Includes:
Consolidated Tea & Lands Co Ltd, tea planters, Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 1896 through the consolidation of North Sylhet Tea Co Ltd, tea planters and South Sylhet Tea Co Ltd, tea planters. It was Sir John Muir, senior partner of James Finlay & Co Ltd textile manufacturers, tea planters, and merchants, Glasgow, Scotland, who was responsible for initiating and carrying through the policy of large-scale tea ownership. He believed that the normal trading of James Finlay & Co Ltd gave insufficient employment to the capital available and a too restricted prospect of securing profits. Muir decided that tea was a good investment, and it became his policy to make advances to estates in order to secure agency appointments. This policy led to the creation of what became known as the Finlay Group of companies. The four joint-stock limited liability companies were: Consolidated Tea & Lands Co Ltd, tea planters, Edinburgh, formed through the consolidation of the two Sylhet Tea Companies, Amalgamated Tea Estates Co Ltd, tea planters, Glasgow, Kanan Devan Hills Produce Co Ltd, tea planters, Glasgow, and Anglo-American Direct Tea Trading Co Ltd, tea planters, Edinburgh, (c.f. UGD91/4/4/2/1/1). This policy radically altered the basis of James Finlay & Co Ltd from a firm with its principal interests in cotton in Scotland, to a firm with its principal interests in jute and tea in India. Consolidated Tea & Lands Co Ltd's initial directors were: Sir John Muir, who held the position of chairman; Sir Robert Drummond Moncreiff; P R Buchanan, founder of P R Buchanan & Co Ltd, tea planters, London, England; William Allan Coats; A B Murray; A M Brown; William Walker; and Robert Scott. Three subsidiary companies were later created for each of the major tea markets. Consolidated Tea & Lands Co (India) Ltd, incorporated 1956 , registered in Edinburgh, as of 2002 still exists as a non-trading company. Consolidated Tea & Lands Co (Ceylon) Ltd was registered in Scotland and dissolved in 1990 . Consolidated Tea & Lands Co (Bangladesh) Ltd, incorporated 1955 , registered in Glasgow, as of 2002 is still an active company, manufacturing food products. Consolidated Tea & Lands Co Ltd as of 2002 is a non-trading company.
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Description compiled in line with the following international standards: International Council on Archives, ISAD(G) Second Edition, September 1999and National Council on Archives, Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names
Scotland is the location of all place names in the administrative/biographical history element, unless otherwise stated.
Collection catalogued by members of Glasgow University Archive Services staff. Catalogue converted to Encoded Archival Description by Michelle Kaye, Archives Assistant (Cataloguing), May 2012. Additional material catalogued and converted into Encoded Archival Description by Peter Morphew, Cataloguing Archivist, January 2016.
