After the
suicide of the last Ming Emperor, there was 
a struggle for control of the kingdom. The Manchu armies
were enlisted by the Chinese to help overthrow the rebels
that had seized power in the capital. After successfully
defeating the rebels, the Manchu decided to stay for a
while and keep China for themselves. Once again China was
to be ruled by outsiders. Unlike the Mongols of the Yuan
Dynasty, the Manchus adopted the Chinese culture and
customs as their own. Before long they were unrecognizable
from the native Chinese. The Qing Dynasty was a time of
great expansion. After years of being closed off to the
rest of the world, China was finally open again for trade.
The spice trade in the East Indies was 
flourishing. Merchant ships from Portugal, England, and
the Netherlands made frequent trips to the Far East to
trade western goods for cinnamon, pepper, and nutmeg. Many
attempts were made to trade with mainland China, and after
many years the ships began to visit the ports of Southern
China. It was quite a unique experience for the western
traders for they were buying items the Europeans had never
known. They could only guess what the value of the goods
would be when they resold them. The most important of
these items was tea.
As the Emperor of China was taking his first snuff of
tobacco brought from Europe, the Queen of England was
sipping her first cup of tea. Tea quickly spread
throughout Europe and in less than 100 years, England's
import of tea rose from 100 pounds a year to over 5
million pounds per year. This demand for tea meant many
voyages to bring shiploads of tea from China. Along with
the tea, came porcelain. To stabilize these large ships
they required ballast. ( heavy objects or weights in the
lowest section of the hull of the ship to counterbalance
the weight of the masts and sails) On their journey
eastward, the ballast consisted of lead and sulpher which
was traded to the Chinese for tea. They needed something
cheap and of equal weight for the journey home.
Porcelain goods were the perfect solution. Unlike tea,
which took time to cultivate and could only be grown in
certain climates, the only requirement for porcelain was
clay and craftsmen. Both of which were abundant in China.
The Chinese were eager to supply porcelain goods to the
west, as they could turn dirt into gold with the addition
of labor. By the end of the 18th century, millions of
pieces of porcelain were being produced for export. This
mass production caused the quality of the craftsmanship to
decline considerably. At the same time the quality of
European porcelain began to rival the best of the Chinese
goods. As quickly as it had begun, the mass export of
porcelain had stopped.
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