For All the Tea in China

Robert Fortune war ein schottischer Gärtner, Botaniker und Pflanzenjäger - und Industriespion. 1848 schickte ihn die East India Company nach China - das für Ausländer verboten war- um die streng gehüteten Geheimnisse der Teeproduktion zu stehlen. Seit Jahrhunderten war China der weltweit einzige Teeproduzent. Großbritannien lieferte China lange Zeit Opium, um im Gegenzug chinesischen Tee handeln zu können. Doch als die britische East India Company das Monopol auf den Teehandel mit den Chinesen verlor, sollten im britischen Indien Teeplantagen aufgebaut werden. Aber Indien besaß keine geeigneten Teepflanzen - und selbst wenn, hätte niemand gewusst, was man mit ihnen anstellt ... Eine packende Geschichte über das gewagte Unternehmen von Robert Fortune und ein damals nahezu unbekanntes China!

Informationen zum Autor Sarah Rose is a writer living in New York. She was educated at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Klappentext The vivid historical story of Robert Fortune, engaged by the East India Company in 1848, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea. 'An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction' "Financial Times" Zusammenfassung 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.

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

Texte du rabat

The vivid historical story of Robert Fortune, engaged by the East India Company in 1848, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea. 'An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction' "Financial Times"

Résumé

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.