The fashion of drinking tea has exercised an important influence upon the development of some of the lighter articles of furniture, such as the tea-table and the tea-tray. Tea was first brought into England in the seventeenth century, but it was not until the middle of the following century that it began to be generally drunk by the well-to-do. For a long period it was heavily taxed - a duty of five shillings per pound was imposed in 1680 - and its high cost caused it to be jealously preserved in the tea-chest or tea-caddy which was soon contrived for the purpose. The tea-tray and the tea-table were other contemporary evolutions; the latter speedily assumed a variety of forms, many of them very charming and elegant. Of the position of tea in history it suffices to recall the fact that the famous "Boston Tea-party" in 1773, when it was determined to resist the importation of tea into America from England, and four hundred chests of it were taken from British ships in the harbour and thrown overboard, had a powerful influence upon the attainment of Independence. See Tea-Caddy.