Robert Fortune (1812–1880): The Berwickshire Gardener Who Smuggled Tea Out of China

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

Much of what is known about Fortune's journeys comes from his own lively travel books, which were written for a popular audience and present him in a heroic light. Little is known of his private life. How much his plants contributed to India's tea industry, compared with native Assam tea, is debated, and is noted below.

A gardener from the Borders

established Robert Fortune was born in Berwickshire on 16 September 1812. Little is known of his early life. He trained as an apprentice gardener locally and in 1840 joined the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh under William McNab. In 1842, with McNab's backing, he became superintendent of the hothouse department at the Horticultural Society of London's garden at Chiswick.

First China journey, 1843–1846

established The First Opium War ended in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanking, which opened five Chinese ports to foreign traders. The Horticultural Society sent Fortune to China to collect plants, with instructions to look for, among other things, blue peonies, the tea plant and the peaches of the emperor's garden. He arrived in Hong Kong on 6 July 1843 and spent three years collecting in northern China.

established To travel beyond the treaty ports, Fortune learned some Mandarin, wore local dress, shaved his head and wore a false pigtail. He sent plants home in Wardian cases, sealed glass boxes invented by Dr Nathaniel Ward that kept plants alive on long sea voyages. He returned in 1846, became curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden and published Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China (1847).

The tea mission, 1848–1851

established In the 1840s Britain bought almost all its tea from China, paying largely with silver and opium. The East India Company wanted to grow tea in its Indian territories, and in 1848 it hired Fortune to obtain the best Chinese tea plants and the knowledge to process them.

established Disguised as a Chinese traveller from a distant province, Fortune travelled into the green-tea districts and the Wuyi Mountains, famous for black tea, regions closed to foreigners. Over the next three years he shipped more than 20,000 tea plants and seedlings in Wardian cases to the Himalayas, where they were planted in the hill stations of the north-west and around Darjeeling.

shared He also recruited skilled Chinese tea manufacturers to travel to India and teach processing, and he established that green and black tea come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, processed differently, which was not generally understood in Europe at the time.

Espionage?

shared Fortune saw himself as a plant collector serving science and commerce. Modern historians, notably Sarah Rose in For All the Tea in China (2009), describe the mission as one of the great acts of industrial espionage: the deliberate removal of a country's most valuable crop and trade secrets, made possible by the aftermath of the Opium War. Both descriptions contain truth.

shared How much India's tea industry owes to Fortune is debated. The Chinese plants did well in Darjeeling and other hill districts, but much of India's tea, especially in Assam, came from the native Assam variety, discovered by Robert Bruce, another Scot, in the 1820s. Fortune's plants and, above all, the skills of the Chinese workers he recruited were important, but they were one strand of a larger story.

Plants for Western gardens

established Over four journeys to China and one to Japan, Fortune introduced more than 120 species to Western gardens, including many ornamental shrubs and trees now common in British gardens. His four travel books sold well and made him a comfortable living. He retired to London and died in 1880.

• Fortune wore a false pigtail and Chinese dress to travel in forbidden regions.
• He shipped more than 20,000 tea plants to India in sealed glass cases.
• He showed Europeans that green and black tea come from the same plant.
• Another Scot, Robert Bruce, found the native Assam tea plant in the 1820s.
• He was curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden between journeys.
• He lived comfortably on the sales of his travel books.

• Myth: Fortune single-handedly created the Indian tea industry. His Chinese plants did well in Darjeeling and other hill districts, and the skills of the Chinese workers he recruited were important. But much of India's tea, especially in Assam, came from the native Assam variety found by Robert Bruce in the 1820s.
• Disputed: whether his tea mission was plant collecting or industrial espionage. Fortune saw himself as a collector serving science and commerce, while modern historians such as Sarah Rose describe the deliberate removal of China's most valuable crop and trade secrets. Both descriptions contain truth.