The Social Impact of the Decline of the Tea Foreign Trade in Modern China

Tea is one of China's traditional export commodities. Since the late 1880s, due to the strong competition from foreign tea, based on the small-scale peasant economy, China's tea foreign trade declined sharply, especially for the tea export quantity, export value and the proportion of foreign trade. This caused the decline of regional economy, the financial tax, and the changes in social life. And this shocked the late Qing Dynasty society, an ideological trend of revitalization of the tea industry formed, and finally transformed into a series of actions. Affected by the social nature, historical conditions and other aspects, the actions could not solve the historical destny of the decline of Chinese tea industry, but provided an opportunity for the traditional industry's modernization.