While black tea is nowadays perceived as the quintessential English beverage, it was not always so. For many centuries, tea production was a closely guarded secret, not known to Westerners. While the drink had achieved runaway popularity in the British Isles by the 19th century, almost no one, and certainly no one in England, knew exactly how it was made. The Chinese held a monopoly on production, and were very secretive about the production process--so much so that they would not allow foreigners to buy tea plants for export outside the country's borders. Silver was one of the few commodities the Chinese were interested in trading (this reluctance to accept European trade goods and the British Empire's desire for greater commerce with China were two of the reasons for the Opium War of 1839-1842).
Because the British were such lovers of tea, and because they were so commercially-minded, they naturally began to think about ways to enjoy their favorite beverage at a lower cost, with more control over logistics and production. But this would require more understanding of the climate in which tea plants could grow and how tea was made; with no way to purchase the plants legally, the British were forced to engage in espionage.
Enter a man named Robert Fortune. Fortune was a Scottish horticulturist with the Royal Horticultural Society, already well-known for his previous excursions in China, which had brought back several new plants to Westerners, including the kumquat. Impressed by his work, the British East India Company met with him in 1848 and commissioned him to enter China, purchase or steal as many tea plants and seeds as he could get his hands on, and bring it all back to England. In return, Fortune would be paid a handsome salary as well as being granted right of ownership to anything he brought back with him (except the tea, of course).
As quaint as it sounds, the mission was very dangerous. The British had just roundly defeated the Chinese in the Opium Wars, and anti-British sentiment was high. A British spy could very likely expect to be killed if he was found out. Nevertheless, Fortune got on with his mission. He shaved his head, leaving only a ponytail at the back, and donned the robes of a Chinese mandarin (civil servant). With a local guide named Wang, Fortune remained in China for quite some time collecting tea plants as well as seeds. He was able to successfully pass as a local; in fact, he even managed to get a tour of a Chinese tea factory, where he meticulously recorded every detail (he later wrote a book recounting his experiences which was for a time the only English-language book on the subject). While there, he learned a very important fact, previously unknown to Westerners: green tea and black tea come from the same plant.
Robert Fortune returned home with a wealth of knowledge about tea, and a generous supply of plants and seeds. However, Britain's entry into the tea trade was not assured; the incompetence of a British East India Company official nearly destroyed all of the plants Fortune had brought with him. It was only Fortune's prudent instincts that prevented this outcome and would usher India onto the world stage as a major player in the global tea trade.
(Continued in Pt. 2)
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