Robert Fortune Stole Chinese Tea

In 1848, the British East India Company sent Scottish botanist Robert Fortune into China's interior, where foreigners were forbidden, to steal tea plants, seeds, and manufacturing secrets for British India. Fortune shaved his head, adopted Chinese clothing and a pigtail, and posed as a wealthy official from a distant province so people would overlook his accent. With his servant Wang announcing his arrival, he entered a green-tea factory and learned how workers dried, fired, rolled, and processed the leaves. Fortune ultimately transported about 20,000 tea plants and seedlings to India, helping Britain develop its own industry and weaken China's control of the tea trade.

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