Page 193 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 5 Porcelain Trade at Canton 1740-1760

addition, research on the porcelain trade has largely been conducted by consulting one

company’s archival records. This approach certainly provided valuable insights, but

on the other hand limited our view on the full picture of trade. In Chris Nierstrasz’s

recent book, he has sought to compare the VOC and EEIC in terms of the trade of tea

and textiles. As Chris Nierstrasz noted, such approach ‘gives a new and surprising

8
insight into how imperfect these monopolies actually were.’ Such a method is

certainly useful for a better understanding of Chinese porcelain trade.

The examination of the two leading East India Companies’ records, VOC and

EEIC, yields two main characteristics of the porcelain trade of the period between

1740 and 1760. The first one was that the blue and white porcelain trade experienced

an erratic stage (Figure 5-1). Furthermore, this fluctuation coincided with the tea trade.

In his recent research, Chris Nierstrasz has shown the ups and downs of the tea trade

9
during 1740 and 1760. He pointed out that the tea trade was closely intertwined with

10
political events and changes in the way the trade was organised. It is true that during

the mid-eighteenth century, the EEIC and VOC both experienced hard times. Europe

was aligning and realigning itself to meet the major wars of the century-the War of the

Austrian Succession (1740-1745) and the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). By

comparing the EEIC and the VOC records, he further pointed out that competition

11
was another contributor that made the tea trade unstable. Admittedly, these factors

have certainly played roles in the trade at Canton; however, such narratives have

largely neglected these factors from China’s side.

8 Chris Nierstrasz, ‘introduction’, Rivalry for Trade in Tea and Textiles: The English and Dutch
East India companies (1700-1800) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), p.4.
9 Ibid, p.62.
10 Ibid, p.63.
11 Ibid.
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