FORTUNE's BOUNTEA

 

See Also: KEW GARDENS Rubber; NAUTICAL Captain Bligh; TEA

Robert Fortune was born into modest circumstances in the Scottish Borders. Through his intelligence and his application, he became a respected horticulturalist. The Royal Horticultural Society appointed him to run the hothouse department of its garden in Chiswick.

Following the Opium War of 1840-2 the European powers compelled China to become more open to foreigners than she had been previously. In 1843 the Society sent Fortune to the country both to collect plants and to gather botanical information. Wardian cases enabled specimens to be shipped across the world with only peripheral attrition rates. The plantsman learnt a basic level of Chinese. He then used his ingenuity to travel widely within the country. By claiming to be from another distant part of the Middle Kingdom, he was able to visit regions of it, such as Suzhou, that were still officially closed to occidentals. During his travels he had a number of adventures. These included being attacked by bandits and being shipwrecked. There had long been a belief in the West that green tea and black tea were derived from different plants. Through the discoveries that Fortune made he was able to correct this misapprehension.

China had been held to be the world's only source of tea (Camellia sinesis var. sinesis). However, since the early 1820s the East India Company had known that a variety of the shrub (Camellia sinesis var. assamica) was growing wild in Assam in eastern India. Therefore, its officers had appreciated that there was potential for growing tea there. To do so would end China's control of the supply of the commodity. The initial efforts at commercial cultivation of assamica had been unsuccessful. This was because the taste of the beverage that had been brewed from it had been regarded as being unpalatable. In 1834 the Company's desire to grow tea in India had been given additional impetus by the British government's termination of its monopoly on trade with South Asia. This had caused the enterprise to shift its focus from international commerce to optimising the exploitation of its economic opportunities within the sub-continent.

Following Fortune's return to London, he had been appointed to be the Curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden. Subsequently, the East India Company asked the horticulturalist whether he would be prepared to try to secure for it some specimens of the sinesis var. sinesis shrub so that it could try to grow them in India. Fortune accepted the commission. He managed to transport thousands of plants and seeds from China s Fujian region to Assam. These were planted there. For the most part, they perished. However, his exertions and the knowledge that he brought with him stimulated an effort to cultivate the local strain of the plant. As a result, it became possible to produce infusions from it that were much more acceptable than the ones that had been created previously. The surviving sinesis var. sinesis plants were transplanted to Darjeeling, which had a higher elevation than Assam. There, they flourished, creating a second tea-growing region in India. The traveller-botanist ended his days a prosperous and respected person.

Location: 9 Gilston Road, SW10 9SJ. Mr Fortune s final home. It testified as to his worldly success. (blue, purple)

Website: www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-british-heist-9866709

David Backhouse 2024