China and Formosa

Abstract

Almost as important as spices from the Indies in the plans of the Company were silks, sugar, tea, and porcelains from China. The instructions of the Directors of the Company to their servants in the Indies in 1608 were that special efforts should be made to trade with China in order to obtain increased quantities of silk, since there was a large market for the fabric, and it yielded good profits. Of porcelain, Linschoten says, ‘To tell of the porcelains made there [i.e., in China], is not to be believed, and those that are exported yearly to India, Portugal, and Nova Hispania and elsewhere! But the finest are not allowed outside the country on penalty of corporal punishment, but serve solely for the Lords and Governors of the country, and are so exquisite that no crystalline glass is to be compared to them....’ The European demand for porcelain in these first years of the seventeenth century increased by leaps and bounds and made the Company all the more anxious for good trade relations with China. Sugar was generally useful, both for Oriental trade and as a cargo for ships bound for Holland. In addition to these commodities, Dutchmen had noted also that the great Chinese trading junks came to the East Indies laden with linen, cotton, gunpowder, sulphur, iron, steel, quicksilver, copper and other metals, as well as meal nuts, chestnuts, dates, biscuits and furniture, and they were anxious to participate in this trade. Of the commodities mentioned silk was the most important.