and also had no sanitation. Water-borne diseases had a much looser
grip on the Japanese population than those in Britain. Could it be the prevalence
of tea in their culture? Macfarlane then noted that the history of tea in Britain
provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates. Tea was relatively expensive until
Britain started a direct clipper trade with China in the early 18th century. By the
1740s, about the time that infant mortality was dipping, the drink was common.
Macfarlane guessed that the fact that water had to be boiled, together with the
stomach-purifying properties of tea meant that the breast milk provided by mothers
was healthier than it had ever been. No other European nation sipped tea like the
British, which, by Macfarlanes logic, pushed these other countries out of
contention for the revolution.

G. But, if tea is a factor in the combination lock, why didn’t Japan forge ahead in
a tea-soaked industrial revolution of its own? Macfarlane notes that even though
17th-century Japan had large cities, high literacy rates, even a futures market, it
had turned its back on the essence of any work-based revolution by giving up
labour-saving devices such as animals, afraid that they would put people out of
work. So, the nation that we now think of as one of the most technologically
advanced entered the 19th century having ‘abandoned the wheel’.

The passage has 8 sections A-H. Choose the most suitable headings for
paragraphs B—F from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers (i-x). There are more headings than sections
so you will not use all of them

List of Headings

(i) The significance of tea drinking

(ii) Possible solution to the puzzle
(iii) Industry in Holland and France
(iv) Significant population increase
(v) The relationship between drinks and disease
(vi) Gin drinking and industrialisation
(vii) Dysentery prevention in Japan and Holland
(viii) Japan’s waterborne diseases
(ix) Preconditions necessary for industrial revolution

Introduction

[14] Section B

[15] Section C

[16] Section D

[17] Section E
 Question 19-22
Complete the table using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the
passage
CENTURY SOCIAL REASON EFFECT ON
CHANGE IN POPULATION
BRITAIN
th
Mid 17 century Main drinks were Hops helped to No significant
………. make beer last change
longer
th
Late 17 century Gin becomes more Beer becomes Mortality rate
popular, especially expensive because goes up
with poor people of [19] ………..
Early 18 century [20] ………..
th
Britain starts trade Mortality rate
drinking starts to with chine goes down
become
widespread
th
Mid 18 century Decline in urban [22] ………. Infant mortality
deaths caused by Water used for tea rate goes down by
[21] ………… and beer; half
antibacterial
qualities of tannin

Questions 23-25
Choose the correct letter A-D.

[23] In 1740 there was a population explosion in Britain because...

A large numbers of people moved to live in cities.
B larger quantities of beer were drunk.
C of the health-protecting qualities of beer and tea.
D of the Industrial Revolution.

[24] According to the author, the Japanese did not industrialise because they didn’t
A like drinking beer.
B want animals to work.
C like using wheels.
D want unemployment.

[25] Macfarlane thinks he has discovered why...

A the British drink beer and tea.
B industrialisation happened in Britain when it did.
C the Japanese did not drink beer.
D sanitation wasn't widespread until the 19th century.

Questions 1 – 7

List of Headings

i The search for the reasons for an increase in population

ii Industrialisation and the fear of unemployment
iii The development of cities in Japan 4 The time and place of the
Industrial Revolution
iv The time and place of the Industrial Revolution
v The cases of Holland, France and China
vi Changes in drinking habits in Britain
vii Two keys to Britain’s industrial revolution
viii Conditions required for industrialisation
ix Comparisons with Japan lead to the answer

1 Paragraph A
2 Paragraph B
3 Paragraph C
4 Paragraph D
5 Paragraph E
6 Paragraph F
7 Paragraph G
Questions 8-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

8. China’s transport system was not suitable for industry in the 18th century.

9. Tea and beer both helped to prevent dysentery in Britain.

10. Roy Porter disagrees with Professor Macfarlane’s findings.

11. After 1740，there was a reduction in population in Britain.

12. People in Britain used to make beer at home.

13. The tax on malt indirectly caused a rise in the death rate.

Answer:
1. iv
2. viii
3. vii
4. i
5. vi
6. ix
7. ii
8. NOT GIVEN
9. TRUE
10. FALSE
11. FALSE
12. NOT GIVEN
13. TRUE