Page 275 - 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

The examination of surviving contracts found by Van Dyke reveals that there

were six Hongs operating porcelain trade between 1760s and 1790s. From the

surviving contracts, three groups of porcelain dealers can be observed. Figure 7-9

shows that each group is managed by a merchant who is entitled to deal with

foreigners directly and owns a Hong.

Groups of this kind have certainly played a role in forming the porcelain trade at

Canton, which I refer to as a network. It should be noted that this network was not

political in its structure, but rather economical. The network was not only bounded by

the interests of the same branch of business, but also bounded by porcelain dealers’

financial responsibilities. These big dealers stood as security for small dealers’

business and were responsible for paying the duties in case the latter man failed to do

so. In return, small dealers have to pay part of the commission on their sales to big

dealers to provide such security. EEIC records of ‘Canton factories’ reveal little

information about how the internal transaction took place between small porcelain

dealers and the responsible person. But records from other companies proved such

connection. For example, Chowqua received part of a commission on Lisjoncon’s

47
sales for providing this security.

47 Van Dyke, Merchants of Canton: Success and Failure, p.145.
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