Page 235 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 6 A New Context of Porcelain Trade 1760-1770

local dealers, which shows us how local dealers adapted and developed their business

to trade in different situations.

Apart from some of the big porcelain dealers that moved to the tea trade in the

early 1760s, all the events mentioned above also resulted in decreasing the total

number of porcelain dealers. As shown in the records, during the 1740s-1750s, there

were about 58 porcelain dealers at Canton, but only about 49 were left in the trade

50
during the 1760s. In accordance with the Chinese authorities’ efforts to concentrate
all the trade into the hands of a small group of Co-Hong merchants, the small outside

merchant was still allowed to trade, but used a Hong name for which they were obliged

to pay 3 percent commission plus export duties. Moreover, the concentration of shops,

the Hong merchants and in addition to the high rents, ‘their Lordships the Hong

Merchants will certainly have imposed further dues unknown to us on this trade in

51
order to ensure that those poor fellows do not gain much from their modest profits.’

As a result, some small porcelain dealers could not afford the rent and the commission

was eliminated from the trade. Consequently, with regard to porcelain trade, because

of their involvement in tea trade, their trade in porcelain reduced accordingly. This

also resulted in a sudden drop in VOC porcelain trade as well. In the year 1760, the

VOC imported more than 731,000 pieces but decreased at only half the amount in the

52
following season in 1761, with only 355,000 pieces being imported.

The reduced number of porcelain dealers, together with the growing demand, the

price of porcelain at Canton increased during the season 1761. Table 4 shows both

50 This number is calculated from the EEIC records and VOC records. EEIC: Appendix A; the
VOC records from Jörg, Porcelain and the Dutch China trade, p.116, note 80.
51 Cited in Jörg, Porcelain and the Dutch China trade, p.116, note 78. V.O.C. 4384, General
Report, 11 Jan. 1761.
52 Appendix B.
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