A Fortune for The East India Company | Ep. 15 | The Tea History Podcast

The mid 19th Century brought a sea change to the tea industry. Demand continued to grow all over Europe. China's artisanal tea growers and the general unreliability of the China market due to all the well-known political and social disasters happening in China raise concerns.
The idea to make a go at growing tea in India is seriously discussed. We meet Charles Bruce, the Father of India's Tea Industry. The botanist, horticulturist, and man of adventure Robert Fortune is also introduced.
We close the episode with the exploits of Fortune's first China trip and his discovery that green and black teas both come from the exact same species of plant, Camellia sinensis. With all the well-known mid-19th Century headaches facing China's Manchu Qing rulers, the loss of the European tea market will soon be added to their woes.
-------------------------------------------------------------
To support the THP and Teacup Media
Join our Patreon: / teacupmedia
Donate at www.paypal.com...
Buy a Coffee: www.buymeacoff...
-------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to The Tea History Podcast:
www.podpage.co...
Subscribe to The China History Podcast:
www.podpage.co...
Subscribe to The Chinese Sayings Podcast:
www.podpage.co...
-------------------------------------------------------------
For more THP and Teacup Media content, visit the website: teacup.media
Visit the Teacup Store: store.teacup.m...
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on:
Instagram: / teacup.media
Twitter: / teacup_media

[@dannymarshuk1979]

Beautiful I love it!

[@huzhuiwei]

Excellent! Makes me think about an episode on foreign plant hunters in China - Wilson, Forrest, Handel-Mazzetti, Farrer, Kingdon-Ward...

[@ChinaHistoryPodcast]

I should probably do an episode on these plant hunters and they work they did.

[@dp2901]

There's a documentary called "Tea War: The Adventures of Robert Fortune" that's worth watching.

[@ChinaHistoryPodcast]

Are you kidding? I’m in that movie! The producer and director flew me out to Paris to appear as one of the “experts”. You didn’t see me?

[@dp2901]

@@ChinaHistoryPodcast 🤦🏻‍♂️I watched that a few years before I found the tea podcasts last year. I can’t believe I missed that connection. I watched it because I was roped into being a principal investor in a Chinese tea importing company by my best friend and his wife. They are both China certified master tea judges and they source directly from the farmers. I’ve actually been on Phoenix Mountain outside Chaozhou and seen oolong production. I knew nothing about tea but your work has been foundational in my learning process. Thank you for the amazing work!

[@nerozero8266]

👍

[@user-nj5ui5rk9r]

I like the show but I can't help but get this feeling that lazlo either is a big fan of capitalism and hates Monopolies or just hates the Qing dynasty because he almost sounds like he is in favor of what the British did to china in the 1800s. Although at the same time he will praise china for some things and then say something that could be interpreted like they deserved being humiliated by the Brits too. It's almost contradictory... That aside I love the history, I guess I would just prefer a different choice of words in relaying it.

[@user-nj5ui5rk9r]

To follow up on this, I wouldn't consider the way the Qing handled the tea trade with foreign countries a monopoly. Yes, they were the only ones who made tea but tea is just a plant, it is not really a commodity like an iphone that people could put "intellectual property" on. That's like saying someone has a monopoly on pizza cuz no one knows how to make it! It's not the same thing. The Brits were essentially just a drug cartel poisoning china with drugs and for what, just a little drink! If that is how they handle trade then the Brits deserved to have those unfair trade conditions. They acted like villains to cheat there way until an advantageous situation. That's not honorable or just, and if that is their interpretation of free trade then they need to get some serious help. Well anyways it's too late now being from the way back then

[@htoodoh5770]

@@user-nj5ui5rk9r The tea trade was a monopoly which the Chinese abused. It wasn't just a drink but a matter of trade balance. Regarding opium, I believe there was a different sensibility at the time compared to us. Remember just 100 years ago Coca cola had cocaine in their recipe. So from the British perspective, dumping the opium was an unjustifiable action. They didn't have the same understanding of the danger of drugs.