No one example captures how deeply tea drinking was embedded in the fabric of British everyday life than the decision of the government in 1942 to buy up every available pound of tea from every country in the world except Japan.
Britain faced defeat by the Axis powers of Germany and Japan. Its troops had been forced to make a complete withdrawal from Europe, leaving it open to an expected and narrowly avoided invasion. The “impregnable” fortress of Singapore had fallen, essentially ending Britain’s colonial dominance of Asia. Britain was close to broke, as its reserves were drained to keep imports flowing in as Atlantic convoys were hunted and often destroyed by U-boats. The US had not yet mobilized its massive manufacturing capabilities, post Pearl Harbor.
And Britain was buying tea!
In huge amounts. One estimate is that the largest government purchases in 1942 were, in order of weight, bullets, tea, artillery shells, bombs and explosives.
https://blog.teabox.com/year-britain-bought-tea-world
Was watching an old QI the other day and it was suggested that without tea there could have been no industrial revolution. Populations of towns and cities rocketed as workers moved from agriculture to the new mills and factories. Without the practice of boiling your water diseases would have spread and workers would have gone back to the countryside. Not sure I agree completely as there was always small beer which was also safer than drinking water but it must have aided the population growth.
