S3-E31 - The “Tea Thief” - Robert Fortune's Very Brief Trip to Taiwan (1854)

Tea was domesticated in China, and the knowledge of how
to grow it, harvest it, and process it was a
closely guarded secret. After basically becoming addicted to
the beverage, the British needed to find a way to grow their own
tea, as buying it from China was eating up their silver reserves.
So, missions of “tea espionage” were conducted,
most notably by a Mr. Robert Fortune, who had the good fortune to
be able to visit Taiwan on a whirlwind trip. He only spent a
day on the island, but he wrote about it, giving us a look at
pre-treaty port Qing era Taiwan, and he made several interesting
botanical discoveries. Visit formosafiles.com for links, pics and
images, etc.