Page 72 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

2 The Cultural Change of Kilns and Contents of Export … 39

famous Zeelandia castle as a social and economic base for their colony and mar-
itime trade. After the compromise between VOC and the Zheng’s group, more and
more maritime merchants of southeast coast of China sailed to Taiwan and trans-
ported cargoes across the strait. Both Zheng Zhilong group based at Anhai and
Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) group based at Xiamen were the major suppliers of
Chinese cargoes to the Dutch. Eventually, VOC transferred a large amount of
Chinese cargoes via Taiwan in global trade system.
With the gradually shrinking of Yuegang and the restoration of ceramic industry
of Jingdezhen in the late Wanli period, the ceramic industry of Zhangzhou kiln
correspondingly declined. Basing on the archaeological investigation and com-
prehensive research work, Japanese scholars pointed out that the main ceramic
industry of Zhangzhou Kiln had lasted for half a century from the end of the 16th to
the beginning of the 17th century (1585–1615, 13th–43th of the Wanli reign, Ming
Dynasty). From the beginning of the 17th to the mid of the 17th century (the
transiting period of Ming and Qing dynasties in China), the maritime ceramic cargo
of Zhangzhou Kiln was replaced by the products of Jingdezhen Kiln again (Kenichi
1994). In the late Wanli period, Jingdezhen folk kilns overcame the raw material
crisis and obtained the right to exploit and use high quality kaolin clay for
porcelain. At the same time, with the stoppage of the of!cial kiln of imperial court,
a large number of excellent ceramic craftsmen flowed to the folk kiln of Jingdezhen,
prompting the development of folk kiln of Jingdezhen rapidly. Once again, the !ne
porcelain wares of Jingdezhen replaced those of Zhangzhou as the main compo-
nents of export porcelains. The quality and decoration complexity of porcelain of
Zhangzhou Kiln in Hachcher’s salvaging dating about to 1643 were no longer
comparable to its products of the prosperity period (Sheaf and Kilburn 1988),
exactly revealing the situation of declination of Zhangzhou kiln.
After the stabilization of maritime trade based on Taiwan in the 1630s, the Dutch
started a large-scale transportation and exportation of Chinese porcelains. The
porcelains sold by VOC consisted mainly of exquisite Jingdezhen porcelain for
European trade, while some others “rough porcelain” for inter islands trade in
Southeast Asia. Fuzhou (!!), Xiamen and Anhai were the main seaports trans-
porting these !ne and rough ceramics to Taiwan for VOC of this period. The Kraak
porcelain with paneled pattern decoration was still the favorite of Europeans. The
ceramic content from the shipwreck sites as Jiuliang No. 1 ($"I() in Pingtan ($
$) of Fujian, the Wanli shipwreck (Fig. 2.7) and the Hachcher’s salvaging in
South China Sea, reveal a “transition period” of Kraak porcelain. The porcelains
from these shipwrecks present a different decorative type with Chinese traditional
theme pattern as the poetry and human !gures, scene of historical stories, landscape
of mount and river, and painting of novels and operas, and new types of wares
specially adapting to the daily life of Europeans (STUAFJ 2010); (Sjostrand and
Syed Idrus 2007).
Since the mid-17th century, the export of Chinese ceramics reduced and declined
sharply for a series of regional chaos in southeast coast of China such as the retreat
of Dutch from Taiwan expelled by Zheng’s group, the civil war between Ming and