Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Tea Thieves: How a Drink Shaped an Empire

By the mid-19th century, Britain was an almost unchallenged empire. It controlled about a fifth of the world's surface, and yet its weakness had everything to do with tiny leaves soaked in hot water. By 1800, tea was easily the most popular drink in the country. The problem? All the tea in the world came from China, and Britain couldn't control the quality or the price. So around 1850, a group of British businessmen set out to steal tea seeds and trade secrets from China and create a tea industry in a place they did control: India…


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