Page 196 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 5 Porcelain Trade at Canton 1740-1760

According to Records of Painted Boats of Yangzhou (Yangzhou Huafanglu, 扬州画

16
舫录) the Qianlong emperor was accompanied by eighteen merchants in Yangzhou.

Together with another seven merchants, these twenty merchants were sponsored to

build temples, galleries, pavilions. There were four temples in Yangzhou, 5,363 two

17
stories-galleries, 213 pavilions and terraces. Naturally, these palaces had to be
furnished to an imperial standard, which had to be similar to the one in Beijing.

Furniture, decorative objects as well as daily utensils would need to be provided. This

was a perfect opportunity for local officials and merchants to flatter the emperor with

prosperous settings in the form of gardens, roads, shops and craft workshops. Not

surprisingly, as the supply centre of porcelain pieces for daily use and decorative items

for the palaces, Jingdezhen must have received many orders from local officials from

those cities listed in the emperor’s Southern Tour. It is worth mentioning that these

palaces were only built for the emperor when he was on tour, which means that the

products supplied to these buildings such as porcelain also often fluctuated.

The porcelain trade of the year 1751 provided several valuable aspects for studies

of Chinese export porcelain in the mid-eighteenth century. It firstly demonstrates that

the trade of porcelain was not a linear one, but far more complex than we have

previously acknowledged. It also provides evidence that the supply of porcelain was

not merely associated with demand and Company’s policy, but was also affected by

factors from China.

16 Li Dou, Yangzhou Huafang Lu [Records of Painted Boats of Yangzhou] (1799, reprint
Jiangsu:Guangling Guji Keyinshe, 1984), vol.4, p.102. Yangzhou Huafang Lu was a late
eighteenth century account of gardens, temples and restaurants.
17 Feng Mingzhu (ed.), Shengqing Shehui yu Yangzhou Yanjiu [The society and Yangzhou during
High-Qing period) (Taipei: Yuanliu chuban, 2011), p.101.
180