Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico

The Material Worlds of an Early Modern Trade

Meha Priyadarshini

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783319665474
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

This book follows Chinese porcelain through the commodity chain, from its production in China to trade with Spanish Merchants in Manila, and to its eventual adoption by colonial society in Mexico. As trade connections increased in the early modern period, porcelain became an immensely popular and global product. This study focuses on one of the most exported objects, the guan. It shows how this porcelain jar was produced, made accessible across vast distances and how designs were borrowed and transformed into new creations within different artistic cultures. While people had increased access to global markets and products, this book argues that this new connectivity could engender more local outlooks and even heightened isolation in some places. It looks beyond the guan to the broader context of transpacific trade during this period, highlighting the importance and impact of Asian commodities in Spanish America.

© The Author(s) 2018

Meha PriyadarshiniChinese Porcelain in Colonial MexicoPalgrave Studies in Pacific Historyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66547-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: A Global Commodity in the Transpacific Trade

Meha Priyadarshini¹

(1)

Europe-Asia Programme, Sciences Po, Le Havre, France

End Abstract

In the heart of Mexico City , not far from the Plaza Mayor , the main square, there stands a peculiar, colorful building. When it is seen up close it becomes clear that ceramic tiles give the edifice its unique look (Fig. 1.1 and cover image). These tiles are vaguely reminiscent of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, and at one point it was even claimed that the tiles used to decorate the Casa de los Azulejos (House of Glazed Tiles) had been brought especially from China.¹ The more accurate account is that the Countess of Orizaba, María Graciana Suárez de Peredo, renovated the house in the eighteenth century and introduced this method of decorating façades of buildings to Mexico City. It was common in Puebla de los Ángeles (Puebla), the city where she grew up and where artisans were known to produce quality ceramics and tiles.² Although the tiles were made in Mexico, the myth about them being imported from China was not entirely fanciful. Inside the house Chinese porcelains have been used as architectural elements, serving as bases for lamps which were built to light staircases (Fig. 1.2). The Casa de los Azulejos is a unique landmark that showcases the skill of colonial Mexican artisans, but also demonstrates that Asia was an important part of the colony’s mixed heritage, proved both by the myth about the Asian origin of the tiles and by the Chinese porcelains used as decorations in the house.³

Fig. 1.1

The Casa de los Azulejos, Mexico City, 2017. Photo by Aurora Pellizzi

Fig. 1.2

Chinese porcelain guan-shaped jar used as the base of a lamp in one of the staircases of the Casa de los Azulejos. Photo by Aurora Pellizzi

This book follows the journey of Chinese porcelains from Asia to Mexico and uncovers the history of how these ceramics were integrated into colonial Mexican society. The trade that connected China and colonial Mexico is often referred to as the Manila Galleon Trade, and began in the late sixteenth century (Fig. 1.3). Silver from the mines in Spanish America was sent across the Pacific Ocean to Manila in the Philippines , which was also under Spanish rule at the time. The silver was used to support the colony in the Philippines and to purchase Asian commodities for the colonial Latin American market. In Manila merchants bought textiles , furniture , spices, porcelain, and various other goods and shipped them to Acapulco in Mexico. The transpacific trade was particularly important because with its inception, the Americas were directly connected to Asia, and from that moment all the major continents were tied together in a web of commerce and exchange: it was the beginning of global trade.⁴

Fig. 1.3

The routes along which Chinese porcelain would have been transported for the Manila Galleon Trade. The ceramics would be sent by river transport from Jingdezhen to a port in southern China. From there they would be taken to Manila. On the journey from Manila to Acapulco , owing to the wind currents, the ships could not go directly east and instead had to go north and then go south, hugging the coast, until they arrived in Acapulco. This would take roughly six months. The return trip for the silver-laden ships sailing from Acapulco to Manila was direct and could be done in half of the time

We will follow the trajectory of Chinese porcelains on their journey along different sites of the Manila Galleon Trade network. We will begin in Jingdezhen , China, where much of the world’s porcelain was produced, and then move to Manila, where Chinese merchants sold the porcelain to Mexican merchants. The next site will be Acapulco , the point from which Asian commodities were distributed to various parts of colonial Latin America.⁵ From Acapulco we will move to Mexico City , where Asian goods were sold in the central marketplace. The journey will end in Puebla , where local potters drew inspiration from Chinese porcelain and other artistic traditions for the invention of a new ceramic style known as talavera poblana (Figs. 1.5, 5.​5–5.​7).

Tracing this trajectory through various nodes is productive for several reasons. On a macroscopic level, we see the commodity chain that linked China to Mexico in the early modern period. Producers, merchants , and consumers are brought together in the arc of one narrative, and their distinct contributions to the functioning of the trade network are made visible. Such a materialist perspective on trade lays bare the fact that although the exploration of a route to Asia via the Pacific was driven by the Spanish Crown’s desire to have access to Asia, the making and development of the transpacific trade network was not based upon Spanish imperial desires alone, but also depended on the quality of Asian goods, the motivations of Chinese and Mexican merchants, and the demands of the consumers in colonial Latin America.

The multi-sited narrative of the book also reveals that the local impact of participating in this long-distance trade varied significantly in the sites that were thus linked together. For example, the global success and accessibility of Chinese porcelain had a different impact in Jingdezhen from that in Puebla . In the early modern period Jingdezhen and its ceramics became world-famous, but the Chinese artisans who made the prized objects did not themselves come into contact with the world beyond China. By contrast, the artisans in Puebla were a mixed group (Europeans, creoles, mestizos, and the indigenous ) who consciously borrowed from several different artistic traditions that they came into contact with to create a unique style of their own.

We think of the early modern period as a time of increased connectivity, and the burgeoning trade and movement of objects between far flung places is often used as proof of early modern globalization.⁶ While that is largely true, by considering several sites in one narrative we see that these connections were uneven and that in some cases the growing trade of this era could isolate certain groups of people or change the manner in which they had been previously interacting with the wider world. By following one commodity through a trade network we can arrive at a “translocal global history,” a history where we see the direct engagement between local conditions and the global forces of trade and empire.⁷

Moreover, our focus on the transpacific connection is significant because it forces us to reorient our view of the world. Most world maps to this day are made with Europe and Africa placed in the center, thus giving primacy to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the interactions facilitated by them. The study of the early modern period has been dominated by considerations of Europe’s increased connections with different parts of the world, and particularly with comparisons and interactions between Europe and Asia. Working with a world map with the Pacific Ocean in the center, by contrast, compels us to prioritize the connections facilitated across the largest body of water, and to consider sites and actors that thus far have not figured as prominently in early modern global history.⁸

The Manila Galleon Trade in the Early Modern World

It is common knowledge that when Christopher Columbus left Spain in 1492 in search of India and all the riches it had to offer, he actually arrived in what we today call the Americas. The search for a sea route to India continued, and it was the Portuguese Vasco da Gama who first arrived on the shores of India in 1498 by going around the Cape of Good Hope. Da Gama accomplished this feat after the Spanish and Portuguese had signed the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), according to which they divided the lands along a meridian in the Atlantic Ocean: everything west of the line would belong to Spain and everything east of it to Portugal . This meant that the Spanish could not use the route discovered by da Gama to reach Asia.

Explorations of a transpacific route to Asia from the Americas began after Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world in 1522. By that time the Spanish had defeated the Aztecs and conquered the area that we today know as Mexico. From there they began exploring the Pacific Ocean in search for a route to Asia, and once that was discovered, conflicts between the Spanish and Portuguese arose again since the lands in that region had not been known to the Iberians when the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed. Another treaty was necessary, and in 1529 the two crowns agreed on the Treaty of Zaragoza, which gave the Moluccas to the Portuguese. It was after that point that the Spanish began considering the islands that are today identified as the Philippines as their base for operations in Asia. By then the Viceroyalty of New Spain had been created, encompassing what is today Mexico and Central America, with its capital in Mexico City .⁹ In 1542 an expedition was sent forth from Mexico specifically to investigate the feasibility of occupying the previously discovered islands, and in 1564 armed forces conquered some of them. These came to be named the Philippines after King Philip II of Spain and were placed under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The city of Manila was established in 1570, and the transpacific trade officially began in 1571.

Around the same time that the Spanish were settling in Manila, the Ming emperor in China was lifting the ban on maritime trade, allowing Chinese merchants to engage in commercial activities with foreigners. The Chinese emperor had also recently changed the tax base to silver , thus creating a greater demand for the precious metal in the region, and so the meeting between Chinese merchants and their counterparts from the Spanish colonies was a fortuitous one. The demand for Spanish American silver in China was met with a voracious demand for Chinese silks and other goods in the markets across the Pacific. The galleons that came laden with silver from Acapulco returned to the same port filled to the brim with a wide variety of commodities. The lure of the profit that could be made in Mexico through the sale of Asian commodities was so great that in Manila the galleons were at times overloaded to such an extent as to jeopardize their safety, and on some occasions the cargo had to be thrown overboard during the voyage to avoid capsizing.

The trade between Manila and Acapulco was unique at the time because, though both ports were under Spanish rule, the Spanish Crown itself was left out of the exchange. As the ships went directly from one port to the other, the Crown could not regulate the trade, and a considerable amount of silver from the mines in Spanish America went to Asia against the wishes and interests of merchants operating in Spain . These merchants argued that not only were they losing silver to commerce conducted in Asia, but they were also unable to sell their own products, such as silk , to the American co...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: A Global Commodity in the Transpacific Trade
• 2. Crafting a Global Brand: Jingdezhen and Its Artisans in the Early Modern World
• 3. From Junk to Galleon: Commercial Activity in Manila
• 4. A Parián in the Plaza Mayor: Making Space for Asia in Colonial Mexico
• 5. Blue-and-white Chocolateros: Crafting a Local Aesthetic in a Colonial Context
• 6. Conclusion: Themes from a Connected World
• Back Matter