For All The Tea In China Summary

For All the Tea in China Response

Sara Rose begins her story For All the Tea in China by saying, “There was a time when maps of the world were redrawn in the name of plants, when two empires, Britain and China, went to war over two flowers: the poppy and the camellia.”(Prologue). The purpose of this book is to explain the growing tensions between Britain and China and how that tension then shaped the world. Sarah Rose stresses the importance of the opium and tea trade to the British Empire in this story. When the Chinese began the process to stop the sale of the opium to its citizens and closed the port of Canton to the India Tea Company, the British reacted with anger. They then decided it might would be a smart business move to create a source

of tea they would completely control in India. The Company hired an English botanist named Robert Fortune to travel there and gather (steal) seeds and plants for the purpose of establishing the tea industry in India so that it could compete with the tea industry in China. After the introduction of Fortune, the readers learn about this effort through his point of view, using his letters and journals. The author combines his documented experiences with historical fact in an entertaining way and clearly takes the reader through each problem he faced through each solution he concieved.
Sarah Rose described China as “a country ruled by internal unrest and governed by hated foreigners”(page 10). China went on to to be the main source of income and profit for the East India Company. Although, leading to the First Opium War, China was seen as “a nation that was so often churlish and disobliging, and would raise prices on inferior goods whenever it pleased.”(page 27). They were not the easiest people to trade with. Humidity, insects, disease, and unsanitary practices were all troubles that the Chinese faced as did Fortune throughout his exploration in China.
Because Fortune sent tea samples and brought back Chinese tea professionals, Britain could then start planting and experimenting in India. Through many experiments, they found that Indian tea grew well at sea level soil. They also experimented to see if it could be grown in domestic gardens and found that it could. It produced similar tea of China’s but they knew it wasn’t quite as good. On page 30, Rose informed readers that Assam tea did not grow very well and that it “would certainly never overtake China tea in the world marketplace”. Britain made use of the Indian Himalayas, turning them into experimental tea gardens. The Himalayas had the same growing conditions as China, allowing the tea to grow in a similar fashion as China’s. Fortune stole the tea seeds from China for these experimental gardens. They were manufactured using a precise formula and methods similar to those of China’s. This affected trade because it allowed Britain to no longer trade with China. They could grow their own tea because of the careful thieving acts of Robert Fortune and the scientific research done to imitate China’s growing practices.
The british east india company shaped the whole world politically, socially, and economically especially in China, and India.

Indirectly, tea had a devastating social impact on China, as it led to the huge trade of Opium. As much as ten percent of the Chinese population (over forty million) were regular users of opium. China consumed ninety five percent of the world’s Opium supply. This had a devastating social impact on them because majority of the citizens there were addicted to it. Economically, because of the huge amounts of Opium that were imported into China, they could not export enough goods to equalize, causing the outflow of silver from China to Europe. The political impact in China included government attempts to stop the illegal trade of Opium (due to the social use of it) resulted in the blockading of European trading areas there. Britain retaliated, causing the Opium wars, through which, because of the British victory, Britain gained far greater access to the Chinese market and increased trading privileges. This also lead to Chinese workers being taken to the new world. Doing this introduced cheap labor to the new world. The Company’s need for tea in Europe, and the lack of Chinese interest in other British goods, led to the production of Opium in Bengal (by the British). This Opium was then traded with China in return for tea. By 1750, the East India Company established control over India's opium cultivation. The British exported the opium to China, which

eventually resulted in the two opium wars between the countries. By 1793, Britain had a monopoly on opium. This meant that no Indian grower was allowed to sell any crops to anyone else. Britain extracted tributes and taxes from citizens in India. With indirect involvement, the East India Company played a major role in shaping the world.
For All the Tea in China is an enjoyable book. I believe that the author did a good job of tying in details of Fortune’s emotions throughout the book. She goes into details and really paints a picture of his exploration. However, it was clear that Rose was limited by the lack of primary sources. Rose presents interesting facts and different perspectives to create “fillers” in some spots of the book. Examples of these fillers include the firearms development that brought down the East India company, how the porcelain trade was helped by the tea trade, etc. Because Fortune’s wife burned many of his papers, she bases the book on his published memoirs. This leaves me wondering what information we could have discovered if his papers and journals were still available to study