For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History |  | Author: Sarah Rose
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 102,996
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0670021520
Dewey Decimal Number: 382.413720941
EAN: 9780670021529
ASIN: 0670021520
Publication Date: March 18, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A dramatic historical narrative of the man who stole the secret of tea from China
In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China-territory forbidden to foreigners-to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune's journeys into China-a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.
Disguised in Mandarin robes, Fortune ventured deep into the country, confronting pirates, hostile climate, and his own untrustworthy men as he made his way to the epicenter of tea production, the remote Wu Yi Shan hills. One of the most daring acts of corporate espionage in history, Fortune's pursuit of China's ancient secret makes for a classic nineteenth-century adventure tale, one in which the fate of empires hinges on the feats of one extraordinary man.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 36
 A Swashbuckling Scientist and Gardener! March 18, 2010
Miz Ellen (Bovine Universe)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
Sarah Rose has rescued the aptly named Robert Fortune from the footnotes of Victorian obscurity and written an engrossing story explaining one of the great heists of history: how the British stole tea plants from China and successfully transplanted them in India. It's a spy story for gardeners in which daring-do and botany coexist on every page.
Robert Fortune was the son of a Scottish farm worker. Lacking the means to get a formal education, Fortune learned his skills from practical apprenticeship and obtained a post at the Royal Horticultural Society garden at Chiswick. His skill at cultivating rare blooms from the Orient in hothouses earned him a ticket to China at the end of the First Opium War. His mandate was to collect rare plants and study the botany of China. He almost died there. As he lay gravely ill, the Chinese junk he was on was attacked by pirates. Fortune roused, rushed up on deck and organized a successful defense. The incident illustrates his courage and resource when confronted by adversity.
On his return to London in 1847, he wrote a book about his experiences in China that became a bestseller. When the British East India Company looked around for a man capable of penetrating into the interior of China and obtaining plant specimens and seeds for purposed tea plantations in India, Fortune was the man they turned to.
This is a fascinating book on many fronts. As a story of corporate espionage, it touches on issues of trade and economics that are controversial today. The technology used to bring viable seeds and plants to India is astounding when one considers that sailing ships were the transportation means of that era. A spotlight is put on the opium trade, an issue that still resonates. Sarah Rose writes with a lively, clear style that makes this a hard book to put down. I recommend this book to historians, tea drinkers, economists, gardeners and corporate policy makers. Brew up a cup and enjoy!
A Great, Fun, and Fascinating Read March 20, 2010
T.L. Walliser (Berkeley, CA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Sarah Rose's Book "For All the Tea in China" is a must-read. It's a wonderful, entertaining ride into a lesser known chapter of history- how the British smuggled tea leaves out of China. The writing is terrific and it's a true page-turner. It made me feel like a kid again when I used to love reading classic adventure stories like "Gulliver's Travels" or "Around the World in Eighty Days." I hadn't found myself this excited abut reading a book in a while, plus many modern day parallels make Robert Fortune's world of Industrialization and the Victorian Age seem not so very far away at all. I highly recommend this book as a great, fun, and fascinating read!
He was a Spy. A Horticultural Tea Spy. March 19, 2010
Theseus (US of A)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This little book centers around the odd tale of a gentleman by the name of Robert Fortune who, in the middle of the 19th century, was engaged to be a spy. His mission -- to sneak into a section of China and steal the secrets of Tea horticulture and manufacturing.
His masters were the Britiech East India Company who were desperate to learn these secrets because they had lost the monopoly on the tea trade.
This oddball story of corporate espionage yields a fun, well-told, brisk book.
Riveting Account of how Tea was Stolen from China March 17, 2010
Glenn Gallagher (Sacramento, CA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
For All The Tea in China is a strangely riveting account of how the East India company in the 1840s engaged in one of the most thrilling acts of industrial spying ever perpetrated. The true story details the account of how Robert Fortune, disguised as a high-ranking Chinese official, infiltrated Chinese tea-growing areas and literally stole thousands of plants for export back to India (which was controlled by Britain at the time).
Perhaps some background is useful to explain why Mr. Fortune's activities were so audacious. China was the only country growing tea at the time. They controlled the entire world's tea supply with a monopolistic jealousy. No plants, seeds, or tea-making techniques were allowed to leave the country. Any foreigner caught trying to steal the secret of tea from China would be executed. In fact, any foreigner caught in China outside a few safe port zones would be executed without trial. Any Chinese citizen caught aiding any foreigners to steal tea or its cultivation and drying techniques would also be executed.
The East India Company sold opium to China in exchange for tea for Britain. It was a surprisingly successful and lucrative enterprise. The only problem was that the exclusive trading rights the East India Company had with China for tea-trading was set to expire in the late 1840s, and they desperately wanted to grow their own tea in India to escape the high tea prices the Chinese demanded.
If you like history, this is a well-written account on the relationship between Britain and China before China was open to the west.
A must-read for all tea lovers! March 24, 2010
Jen K
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
All tea drinkers should read this book, which is the story of Robert Fortune. Don't know him? If you love tea, you should. You have Robert to thank for getting it into your hands. He went deep into China as a spy for the British empire, and sent back the live plants, seeds, and secrets that would introduce tea growing to India (then a part of the empire), reducing the prices and increasing the quality and quantity available to tea drinkers. Rose's account of Robert Fortune's story is imaginative yet based in facts gleaned from historic documents. The story paints a clear picture of the danger Fortune faced in his service, a quest that paid off not only in access to tea, but in prestige for Fortune as well. The young botanist/naturalist was able to make a name for himself through his explorations. Worth reading!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 36
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