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James Taylor is renowned as the ‘father of the Ceylon tea enterprise’. But how important were his Scottish origins in the successes he achieved in Ceylon’s tea economy? This chapter illuminates the social, cultural and economic world of Scotland especially developments in education, agriculture and engineering. The strong networking component of Scottish migration to Ceylon also proved influential as did Taylor’s personal attributes. The chapter argues that migrant backgrounds – as well as influences in new destinations – must be considered when assessing issues of adjustment abroad.

Ceylon’s natural environment underwent huge changes during the nineteenth century due to the importation of new crops, above all the coffee tree from Ethiopia, cinchona from the Andes, and tea from the Himalayas. We evocatively examine transformations to Taylor’s environs including his natural surroundings, health, living conditions, and social relations.

James Taylor was, in a sense, fairly typical of the countless number of young Scots who sought their fortunes in the British Empire and beyond throughout the nineteenth century. Yet his particular career merits special attention for his efforts helped to create the foundations for the transformation of the country’s economy which helped to shape the world’s drinking habits. The introduction sets the scene for the book and outlines the diverse sources – including Taylor’s private and published correspondence and photographs – which have made this ‘subaltern biography’ possible.

In this chapter, the filmmakers start shooting in Los Angeles, then take to the road, stopping in Needles, California; Flagstaff, Arizona; and Santa Fe, New Mexico, often travelling on smaller highways because street racers tend to avoid freeways populated by cops. A divide separates the hip actors and filmmakers from the more traditional, highly trained crew. The “above the line” filmmakers think the crew are right-wing yahoos, the crew thinks the filmmakers are inexperienced, pothead hippies. Indeed the untrained actors – Dennis Wilson, Laurie Bird and James Taylor -- flub lines, whistle and otherwise ruin scenes, necessitating repeated takes. Hellman withholds the script from his untrained actors, giving them only their lines for the day, generating their resentment. Hellman’s wife, Jaclyn, takes the amateur actors through sense memory exercises, dragging up painful recollections from their past and further irking them. Warren Oates joins the cast.

This chapter, about Two-Lane Blacktop’s post-production and release, relates how Monte Hellman cut together a European-style, slow-paced film. Esquire magazine had put the movie on its cover, calling it “the movie of the year,” and raising expectations. Universal executives ask for a more traditional ending and want James Taylor to sing in the movie or at least contribute a tune to the soundtrack, but Hellman refuses to budge. Preview audiences are confused by the film, and Universal doesn’t market the movie to people who actually would appreciate it. Audiences at theatres, who expect another fast-paced Easy Rider, are disappointed and reviews are mixed. Hellman blames the failure on Universal’s animosity to the film and excessive publicity, and others blame Hellman for using untrained actors, failing to use a finger-snapping soundtrack and making the film too slow and quiet for American audiences.

Singer-songwriters in the early 1970s played a key role in helping younger Americans define a different pattern of romance than their parents’ experiences, one focused around serial monogamy. Singer-songwriters helped to model these new patterns both with their songs and their publicly-lived lives.

We summarise this study’s contribution to several levels of historical understanding: the British commercial empire in Asia; the story of tea as a global commodity; Sri Lanka’s economic development in the nineteenth century; the experience of British Asian planters in the Victorian era; the history of the Scottish diaspora; and last, but by no means least, in providing the first biography of James Taylor, the pioneer of Ceylon tea. In addition, we summarise Taylor’s personality and character.

The film company finishes shooting the picture in this chapter.In Boswell, Oklahoma they use up the town’s water supply and two locals with a shotgun in a pickup truck run them out of town. The Universal executive Ned Tanen visits the set and becomes convinced the film will be a hit. James Taylor’s first hit song, “Fire and Rain,” climbs to the top of the charts, making him famous. Taylor’s newfound celebrity helps attract journalists to the travelling set, and all the publicity raises expectations for the low-budget existentialist car-racing movie. After Jaclyn Hellman’s sense memory exercises, which became fierce and antagonistic due to her distress over her husband’s mistress being along on the shoot, and Hellman’s withdrawal of the script and hands-off directing style, Taylor vows never to make another movie, and he never has.

This chapter examines Ceylon’s advantages in tea cultivation and why it was able to compete so effectively alongside India against the traditional hegemony of China in the British tea market. It pays special attention to the marketing of Ceylon tea especially at international exhibitions and the development of syndicates to market the product globally.

This chapter relates how CBS Cinema Center Films agreed to make Two-Lane Blacktop and Monte Hellman chose cinematographer Gregory Sandor to shoot the film using wide-screen Techniscope. Over the objections of casting director Fred Roos, who brought in dozens of young, trained actors, Hellman chose rock stars for the two lead roles.: James Taylor, then a heroin addict who nevertheless was not using during the shoot, would play the Driver and Dennis Wilson, the Beach Boys’ drummer, a juvenile, drug-taking, erratic young man who had befriended the cult murderer Charles Manson, would play the Mechanic. Hellman’s girlfriend Laurie Bird would play the Girl, and Warren Oates would portray GTO. Hellman and associate producer Gary Kurtztravelled across the country scouting locations that they would use with minimal set dressing, since they had only a $1 million budget and no production designer. Then CBS dropped the film.