ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the complicated path of Chinese export porcelain from raw material to European retail commodity. Porcelain is one of three broad categories of ceramic vessels; the others are earthenware and stoneware. The main differences between porcelain, earthenware, and stoneware are the clay that is used and the temperature at which the clay is fired. The manufacture and transportation of porcelain was a seasonal operation. The vast majority of Chinese porcelain was produced during the eighteenth century in the town of Jingdezhen, located on the Chang River in the province of Kiangsi. The Chinese trade in porcelain with Europe began sometime before the thirteenth century. Chinese porcelain arrived in Rome and the Middle East via the Old Silk Route or via Chinese junks. The Chinese export porcelain trade was a very dynamic system of interaction between Chinese manufacturers and the English supercargoes.
