Page 24 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

for the English spice trade on Java Island – was lost to the Dutch in 1682. It took
more than a century before the British were able to get strongholds in the East Indies
– mainly on the Malay Peninsula when they took formal possession of Penang Island
in 1786, and with the foundation of colonial Singapore in 1819. However, for several
reasons the EIC was the most successful East Indian company to establish a direct
trade relationship with China – crucial for the porcelain trade being the subject of this
book. England became only the second European nation to open direct trade with
China in mainland China – after the establishment of Portuguese Macao in 1557. The
British became by far the most relevant carrier of Chinese goods to Europe surpassing
the successful VOC and surpassing all other European nations combined. The
literature on the EIC is abundant and the works of the Indian historian and economist
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K. N. Chaudhuri are worth studying for anybody who wants to learn more. Much
less documented however are the details of the volume and the characteristics of the
EIC’s porcelain trade.
The EIC imported substantial amounts of Chinese porcelain but not before 1685.
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The EIC built a small trading post in Xiamen (Amoy) in 1678 and was able to
purchase silk, tea and porcelain in exchange for silver. Zhoushan Island (Chusan)
opposite Ningbo in Zhejiang province was a second trading post of the EIC and a
third was established in 1672 in Taiwan. All these trading posts were located in the
area controlled by the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong, making the EIC an ally of the
Qing Emperor’s biggest enemy. This may have been one of the reasons why the Qing
dynasty did not favor too many uncontrolled activities by foreign merchants and
dedicated in 1699 Canton as the place where most of the SinoWestern trade should be
carried out. In 1699 the EIC alone imported porcelain to the value of more than
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£15,000 or 45,000 Chinese Tael (liang) - a silver unit of 37.5 g . This amounts to
almost 1.7 tons of silver and must have been around 1.2 million pieces of imported
porcelain for this specific year alone. From 1699 until the official porcelain imports of
the EIC came to an end in 1791, porcelain to the value of an average of £6,000
annually was purchased in Canton. This is a rough equivalent of 500,000 pieces per
year and in total around 45 million pieces have been imported and shipped to London
by the EIC alone. After 1791 British private traders – in most cases the crew members
of the EIC vessels - continued importing Chinese porcelain from Canton. However,
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the amount probably came down to £1,500 annually during the two decades until
1810.
2.4 The Canton-System Export Boom
Direct Chinese trade with Europe in the 18th century took place almost exclusively
in Canton – the only port open to European traders until the end of the first Opium
War in 1842. Most of the porcelain that went from China to Europe was shipped from
Canton.
The Canton System began in the early 18th century and continued for roughly 150
years until 1842. It was a system of regulating foreign trade between China and the
Western world. Foreigners were confined to small commercial districts or agencies
called “thirteen factories” (shi san hong 行) located at the Pearl River. Within these
factories, foreigners were prohibited from outside contact with Chinese nationals.
Outside the trading season, staff of the foreign companies had to move downstream to
Macao. Essentially, this was to meet the desire of the Qing court and their concern
with cultural protection, isolation of foreign interest in China, and also the secured
collection of necessary taxes and duties. A central feature of the Canton System was
the existence of the “Cohong”, a monopolistic guild of licensed Hong merchants who
officially traded with the foreign companies and charged all taxes and fees on behalf
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