Page 54 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

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In 1991, Morse’s book was translated into Chinese. The influence of this work

is evident. It gives access to Chinese scholars to explore matters relating to trade and

the East India Company. Together with Morse’s books, they serve as the best

resources for Chinese scholars who work on Sino-Anglo trade. Moreover, they

provide textual evidence for discussions of the Qing economy. Based on their research

and data on imports and exports of commodities such as tea, cotton as well as spices,

Chinese scholars have conducted a considerable amount of research on trade and its

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impact on Qing China.

However, Morse’s studies rely on a small selection of resources and neglected

information about the trading activities of each type of commodity. For example, he

did not include the information that Figure 1-2 shows. He only used the summarised

information of the total quantities of each commodity. Therefore, scholars who have

used his work as their primary resource naturally focus mostly on political

negotiations and on changes in trading policies, as well as the quantities of goods

exported.

In addition, Morse relies mostly on the second part of the records, as mentioned

before, in which porcelain trade is only recorded with total export numbers, The usage

of ‘China wares’ is useful and makes it easier to analyse how Chinese porcelain, in

general, had an economic impact on Europe, as economic historians have shown;

however, it neglected a very important fact, namely that ‘China ware’ was not a single

82 Hosea Ballou Morse, Dongyindu gongsi dui hua maoyi biannian 1635-1834 [The Chronicles
of the East India Company Trading to China 1635-1834] in Chinese, translated by Zhongguo
haiguanshi yanjiu zhongxin, Qu Zonghua, (Guangzhou: Sun Yat-Sen University Press, 1991).
83 Mtsuura Akira, ‘The Trade between Canton and Asian-based Companies of European and
American Countries in the 18th Century’, Haijiaoshi yanjiu [Maritime History Studies], 2(2011);
Ji Xianlin, ‘ Zhetang zai mingqing duiwai maoyi zhong de diwei’ [The Role of Cane Sugar in
Foreign Trade at the End of the Ming and the Early Period of the Qing Dynasties: Reading Notes
of the Annals of East India Company’s Trade with China] Peking daxue xuebao Shehui kexue ban
[Journal of Peking University Humanities and Social Sciences], 1(1995), pp.20-25.
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