5. Innovation, Espionage and Propaganda
Sathnam Sanghera discovers how the tea industry changed forever when plantations were introduced to India. From 2023.
Until 1833, the tea drunk in Britain had come from China, imported by the East India Company. But then the company lost its monopoly on Chinese tea.
Its response was to attempt to grow its own in British India. The only snag was it didn’t know how to.
So botanist Robert Fortune was sent on an undercover mission to China.
His work, combined with some surprising discoveries of tea closer to home, and mass marketing and propaganda, helped develop India’s huge tea industry in places like Assam and Darjeeling.
At Kew Gardens, Mark Nesbitt and Aurora Prehn tell Sathnam Sanghera about how this shift from China to India changed the international tea trade forever.
Producer: Paul Martin
A BBC Audio Wales production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in December 2023.
Last on
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Fri 8 Dec 202313:45BBC Radio 4- Thu 18 Jul 202421:45BBC Radio 4 FM
- Fri 3 Oct 202509:30BBC Radio 4 Extra
