Welcome to the People of Interest Podcast. Tea is one of the most popular beverages around the world, but did you know it used to be one of the most guarded state secrets of China? Robert Fortune committed one of the greatest acts of corporate espionage to steal this secret for the benefit of the British Empire. Listen in if you want to find out more about Robert Fortune and how he pulled off what seemed like an impossible task.Sources:The Life of Robert Fortune. https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v34n4/v34n4-schilling.htmRobert Fortune Britannica Entry. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-FortuneThe Great British Tea Heist. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-british-tea-heist-9866709/The Scottish Spy Who Stole China's Tea Empire. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/10/392116370/tea-tuesdays-the-scottish-spy-who-stole-chinas-tea-empire#:~:text=Apic%2FGetty%20Images-,Robert%20Fortune%20was%20a%2019th%2Dcentury%20Scottish%20botanist%20who%20helped,of%20tea%20production%20from%20ChinaRobert Fortune: The Man Who Stole Tea From China https://medium.com/satoyama/robert-fortune-the-man-who-stole-tea-from-china-a9f5be876d3This podcast was recorded and edited by podcast producer Jamie Arpan. The music used in this podcast is "Maple Leaf Rag (1899, Z. Brewster-Geisz version)" by Scott Joplin (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Joplin/Frog_Legs_Ragtime_Era_Favorites/03_-_scott_joplin_-_maple_leaf_rag/), used under a Public Domain Mark 1.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/).