Page 9 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

in India on a seaway and it still took another 25 years before a mission lead by the
Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan and the Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano completed
the first circumnavigation of the earth, passing by South America, the Philippines and
Indonesia.
Pic. 1: Vasco da Gama, Explorer and Viceroy of Portuguese India (c. 1460 –
1524)

Much has been written about the reasons for these early voyages discovering the
sea routes between the East and West. The Portuguese sent out expedition after
expedition to find out alternatives to the land routes which had linked East Asia, the
Arab world and the Mediterranean Sea for centuries. With the establishment of the
Ottoman Sultanate the traditional trading routes had been blocked and the search for
alternatives started. However, it was not porcelain which attracted Europeans the most.
It started with spices. “Am Anfang war das Gewürz” (In the beginning was the spice),
was how Stefan Zweig began his biography on Magellan. Spices were very much in
demand in Europe and people were willing to pay very high prices, giving traders
good margins: Pepper from the Indian western Malabar Coast and Sumatra and more
exotic spices such as nutmeg and cloves from the Indonesian Spice Islands or
Moluccas between the Philippines and Australia. In the 350 years following the
discovery of the seaways to Asia we saw a battle between various European powers to
get their share in the lucrative trade of Asian products. Portugal, the Netherlands and
Great Britain were the main actors, Spain, France, Sweden, Denmark and later also
the US played a role as well.
However, all these seafaring countries didn’t enter an untouched market. As
described above, a vibrant trade stretching from the Arabian Sea along the coast of
Persia, India, and Ceylon towards the South East Asian coasts and the South China
Sea had been established and working for centuries. Arab dhows, Chinese junks,
Muslim traders from Gujarat and the Malay peninsula, and Armenian and Persian
merchants had facilitated the exchange of Indian cotton and pepper, Persian silk,

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