Trading Empires and trade routes
From the Archives: Industrial Espionage
Reading Sarah Rose’s account of how British botanist Robert Fortune smuggled tea plants, and tea workers, out of China in the nineteenth century, made me think about another case of materials smuggled to end a Chinese monopoly. This first ran in 2012. The Chinese produced luxury silk fabrics for several thousand years before they began…
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For All the Tea in China
A decade or more ago, I picked up For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose from the free box that used to sit outside a used bookstore down the street from my office.* And then it sat on my shelf, unread. I will…
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From the Archives: City of Fortune
I am deep in reviewing the index for The Dragon from Chicago, which has turned out to be a much harder and more fiddly task than I anticipated.* Nonetheless, I full intended to give you a new blog post today. I really tried, but after an hour I was forced to admit that the idea…
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