Tea War

This book explores the case of the British-Indian and Chinese tea industry, focusing on competitive interdependent ties forged by trade and the historically contingent outcomes.

It argues that seemingly traditional technologies and practices were central to modern capital accumulation across Asia.

Liu examines how competitive pressures led to labor intensification and the adoption of industrial conceptions of time in China, while colonial planters in India implemented labor indenture laws to support factory-style tea plantations.

The book challenges euro-centric accounts of capitalist accumulation and offers a non-Eurocentric theory of capitalist development, highlighting the global character of capitalism throughout its history.