Agricultural History

Have you ever wondered how many numbers are hidden in a single cup of tea? I used to think tea was a purely sensory experience. Then I opened the local chronicles of Northern Fujian. Behind every leaf, I found ledgers. Imperial ledgers. Farmer ledgers. Trade ledgers. Every single entry, precise to the last digit. In the 6th year of the Dade era (1302 AD), the Yuan government built the Imperial Tea Garden at the Fourth Bend of Wuyi Mountain. 360 catties of tribute tea. Over 20 roasting houses. A workforce of nearly 500 pickers. This was a “capacity planning document” from seven centuries ago. ...

Geographical Connections Specific locations mentioned in this article include: Quanzhou Prefecture, Anxi (Tea Country), Jinjiang (Fruit Region), Nan’an, Hui’an, Nanyang (Southeast Asia), Luzon, Zaiton Port, Dehua, and Yongchun. I. The Green Code of Zaiton 1602. Ming dynasty officials in Quanzhou sat down to compile a list. They sorted everything the prefecture produced into seven categories: grains, vegetables, fruits, flowers, medicines, flora, and fauna. Why seven? Because Quanzhou sits at a subtropical crossroads where mountain meets sea. Northern species collide with southern ones. Without categories, you’d lose count. Under those seven headings, hundreds of entries — each one a data point, each one a coordinate. ...