Page 69 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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businessmen’, “the nineteenth century promised 3.2.
more to westerners than it delivered.” 17 In the Things global-local and the
late nineteenth century, foreign enterprises nineteenth century
became interested in China as a destination for – Having sketched the Dutch trade practice with
rather than a source of – products. As Frans- China in the nineteenth century, based on the
Paul van der Putten mentions in his study on the existing documentary sources, this chapter now
evolution of Dutch enterprise in South China in moves on to characterising the time-specificity
early twentieth century, various Dutch of this age with its transnational market
companies concentrated their agencies, branch exchange of commodities, accompanied by a
offices or subsidiaries primarily in Hong Kong. 18 migration of knowledge, technology and ideas.
68 Other significant locations for Dutch business In this century, the notion of time and space
activities in this region were Guangzhou, differ quite strongly from how we perceive
Shantou and Xiamen. Many of them were these ideas today. There were no prevailing
specialised in specific colonial activities, such as technological conditions back then, which
banking, shipping, sugar and tobacco today free mankind from spatial and temporal
plantations in the Netherlands East Indies. These restrictions, allowing us to easily maintain a
colonial enterprises had their headquarters in the global network of social relations.
Netherlands, but their assets and operations A striking change in perspective on visual
were entirely in ‘the East’. As Geoffrey Jones material in general at that time, arose with the
declares in his book Multinationals and global genesis of photography in the 1840s, which, as
capitalism from the nineteenth to the twenty- Poole mentions in her analysis of the visual
first century, in which he examines the role of economy of the image world (mainly
entrepreneurs and firms in the creation of the photographs) of peasants living in southern
global economy over the last two centuries, these highland Peru, gave rise to “the domain of vision
enterprises, based in Dutch South Asia, were organised around the continual production and
referred to as independent companies and they circulation of interchangeable or serialised image
were the first Dutch companies to invest in objects and visual experiences.” 20 This means
China. 19 that when visual materials in earlier periods
Returning to the Dutch sea trade and China were scarce and not accessible to everyone, in
in the nineteenth century, the main focus for this era, in general, mass-produced images –
Made for Trade, we can conclude that the scope mainly through the rise of photography –
of the Dutch trading activities was still extensive, “began to accrue value independently of the
and Chinese export paintings in the Netherlands referential content or use value assigned to them
are silent witnesses to this. Notwithstanding the as representations of particular persons, places,
difficulties the Dutch had at that time in terms of or objects.” 21 Like photographs, most mass-
maintaining their position on the world sea- produced Chinese export paintings can be
trade market, the (colonised) Dutch East Indies considered as a new form of communication.
trading stations and other cities on the Chinese Another feature that distinguishes the ‘visual
southern coast were very important for economy’ in the nineteenth century – a time
facilitating Dutch operations in international when Europe’s economy and political systems
and Asian waters and, besides their main trading were undergoing drastic changes – from its
products, make it possible for seafaring staff predecessors in the Enlightenment and the
members to acquire emblematic objects (such as Renaissance, is the place of the observer. With
paintings) to remind them of their stay the arrival of photography and ubiquitous
overthere. printed material, the place of the human subject
had to be, as Poole also argues, “rearticulated to
accommodate this highly mobile or fluid field of
vision.” 22 In addition to these irreversible
developments, the communication revolution,

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17 De Goey 2010, 26. Amongst other references he refers to ‘The myth of the China market, 1890-1914’. The
American Historical Review, vol. 73, 3, 1968.
18 Van der Putten 2004, 81-82.
19 Jones 2005, 21, 23-24.
20 Poole 1997, 9.
21 Ibid., 13.
22 Ibid., 9.