Page 243 - 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

changing but have strongly recommended giving orders to his agents that

59
they comply with our directions as closely as possible.

The ‘China ware’ merchant of this letter refers to Exchin, who monopolised

EEIC’s porcelain trade for several years. Records of this kind, which indicate the

production process and the related merchant are extremely rare. This is the only one I

60
have found in the EEIC’s archival records. Exchin’s trading history has recently

61
been explored by Van Dyke, especially the 1780s and 1790s. He shows that Exchin
gradually developed himself from a mediocre dealer into a monopolist of the EEIC’s

62
porcelain trade in the 1780s, by which he could supply porcelain for twenty ships.
63
His annual gross income reached 90,000 taels. However, Van Dyke’s research does

not provide any explanation as to why Exchin’s trade grew so rapidly.

However, the record mentioned above can tell more about this situation. Exchin’s

success in the porcelain trade definitely benefited from the dynamic network with the

EEIC, as well as his investment in the manufacture of porcelain. Exchin’s name was

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Yisheng (鹢昇), and his shop was named after his name. He started to participate
in porcelain trade in 1763 and first appeared in the SOIC record in 1763. The VOC,

Danish East India Company, Swedish East India Company records show that he had

a continuous trade of porcelain from 1763 until he had a monopoly of porcelain with

65
the EEIC in 1772. His trade with VOC averaged about 1,357 taels per year from

59 IOR/G/12/60 Letter Book, 28 January, 1778, Letter 73.
60 There might be similar records in other Companies’ Archives. However, studies of using other
Companies’ records remained silent on this issue.
61 Van Dyke, Success and Failure, pp.135-144.
62 Ibid, p.136.
63 Ibid, p.137.
64 Chen, The Insolvency of the Chinese Hong Merchants, 1760-1843, p.339. Van Dyke, Success
and Failure, p.135.
65 IOR/R/10/9, 1772, Van Dyke, Success and Failure p.135, Appendix 7C.
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