Page 199 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 5 Porcelain Trade at Canton 1740-1760

the shape of the bowl, the price of enamelled porcelain was higher than blue and white.

(Figure 5-2) It is important to note that from 1730 to 1760, the price of enamelled

porcelain fell slightly. It was mainly due to the production of enamelled porcelain at

Jingdezhen expanded. Another factor was probably competition among shopkeepers.

Records of the EEIC suggest that prices from different dealers tended to vary towards

the mid-eighteenth century. For example, in the year 1741, among different

shopkeepers, the price of a single bowl in enamelled decoration varied from 0.085

20
taels to 0.45 taels.

The shopkeeper was usually not one of the Hong merchants. Chinese textual

materials are silent on these porcelain shops or dealers. But along with the disclosure

of records of East India Companies, we find porcelain dealers’ names have

consistently been noted down. It is noteworthy that the number could be even larger,

due to the fact that private trade has not been written down.

In the Chinese context, since the Ming dynasty, brokers were appointed by the

government to manage foreign trade. As Fu Yiling noted, they were shopkeepers

(pushang 铺 商 ) and were selected from among the registered shop-keeper

21
households (puhu 铺 戶 ). After the 1720s, as Ng Chin-keong has shown,

22
specialisation among merchants engaged in maritime trade became more complex.
Compared to Hong merchants, their business was not considered very important, and

they had a certain degree of freedom to deal with foreigners. Both textual records from

Chinese and European sources confirmed the fact that during the second half of the

20 Three contracts were signed respectively with Texia,Kiqua,Nunqua in year 1741. IOR/G/12/50.
21 Fu Yiling, Ming Qing shi dai shang ren ji shang ye zi ben [Merchants and their capitals during
the Ming-Qing period] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1956). pp.132-133.
22 Ng Chin-keong, Trade and Society. The Amoy Network on the China Coast1683–1735
(Singapore: Singapore National University, 1983), pp.168-169.
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