Page 54 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

This chapter relies mainly on primary and secondary printed sources, the period of this study, provide detailed descriptions and personal
which contain valuable information relating to the silk trade as well as comments concerning the material qualities, rich colour schemes and
to the varied types and quantities of Chinese silks 1 (raw silks, woven decorative patterns, and sometimes even of the purchase or sell price of
silk cloths, and finished silk products) imported into Western Europe the various types of silks that were shipped to Europe and the New World
and the New World via the Atlantic and Pacific sea trade routes in the as merchandise, private consignments or gifts. Other textual sources
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. China was renowned for its such as ships registers, probate inventories, wills, dowry letters, and
high quality silks first brought to Europe overland via the trade route notarial records, allow us to better understand the functioning of this
that came to be known in the late nineteenth century as the Silk Road, intercontinental silk exchange in the early modern period, particularly
the finest being produced in the eastern coastal provinces of Jiangsu and 1 Unless otherwise specified, Chinese silks will the commercial networks through which these imported silks circulated,
Zhejiang. 2 Silk, which was among the earliest of the global trade goods, 3 be referred to as silks throughout this doctoral and the different ways in which they were acquired, used and appreciated
dissertation.
remained China’s major export throughout the Ming dynasty. This was 2 Vainker, 2004, p. 58; and Rui D’Ávila Lourido, ‘The within the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English societies in Western
Impact of the Macao-Manila Silk Trade from the
probably due to both the introduction of improved varieties of mulberry Beginnings to 1640’, in Vadime Elisseff (ed.), The Silk Europe as well as the multi-ethnic societies of the Spanish colonies in the
(of smaller size that could be planted closer together and harvested sooner) Roads. Highways of Culture and Commerce, New York New World. Moreover, they show how these silks, despite the existence of
and Oxford, 2000, p. 226.
and the unprecedented number of imperial silk weaving workshops 3 Regular commerce in silk began when the Han emperor sumptuary laws imposed by governing authorities against luxurious dress
Wu (r. 141–187 BC) sent Zhang Qian in 138 BC to seek
established in regions with a developed silk industry. The workshop in allies in Central Asia. Although Zhang failed to attract 8 Sumptuary legislation was passed intermediately and ornamentation in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, 8 were
the capital, Beijing, manufactured satins and tabbies for imperial and support, his embassy attracted interest in the trade of in Europe during the Middle Ages and early inextricably linked to the construction of an individual’s identity, serving
silk and other Chinese products among the peoples of
modern period to regulate the consumption of
palace use. Those in Nanjing, the former capital during the early Ming, Central Asia, and later Persia and the Roman Empire. goods. Sumptuary laws not only constituted a legal as visible social indices, as well as of the Catholic ecclesiastical institutions,
The Silk Road stretched from China to Antioch on the instrument of economic and social control, but also
manufactured silks for officials and official gifts. 4 Silks were also sent Mediterranean Sea, and onwards by sea to Rome. served to intervene on politics. They focused mostly serving both as material testimonies of the Iberian expansion to Asia and
Vainker, 2004, pp. 58–60; and Morris Rossabi, ‘The Silk on items of apparel, either limiting or prohibiting
to the court from official silk workshops outside the capital, located at Trade in China and Central Asia’, in Watt and Wardwell, certain social groups from wearing certain types of the missionary work carried out in this distant region of the world.
1997, p. 7. clothing and accessories, and the containment of
Suzhou in Jiangsu and at Hangzhou in Zhejiang, the latter renowned for Although visual sources depicting silks of the late Ming dynasty are
4 Vainker, 2004, pp. 144–145. excessive expending and luxury. For more information
its twills, brocades, and satins, as well as for local types of gauzes and 5 There were a total of twenty-two official workshops on this subject, see Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, exceedingly rare, a small number of surviving woven and embroidered silk
‘Reconciling the privilege of a Few with the Common
weaves. 5 Exported from the eastern ports of Canton and Amoy, silk was established across eight provinces. In Jiangsu, Good: Sumptuary laws in Medieval and Early Modern cloths, and finished silk products housed in public and private collections
6
workshops were also located in Zhenjiang and
Europe’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern
a much coveted trade good because it was high in value, light in weight Songjiang. In Zhejiang, besides Hangzhou, they Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3, Fall 2009, pp. 597–617; and in China and the rest of the world help us visualize the types of silks
were located in Shaoxing, Yanzhou, Jinhua, Quzhou, Saúl Martínez Bermejo, ‘Beyond Luxury: Sumptuary
and easy to pack, store and transport. 7 Taizhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Huzhou and Jiaxing. Legislation in 17th Century Castile’, in Günther Lottes, traded by the Europeans and more importantly, those that were made as
In Fujian workshops were located at Fuzhou and
Letters, accounts, chronicles and treatises written by Portuguese, Quanzhou; in Anhui at Huizhou, Ningguo and Eero Medijainen and Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, Making, special orders for the Iberian market for both religious and secular use
Guangde; and in Shandong at Jinan. There were also Using and Resisting the Law in European History, Pisa,
Spanish, Italian, Dutch and English merchants, explorers and clerics who minor silk workshops in Jiangxi, Sichuan and Henan. 2008, pp. 93–108. For a detailed study of the cultural during the early period of European trade with China, in the sixteenth
and monetary value of silk in Europe, especially in Italy,
either travelled themselves to Asia and the New World or based their Ibid., p. 145. The various types of silks produced will from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, see Lisa and early seventeenth centuries.
be discussed in the following pages of this Chapter.
writings on reports from others who visited these distant places during 6 Pearson, 2007, p. 93. Monnas, Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics
in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300–1550, New
7 Ma, 2005, p. 21. Haven, 2008.

52 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Silk 53