For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink

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Sarah Rose

For All the Tea in China

Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink

Sarah Rose

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QTY:

English

Arrow
01 June 2010

History; General & world history; Asian history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; Espionage & secret services; International trade; Agriculture & related industries

In the 1850s, stealing the secret of China tea was like stealing the secret formula for Coca-Cola

Robert Fortune was a Scottish gardener, botanist, plant hunter - and industrial spy. In 1848, the East India Company engaged him to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China - territory forbidden to foreigners - to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea.

For centuries, China had been the world's sole tea manufacturer. Britain purchased this fuel for its Empire by trading opium to the Chinese - a poisonous relationship Britain fought two destructive wars to sustain. The East India Company had profited lavishly as the middleman, but now it was sinking, having lost its monopoly to trade tea. Its salvation, it thought, was to establish its own plantations in the Himalayas of British India.

There were just two problems- India had no tea plants worth growing, and the company wouldn't have known what to do with them if it had.

Hence Robert Fortune's daring trip. The Chinese interior was off-limits and virtually unknown to the West, but that's where the finest tea was grown - the richest oolongs, soochongs and pekoes. And the Emperor aimed to keep it that way.

By: Sarah Rose
Imprint: Arrow
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 200g
ISBN: 9780099493426
ISBN 10: 009949342X
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 01 June 2010
Recommended Age: From 0 years
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Sarah Rose is a writer living in New York. She was educated at Harvard and the University of Chicago.

Reviews for For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink

Had your cup of tea this morning? If not, the next time you take a gulp of PG Tips or a sip of single estate orange pekoe you might want to send up a prayer of thanks for the dogged Scotsman who made it all possible, Robert Fortune ... Rose's account is full of colour The Times Reveals our cuppa wouldn't exist if it wasn't for an amazing Victorian, armed only with a rusty pistol and a pigtail, who stole the secret of tea from under the nose of China's ruthless warlords Daily Mail The best parts of the book are not the dangers that Fortune encountered, but Rose's assured, confident descriptions of the manufacture of tea. Like Fortune, the reader goes on a journey of discovery Mail on Sunday A compelling sketch of the world of globalisation before instant information, and transforms a modest Scottish botanist into a swashbuckling pirate capitalist, who incidentally changed the way we all have breakfast ... A genuinely curious and evocative yarn Scotland on Sunday Reshapes into gripping prose Fortune's own memoirs and letters ... An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction Financial Times