Objectifying China, Imagining America
Chinese Commodities in Early America
With the ever-expanding presence of China in the global economy, Americans more and more look east for goods and trade. But as Caroline Frank reveals, this is not a new development. China loomed as large in the minds—and account books—of eighteenth-century Americans as it does today. Long before they had achieved independence from Britain and were able to sail to Asia themselves, American mariners, merchants, and consumers were aware of the East Indies and preparing for voyages there. Focusing on the trade and consumption of porcelain, tea, and chinoiserie, Frank shows that colonial Americans saw themselves as part of a world much larger than just Britain and Europe
“This is a deeply engaging work on the forms and processes of exchange that took place between nascent European nation states, their American colonies, and the range of societies and cultures they conceived as being enclosed within Asia. Caroline Frank’s arguments span continents and oceans as they offer a richly diverse history that is rightly global in scope, packed with illuminating details that fit together like a disciplinary puzzle-in-the-making.”
“In a major intervention in the meanings of China and china in the lives of colonial Americans, Caroline Frank recasts standard global tea-porcelain consumption narratives to create a novel dialogue between Qing goods, illicit adventurers, and the Yankee love affair with the ‘Orient.’”
History: American History
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