Page 41 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

culture that is thought to have emerged through the trade and exchange of porcelain

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in different parts of the world.

Porcelain is also viewed as ‘luxury good’ in the context of global trade, and played

a significant role in fostering consumer cultures and stimulating the industrial

development. The most significant contribution is the work of Maxine Berg. Berg

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studied ‘Asian goods of the eighteenth century in the context of global trade. At this

time, ‘Asian goods’ were a luxury in Europe and fostered a consumer culture that led

to production and invention in Britain. As a result, the imitation of producing certain

goods played an important role in industrial development in Britain. Her research

serves as an important methodological guide for studies on the global trade and global

history, as it bridges the trade with consumption, as well as production in global

connections.

By tracing not only the European desire for blue-and-white porcelain, but its

appeal to West Asian and Middle Eastern consumers, scholars have argued that this

widespread desire for blue-and-white wares created a truly ‘global’ shared culture.

Finlay encourages scholars from multiple disciplines to think about Chinese export

porcelain as a global commodity, and as a material culture that played a significant

part in connecting different parts of the world between the tenth century and the

eighteenth century.

However, any approach that simply reinforces the idea of the global connections

of Chinese porcelain, particularly blue-and-white wares in the studies of global

consumption is problematic. Firstly, it neglects its place of origin—China. It seems

52 Anne Gerritsen and Stephen McDowall, ‘Material Culture and the other: European Encounters
with Chinese Porcelain, ca. 1650-1800’ Journal of World History, 23, 1 (2012), pp.87-113.
53 Maxine Berg, ‘In Pursuit of Luxury: Global History and British Consumer Goods in the
Eighteenth Century’, Past and Present, 182, 1(2004), pp.85-142.
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