For All the Tea in China
Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink
Published on 1. April 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-09-949342-6 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
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 * 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 * [Fortune's] story is well worth the telling, and Rose does so with skill and restraint * Literary Review * Reshapes into gripping prose Fortune's own memoirs and letters ... An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction * Financial 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 * 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 * Sarah Rose tells a stirring tale of individual derring-do and the fate of the nations. * Waterstone's Books Quarterly * It's an amusing tale... I was fascinated * Sunday Express * This will ensure you value your cuppa as never before * Country Life * This fascinating book by Sarah Rose tells the story of Robert Fortune, an early 19th-century botanist who, disguised as a Mandarin, was employed by the East India Company to discover the secrets of tea-growing in China * The Observer *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cornerstone
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
207 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-949342-6 (9780099493426)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Sarah Rose
For All the Tea in China
Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink
E-Book
12/2013
1st Edition
Cornerstone Digital
€9.49
Available for download
Person
Sarah Rose is a writer living in New York. She was educated at Harvard and the University of Chicago.