This image shows the trade card of Mowbray & Son, tea dealers
and grocers. Even though tea was brought from the other side of the
world and sugar from the West Indies, partly because both commodities
were products of forced labour tea became cheaper to drink than beer.
By the 19th century, tea in Britain was no longer just a luxury for
the aristocracy but an everyday commodity for the rural and urban
poor.
Victoria & Albert Museum E.331-1967 (19th century)
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