19 世紀末チベットへのインド茶輸出計画

―その失敗の要因に関する考察―

抄録

Abstract While Britain, Imperial Russia, and China (Qing) contended for supremacy around Tibet, the Indian tea producers and the Indian government planned to expand its sales route by increasing its production in the 1880s. However, the plan failed in Tibet even though the Tibetans already had the habit of drinking tea. This paper examines the reason why India's tea trade with Tibet at the end of the 19th century failed based on the notes written by Westerners and the like. The results show that the failure was caused not only by political factors, but also by economic and cultural factors. In addition to failure of negotiations, Indian tea producers suffered because of their lack of skills to make brick tea, which the Tibetans liked. As a result, the Tibetans did not like both the taste as well as the flavor of brick tea made from Indian tea. Moreover, the Chinese and Tibetans hoped to retain the profits that they received from tea trade in all the areas around Himalayas. In the late 19th century, Britain established an “Indian tea network” throughout the world, however, they failed to involve Tibet into the network. The failure identifies a traditional trade network in this area and brings to light their unwavering sociocultural preference.