How was the last hard currency of the Qing Dynasty's export trade easily defeated by a foreigner?

Tea is an excellent drink for both refined and popular tastes. But what everyone may not know is that tea once even determined the rise and fall of a country and had immeasurable strategic value. Tea is an important commodity exported by China in modern times, occupying a dominant position in the export value. Until the end of the 19th century, my country has been the world's largest tea producer and exporter. In 1882, the export volume reached 100,000 tons (you know, my country's tea export volume now is only more than 300,000 tons). Even after the Opium War, the tea trade still earned the Qing Dynasty a huge trade surplus. According to China's modern customs taxation and distribution statistics, from the Opium War to the fall of the Qing Dynasty alone, the four major ports of Guangzhou and Shanghai collected tea taxes of nearly 20 million taels.

In 1834, the British East India Company lost its monopoly on tea imports, and producing its own tea became the main goal of this colonial giant. But if you want to transplant Chinese tea, you must obtain the secrets of Chinese tea production. They hired botanist Robert Fujun as a commercial spy with a salary of 550 pounds per year to go deep into the inland of my country to steal tea-growing and tea-making technology.

Fu Jun is half a China expert. He lived in my country for a period of time from 1842 to 1845, and is said to have mastered the skill of using chopsticks proficiently. The order given to Fujun by the then British Governor-General in India, the Marquess of Dalhousie, was to select the best tea trees and tea tree seeds from tea-rich areas in China and transport them to Calcutta, and then transport them from Calcutta to the Himalayas. Recruit some experienced tea growers and tea processors to help develop tea production in the Himalayas.

Fu Jun entered the mainland of my country from Hong Kong in 1848. At that time, the Chinese were very hostile to foreigners. Fujun put on fake pigtails and made up to look like a Qing Dynasty man, so that the farmers in the countryside could not recognize him as a foreigner. Then he got the help of two Chinese people from the tea-producing area (who accepted Fujun's money). Dive into my country's main tea-producing areas and learn what kind of climate and soil are suitable for growing high-quality tea. In the Ningbo area, he collected many tea species. He often encounters this situation: because of his generosity, the host often treats him with the best tea in his collection to thank him for his visit.

He learned some tea ceremony secrets from the monks who stayed at the temple in Wuyi Mountain, especially the requirements for water quality in the tea ceremony, and learned about the process of turning green tea into black tea. At that time, most Europeans generally drank black tea.

Afterwards, based on the suggestions of some Chinese consultants of European trading companies, Fujun recruited 6 tea growing and tea making workers and 2 tea can making workers for a period of three years. These Chinese tea-making experts left China without arousing any suspicion or concern. In March 1851, Fujun and the workers he recruited arrived in Calcutta on a ship loaded with tea seeds and tea saplings, and then went to the southern foothills of the Himalayas to start trial planting of tea. Three years later, the British fully mastered the knowledge and technology of growing and making tea. This is also essential for tea growers in India. The know-how accumulated by our ancestors over nearly 5,000 years of history was stolen in this way. The theft was considered "the largest theft of trade secrets in human history."

By 1903, Chinese tea accounted for 10% of the tea sold to Westerners in the world. Indian tea replaced Chinese tea and occupied the main position in the world tea trade. China's tea production has been severely hit as a result. The Chinese people lost a large amount of foreign trade income. Coupled with the war and turmoil at that time, their lives became more difficult and their suffering became more severe. Tea also completely changed the British capital and economic system. The British established tea industries in areas such as Burma, Ceylon, East Africa and other areas suitable for growing tea. Tea became a tool for British colonial expansion.

Tea's influence also spread to the colonies in the Caribbean and South Pacific, where it helped satisfy the British demand for sugar. Trade with the East has led to the rapid development of the British economy and established the pound's unparalleled influence in the global economy for nearly two centuries.