Ben Fanstone delves into the life of James Taylor and his inluence on the development of Ceylon’s exports

Edited by Dr Katy Jack reviews@historyscotland.com

Tea and Empire: James Taylor in Victorian Ceylon

Angela McCarthy and Tom Devine Manchester University Press, 2017

272 pages

Hardback, £25.00

ISBN: 9781526119056 scot.sh/hsceylon

In Tea and Empire: James Taylor in Victorian Ceylon, Angela McCarthy and Tom Devine recount the life of James Taylor, a Scot who was and remains largely unknown in his native land but who made an indelible mark on the colonial development of the island now known as Sri Lanka. While under colonial occupation by the British, Ceylon was famous – and perhaps infamous – for its plantation culture, firstly of coffee and then tea, the latter of which continues to dominate the island’s economy today. Taylor played a major role in the cultivation of both of these exports, and this biography ably charts his involvement from when he left Scotland aged just sixteen in 1851 until his death on the island in 1891.