Assam Company

company · earth · economy · Assam

The Assam Company was formed in 1839, immediately after the first Assam-grown tea was sold in London, and was the first joint-stock company established to grow tea commercially in India. It took over the government's experimental gardens and, through the 1840s and 1850s, established the plantation model — large estates, imported labour, processing on site — that defined Indian tea. Its early years were financially disastrous before the industry became profitable. It is included as an object because the shift from Company botanical experiment to private plantation capital is the mechanism by which tea growing actually scaled in India.