The New East India Company
From A Tea Monopoly to Information Empires
Infophilia, a Positive Psychology of Information | February 8, 2025 | Vol. 3, Issue 6
✨Welcome to Infophilia, a weekly letter exploring how our love of information and connections can help us all thrive, individually and collectively. I love learning about the unique connections new readers bring to information behaviors and styles, a love of books, cultures, gardens, technology, and more, creating a shared vision of a “grand” theory of information! Browse the Archive to see the complete collection of my writings (both open access and paywalled). Feel free to reach out anytime. 🤗
Cite as: Coleman, Anita S. (2025, February 8). The New East India Company: from a tea monopoly to information empires. Infophilia, a positive psychology of information, 3 (6).
Come oh come ye tea-thirsty restless ones — the kettle boils, bubbles and sings, musically - Rabindranath Tagore
A bath refreshes the body. Tea refreshes the mind. - Japanese proverb
☕ For over a millennia, tea has transcended its role as a mere beverage to become an integral part of cultural, intellectual, and social practices worldwide. From Chinese scholars meticulously evaluating ancient texts over steaming cups of gongfu cha, to Japanese tea masters mediating disputes amidst the tranquility of the tea ceremony, to British academics engaging in philosophical debates over afternoon tea, and from humble street stalls serving Indian chai to the modern-day boba shops in California, this plant (Camellia sinensis) has been inextricably linked with the transmission, evaluation, and dissemination of knowledge. In these times of information overload and digital disinformation, tea’s rich history, its traditions of quality assessment, and the diverse cultural contexts in which it is consumed – from comfort to mindfulness – offer valuable insights into our relationship with knowledge and the ways in which we navigate a complex information landscape.
Drawing on Paul Zurkowski’s notion of information literates, Christine Bruce’s seven faces of information literacy, my own adaptive infophilia theory, and other ideas like network effects and disinformation, I highlight the East India Company’s monopoly to examine how Big Tech’s monopoly extends beyond market dominance to exert power over our global information infrastructures and pathways through which we make meaning and decisions.
Important note: I invite you to drink a cup of tea as you read today’s essay. Thank you!