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The railway that climbed from Colombo into the central highlands was conceived in the age of coffee. In the nineteenth century, transporting produce from the hill country to the port was slow, costly and dependent on roads that could be difficult in wet weather. Read More
In the early years of commercial Ceylon tea, there was no established auction system on the island. Producers and merchants relied on London’s existing tea market or sold directly to overseas buyers. Read More
The rise of Ceylon tea depended on more than the planting of tea bushes. To become a major export industry, freshly plucked leaf had to be turned quickly into a stable, saleable product whose appearance and flavour would meet the expectations of buyers overseas. Read More
The passing of Henry Malin Goonetileke marks the end of an extraordinary career in the plantation industry, a career that spanned more than six decades and embraced almost every aspect of Sri Lanka’s tea story, from the estate to the boardroom, from the plantation field to the highest levels of industry representation. Read More
Few names in the history of espionage are more notorious than Kim Philby. Harold Adrian Russell Philby, universally known as Kim, was for many years a trusted British intelligence officer while secretly working for the Soviet Union. Read More
For much of the nineteenth century, tea in Britain was closely associated with China. Chinese tea dominated the British market, supplying the vast majority of the tea consumed in the country, while tea from India was still a relatively minor source. Read More
The agency houses had survived the collapse of coffee and helped finance the rise of tea. Read More
The agency houses did far more than keep accounts in Colombo. They financed estates, appointed planters, supervised cultivation, arranged machinery and supplies, handled produce, organised shipping and connected the remote planting districts of Ceylon with the markets and capital of London. Read More
