APAD: Not for all the tea in China

Meaning: Not at any price.

 

Background:

 

This phrase originated around the late 19th/early 20th century and derives from

the fact that China was well-known to produce tea in huge quantities. That is

still the case and China now accounts for around a quarter of the world's

production of tea. So, to decline the offer to do something 'for all the tea in

China' is to be determined not to do it, whatever inducement is offered.

 

The Oxford English Dictionary declares the phrase to be of Australian origin

and reprints Eric Partridge's 1890s date for the phrase, but unfortunately

doesn't provide any supporting evidence for either assertion. The nearest I can

come to verifying the date, and to an Australian origin, is J. J. Mann's

travelogue Round the world in a motor car, 1914:

 

    AUSTRALIA is not a hospitable country for anybody that has not got a white

    skin, and a clear record of white skins. By the laws of the country no

    dusky, tawny, or yellow races are allowed to land... When the question came

    up of letting in our Indian fellow subjects, an education standard was

    established, and if the unlucky Indian does not happen to know all the

    languages of Europe he is floored in his examination, and must stay outside.

    One is not even allowed to bring in a black servant, and when I applied to

    the authorities for permission to bring Samand with me, the reply was : "Not

    for all the tea in China."

 

- www.phrases.org.uk

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The story of the origin of the phrase still rankles. I won't go there, not for

all the kangaroos from Down Under.