Page 26 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

buildings heading from the river to the thirteen factories street formed an enclave. To
some extent this arrangement is comparable with the artificial Dejima Island next to
Nagasaki, where the Dutch VOC staff trading with Japan had to live in isolation for
more than 200 years. Nowadays one would rather compare this with a free-trade area
or a free-port terminal. Many illustrations show the set-up of the factories with flag
poles in front indicating whether the foreign staff is present or absent.
Pic. 12: Thirteen factories in Canton by an unknown painter, 18th century
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The Macclesfield, owned by the English Company Trading to the East Indies,
established in 1698 as a competitor to the Company of Merchants of London, reached
Canton in 1699. This was the first English ship which got approval by the Chinese
central authorities to start official trade between England and China. In 1708 both
English East India companies merged as the United Company of Merchants of
England Trading to the East Indies. The new EIC started renting one of the permanent
factories in Canton in 1715.
Canton had not only attracted the British EIC but also every other European East
India company which had been established during the 17th and 18th centuries: The
French Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales built its trading
post in Canton in 1699, the Swedish Svenska Ostindiska Companiet (SOIC) in 1732,
the Danish Asiatisk Kompagni (DAK) in 1734. Also, smaller companies, such as the
Habsburg Ostend Company or the Spanish Company of the Viceroyalty of New Spain
in America, leased factory buildings in Canton. Later, Spain acted under the
framework of the Royal Philippine Company (RPC) established in 1785. The RPC
had the right to trade between Cadiz, Canton and Manila directly, and via the Pacific
Ocean and the American colony. Armenian traders also used Canton for the
Sino-Persian trade. In 1784 the first US East Indiamen Empress of China reached
Canton from New York. The VOC had opened a factory later because there was a
longer dispute between Amsterdam and Batavia about whether a trading post in
Canton would damage the position of Batavia as entrepot of the Chinese junk trade.
Chinese products were shipped by junks to Batavia so that there was no urgent need
to enter into direct trade in Canton. The first VOC ship – the Coxhorn – reached
Canton in 1729. From then on four to five VOC ships anchored at Whampoa every
year – altogether more than 200 ships.
The Swedish SOIC is somehow a special case in Eurasian trade. It was established
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