Page 270 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 7 Porcelain Dealers and their Role in Trade

which definitely became attractive to Chinese porcelain dealers. Such orders, however,

required a more specialised knowledge of designs. Otherwise, misunderstandings

could lead to errors in the service. For instance, a service made around 1740 was

painted in with ‘Our coats of arms’, clearly an instruction that Chinese porcelain

31
dealers failed to understand. When the porcelain trade became more stable and
predictable from late 1750s, as Chapter 5 and 6 argued, it was then that porcelain

shops would establish their own workshops that could supply enamelled armorial

porcelain to meet increasing demand.

Setting up the manufacture of enamelled porcelain certainly requires knowledge

of techniques and investment in craftsmen and raw materials. Such an establishment

however requires a more efficient and expansive producing system than small

shopkeepers could offer. As the previous chapter shows, various changes took place

in Canton in the 1750s resulting in a new situation for porcelain dealers, by which a

more sophisticated network was formed. This network thus played a role in

establishing a new manufacture at Canton. The next section will show the network in

detail.

7.4. The Network of Porcelain Dealers

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A network is referred to by scholars as ‘connected’ individuals or groups. In the last

two decades, historical research on the contribution of networks to particular

31 David Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader (London, 1994), p.26. This service also has
been discussed by others. Godden, Oriental export market porcelain, p.15. Colin Sheaf, Richard

S. Kilburn, The Hatcher Cargo: The Complete Record (London, 1988), p.98.
32 D. Hancock, ‘The Trouble with Networks: Managing the Scots’ Early Modern Madeira Trade’,
Business History Review, 79/3 (2005), p.468.
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