Robert Fortune removes tea plants and tea makers from China
node
Engaged by the East India Company, Robert Fortune travelled in disguise into the closed green and black tea districts of China, collecting seed, living plants and detailed manufacturing knowledge, and recruiting experienced Chinese tea makers to accompany the material to India. The plants travelled in Wardian cases; the consignment that reached the government nursery at Saharanpur in 1851 is reported at over twelve thousand surviving plants. This was industrial espionage undertaken for a state-backed commercial interest, breaching both Chinese restrictions on foreign movement and Chinese control of a manufacturing secret.
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Read in · 1
Evidence · 2
Timeline
No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.
Connections · 6
- Robert Fortuneconcerns
- English (later British) East India Companyconcerns
- Camellia sinensisconcerns
- Shanghaiconcerns
- Darjeelingconcerns
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kewconcerns
Assembled narrative · 1
Assembled from 55 blocks · 2 evidence · 31 related
- Story
- Engaged by the East India Company, Robert Fortune travelled in disguise into the closed green and black tea districts of China, collecting seed, living plants and detailed manufacturing knowledge, and recruiting experienced Chinese tea makers to accompany the material to India. The plants travelled in Wardian cases; the consignment that reached the government nursery at Saharanpur in 1851 is reported at over twelve thousand surviving plants. This was industrial espionage undertaken for a state-backed commercial interest, breaching both Chinese restrictions on foreign movement and Chinese control of a manufacturing secret.
- Knowledge
- Camellia sinensis
- English (later British) East India Company
- Robert Fortune
- Shanghai
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- Darjeeling
- Robert Fortune removes tea plants and tea makers from China
- Connections
- Robert Fortune
- English (later British) East India Company
- Camellia sinensis
- Shanghai
- Darjeeling
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- English (later British) East India Company
- Shanghai
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- Robert Fortune removes tea plants and tea makers from China
- Opium
- Assam
- Tea
- Robert Fortune
- Qing trade confined to Canton
- Boston Tea Party
- Commutation Act cuts British tea duty
- East India Company's China monopoly ends; Tea Committee founded
- Lin Zexu destroys confiscated opium at Humen
- The Opium Wars
- Robert Fortune removes tea plants and tea makers from China
- Parliament bans the use of printed calicoes
- Tea
- Darjeeling
- Yunnan
- Assam
- Growing conditions for tea (altitude, rainfall, drainage)
- Tea buried in the Han Yangling mausoleum
- Robert Bruce shown tea growing in Assam
- First tea planted at Darjeeling
- Robert Fortune removes tea plants and tea makers from China
- Robert Fortune
- Canton (historical) — modern Guangzhou
- Treaty of Nanking
- Robert Fortune removes tea plants and tea makers from China
- Camellia sinensis
- Growing conditions for tea (altitude, rainfall, drainage)
- First tea planted at Darjeeling
- Robert Fortune removes tea plants and tea makers from China
- Robert Fortune
- Robert Fortune removes tea plants and tea makers from China
- Evidence
- Fortune's own published account documents his commission by the East India Company, his travel in disguise into closed tea districts, the use of Wardian cases, the recruitment of Chinese tea makers, and that green and black tea come from the same plant.
- Kew's economic botany holdings document tea as an imperial commodity crop and the Wardian case as the technology that made live transcontinental plant transfer possible.
Observed changes · 0
No public Signals are attached to this object. Signals show what changed and when it was observed — never a direction or a rank.
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