Page 194 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

porcelain 1495

in the areas being farmed or exploited in new ways, both McBrearty, S., & Brooks,A. S. (2000).The revolution that wasn’t: A new
within major states and in newly colonized regions, usu- interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. Journal of
Human Evolution, 39, 453–563.
ally with the backing of governments.All these factors— McEvedy, C., & Jones, R. (1978). Atlas of world population history. Har-
the emergence of global markets, the search for new mondsworth, UK: Penguin.
resources with state backing, and the emergence of more
industrialized forms of production in rural areas—may
have stimulated population growth in the early modern
period. In the nineteenth century, the industrial revolu-
tion itself stimulated population growth in new ways. Porcelain
New forms of sanitation reduced mortality rates, and
artificial fertilizers increased food supplies. Eventually, orcelain is a type of ceramic that is white, rock hard,
modern scientific medicines and the spread of knowl- Ptranslucent when thin, and resonant when struck.
edge about sanitation helped drastically reduce mortality Made from quartz and either kaolin (china clay) or porce-
rates around the world. lain stone (and later from all three) it is fired at around
Such discussions show that, however necessary it may 1,350°C. The ingredients for porcelain are found in
be to separate out factors such as population growth as abundance in China but do not exist in West Asia and
causes of historical change, it is always somewhat artificial occur only in isolated deposits in Europe. West Asian
to do so.The very notion of “engines of growth” is little potters produced earthenware—made from various clays
more than a crude way of trying to clarify the relative and fired at 600 to 1,100°C, while Europeans turned out
importance of different causes of change. Throughout earthenware and, from the fourteenth century, limited
human history, long-term population growth has stimu- amounts of stoneware, a ceramic produced at 1,100 to
lated change; but the long demographic trends have 1,250°C. In contrast, China produced stoneware as
themselves been shaped by technological innovations, early as the Shang period (1766–1045 BCE) and porce-
climatic patterns, the actions of states, and the spread of lain by the Tang (618–907 CE). During the Song dynasty
disease, in a complex feedback cycle that needs to be (960–1279), artisans at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province
analyzed instance by instance. created a superior form of porcelain, made by combining
kaolin and porcelain stone.
David Christian
China had a monopoly on porcelain for a thousand
See also Engines of History years, until the Meissen manufactory of Augustus II
(1670–1733), elector of Saxony and king of Poland,
turned out a close facsimile in 1708. Indeed, the success
Further Reading of Chinese porcelain closely tracks that of China’s econ-
Anderson, J. L (1991). Explaining long-term economic change. Bas- omy and China’s international reputation. Triumphant
ingstoke, UK: Macmillan.
Boserup, E. (1981). Population and technological change. Oxford, UK: for a millennium, porcelain, Chinese industry, and Chi-
Blackwell. nese prestige all went into steep decline in the last half of
Christian, D. (2004). Maps of time:An introduction to big history. Berke-
ley: University of California Press. the eighteenth century, giving way to British pottery
Cohen, M. (1977). The food crisis in prehistory. New Haven, CT: Yale (which came to overshadow mainland European pottery)
University Press. and Western imperialism.
Cohen, M. (1989). Health and the rise of civilization. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press. Before that historic turnabout, China dominated the
Livi-Bacci, M. (1992). A concise history of world population. Oxford, UK: international ceramic trade, exporting untold numbers of
Blackwell.
Malthus,T. R. (1976). An essay on the principle of population (P. Apple- ceramic vessels to Japan, Southeast Asia, India, West
man, Ed.). New York: Norton. Asia, and East Africa. After the Portuguese opened trade