Page 48 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

IOR/G/12 series; second, Records of English East India Company at Canton which is

called IOR/R/10 series; third, General Correspondence, IOR/E series. This series of

Company correspondence brought together here is general, in the sense that each

volume of the records comprises letters relating to all kinds of subjects in

chronological sequence. In total, the 50 volumes of Factory Records about Canton

provide this research with the best primary resources. Although some volumes were

badly written, these volumes of manuscripts provide continuous records of the

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porcelain trade between China and the EEIC in Canton in the eighteenth century.

Materials from IOR/G/12/22 to IOR/G/12/57 were Canton diaries and consultation

between 1721 and 1753, 35 volumes. Materials from IOR/G/12/58 to IOR/G/12/60

cover the period from 1775 to 1780, 3 volumes. Materials of the IOR/R/10 series to

some extent duplicate the much large body of similar material in the IOR/G/12 series,

but some of the Diary and Consultation Books and Letter Books fill the gap between

1754 and 1774 in the IOR/G/12 series. IOR/R/10/3 to IOR/R/10/5, 3 volumes of

materials cover the period from 1754 to 1780.

The Factory Records, especially the IOR/G/12 series, are some of the most

interesting and important resources of the EEIC, detailing as they do the trade in the

East, especially where they have written down the EEIC’s trading activities at the port

city Canton. They produced one volume, and sometimes two volumes of each trading

season. The Factory Records Book was updated on a daily basis from the point of

departure from Britain, ending with the departure from Canton. According to its

contents, ‘Canton Factory Records’, for each year, could be divided into three parts.

66 For example, the volume IOR/G/12/29 (year 1729-1730) was badly written and only tea
business was recorded in detail. IOR/G/12/34 (1732-33) has mentioned little about the details of
the ‘China ware’ they purchased. IOR/G/12/52 (1745-1747) mentioned little of the trade in Canton.
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