Page 175 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 4 Early Eighteenth-century EEIC Porcelain Trade in Canton 1729-c.1740

‘China ware’ was the name of Chinese porcelain in the EEIC trade in the

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The purchasing of ‘China ware’ was done both

from Hong merchants and from specialist shops, which were to be found in the street

as mentioned above. Official Company orders for porcelain were filled by Hong

merchants. Because the EEIC Company needed porcelain in large quantities that

sometimes only designed with only one or two patterns. Before the EEIC established

their own factory in 1751, as soon as the EEIC ship arrived at Canton, they would

rent a Hong merchant’s warehouse as a ‘factory’ to conduct the trade, and they needed

a large quantity of porcelain to load on the ground floor of the ship to provide ballast.

Consequently, the Hong merchants who had capital would store large quantities of

porcelain in standard shapes and repetitive design patterns in their warehouse before

the trading season. These ready departure pieces were in high demand, and would be

sold out quickly. The cargoes of several shipwrecks dating to the late seventeenth and

early eighteenth century attest to the growing commerce, in which thousands of mass-

produced ceramics reached the European market.
13
In private trade, however, supercargoes and ship’s officers were permitted to deal

directly with any of the shopkeepers whose stores lined the streets and alleys of the

foreign-factory area. By 1715, ships were despatched yearly with a supercargo

appointed to each ship. Their role was to look after the cargo on the ship and to manage

commercial operations on shore in China. Because the EEIC did not depend solely on

the purchase of the Company itself, but also allowed the East Indiamen who had

salaries (a Captain in the first quarter of the eighteenth century could be paid £120 per

13 A brief summary of the shipwrecks, see Luisa E. Mengoni, ‘The Sino-European trade in
ceramics: bulk export and special orders’, in Lu Zhangshen, (eds.), Passion for Porcelain:
Masterpiece of Ceramics from the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (Beijing:
Zhong Hua Shu Ju, 2012), pp.14-18.
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