Bullion and galleons : trade and currency in eighteenth-century Chinese and British literature

The eighteenth century is generally seen as a period during which maritime trade became global. Much has been written about the politics of trade and colonization from a European perspective. Scholars have paid less attention, however, to the impact of global trade on literary conceptions of everyday life in and outside Europe, or to how commodity flows bound disparate extra-European economies closer together. This chapter aims to fill part of this gap by analysing the tea-for-silver trade among Britain, colonial Spain, and China during the eighteenth century. In particular, it will explore the far-reaching effects of imported silver on the Chinese economy, and how these were represented by British and Chinese literati.