A lesson to be learned from tea

When tea finally reached England around 1650, the Brits took to it with enthusiam.  However, the East India Company had a government monopoly on imports outside Europe, and so they kept prices artificially high.  In addition, the Crown imposed heavy taxes on this 'luxury import,' starting in 1689 with a near-ruinous 25p per pound!  (It was reduced to 5p per pound 3 years later.)  Even the American colonists had an issue with the taxation on tea.

As a result, by the late eighteenth century, a remarkable organised crime network was importing as much as 7 million pounds annually, compared to a legal import of 5 million pounds!  The cheaper tea ensured it became a drink of the masses, but the illegal tea was not subject to any quality control and so was often adulterated, using leaves from other plants, or leaves which had already been brewed and then dried. If the colour was not right, anything from sheep's dung to poisonous copper carbonate would be added.

In 1784, aware that taxation was creating more problems than it was worth, the government slashed tax from 119% to 12.5%, cutting the cost of tea in half. Smuggling stopped virtually overnight.  (Unfortunately, it was too late for the Americans.)

In 1964, the British government abolished tea duties entirely, and today it is considered so essential it is even exempt from VAT (sales tax).