Kraak Porcelain (1)

That night, after returning, the three time travellers who had just completed their first trip through time, held their first mission debrief. Minutes were taken just like at a formal committee meeting, although there were only three of them. Wen Desi concluded their adventure in one line: “We are making history.”

In the meeting, the various hiccups they encountered were summarised. The conclusions were: they underestimated the wisdom of the ancient people, they did not do enough prior homework, knew too little about the Ming Dynasty, and took too many things for granted. Overall, they had good luck, primary objectives were met, and they had found a suitable and potentially permanent liaison on the other end.

Although the prices they negotiated were lower than expected, after some careful number crunching, the profit might not be as low as they imagined. In the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver equaled about 37.3 grams.^[1] Although the price of silver in the modern day still fluctuated, it hovered at around 3 yuan per gram give or take.^[2] So, one tael of silver could in theory fetch around 112 yuan. But Ming Dynasty silver would definitely not be high in purity, and would have to be further refined, which would definitely lower their revenue.

If a powder box could be sold for ten taels, that would be about 1,000 yuan. At a wholesale price of a few yuan per box, the purchase price could almost be neglected. Xiao Zishan had more than 200 powder boxes, so just this stash could earn 2,000 taels of silver, or about 200,000 yuan in almost pure profit.

“Actually, we can exchange silver for something else.” Xiao Zishan grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled out a few quick calculations. “I remember that the gold to silver ratio at the end of the Ming dynasty was roughly one to ten. So, converting two thousand taels of silver would yield us two hundred taels of gold. This is 7460 grams. At 150 yuan per gram, that's over a million yuan.^[3] More profitable than selling the silver directly.”

“But the stock of gold will be very limited and we wouldn’t be able to exchange that much.” Wang Luobin said. The group brainstormed some more.

“Speaking of which, we could ask for something else as payment, something worth far more than gold.” Desi said.

“What?”

“Porcelain.” Wen Desi pointed at an auction advertisement at Christie’s^[4] in the newspaper folded beside him. “Porcelain from the Ming Dynasty…I don’t need to say more, right?”^[5]

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When the housekeeper ran into the study room with a face like she had just seen a ghost, Master Gao knew that his three Australian visitors had come again. Just like last time they even appeared out of thin air from the backyard storeroom.

If it weren’t for the fact that in their first encounter they came in the morning and left in the middle of the day, Master Gao would really have thought they were some kind of ghost or demon.

“Master Gao, here are the goods.”

On the veranda lay four or five paper boxes that the servants had carried from the courtyard. This was the first time he’d seen people use paper to transport goods, and his heart couldn’t help but beat wildly. It was only after secretly dripping some chicken blood onto the boxes, and seeing that they had not transformed into clay puppets the next day, was he reassured.^[6]

“Steward Yan, come and take an inventory.” Master Gao instructed.

“Yes, Master.”

The Steward led the servants to unpack the boxes, and one by one the goods were wrapped into delicate cardboard boxes and sorted into neat piles. Master Gao nodded. These Australian merchants were being really extravagant with their money. Just on the packaging they must have spent a lot of money.

The three of them reclined in their chairs as they watched the Gao servants tally up everything. Under the dim candlelight, Master Gao’s Nanjing satin^[7] robe shimmered. It really looked like a spirit dressed in burial clothes. Xiao Zishan shivered, and even some goosebumps inexplicably rose.

The inventory was soon all checked and the numbers confirmed by both sides. Wen Desi felt lucky that they had prepared a special gift. He opened another box left on the side and from within took out a kerosene lamp. It had been quite hard to get one, and in the end they had managed to find one at 120 yuan from a craft store. This was the most expensive item they had brought over. From the same box Wen Desi retrieved a can of kerosene and poured it into the lamp. Picking up a candle, he then lit a flame and soon the study was awash in the lamp’s bright light.

Master Gao and the steward were both dumbfounded at this sight. All the random stuff that these Australian merchants had brought out, not a single item was as impressive as this lamp to them.

“This is called a kerosene oil lamp.^[8] A small gift to show our appreciation.”

“Truly a marvellous thing!” Master Gao got closer to the lamp. Encased inside a transparent glass lampshade was a ball of blindingly bright white flame. He turned to Wen Desi and asked, “Is this thing also made where you come from, and what is its price?”

Xiao Zishan couldn’t help but lament the thirst that mankind held for light. Not many of the things that they had initially thought the ancients would be surprised about had had much impact. Rather it was this humble kerosene lamp, which had long since been forgotten by the modern world, that would shake them so. And for the sole reason that it was much brighter than both candles and other oil lamps.^[9] What if they could show Master Gao electric lamps? Suddenly, Xiao Zishan became much more confident in their future plans.

“Indeed, this is produced in our country,” Wen Desi smiled slyly, “Two hundred taels would be sufficient.”

“Wonderful, truly, such a wonderful thing!” Master Gao was fascinated by the lamp. From Wen Desi he learned how to adjust the size of the flame by twisting the knob, and just like that the brightness could be adjusted just as he wished. Master Gao marvelled in his heart. Although the shape of the thing was strange and was even fitted in an expensive glass case, it was more than ten times as bright as an ordinary oil lamp. Additionally, there was no oil odour and no smoke, the brightness could even be adjusted…were the craftsmen in Australia all reincarnations of Lu Ban?^[10]

Master Gao suddenly remembered one thing, and asked, “The oil used by this lamp, uhh…that kerosene, is it also made in Australia?”

Xiao Zishan nodded. This Master Gao had an acute mind and caught the key point immediately.

“Precisely.”

“How much is the oil?”

“Ten taels a bottle.” Each of the bottles was actually just a litre. For now, they didn’t intend to make too much off the kerosene trade, so they decided to sell it a little higher to leave room for negotiation in the future (Currently, kerosene for lamps is quoted at 8.5 yuan/litre in Shanghai).^[11]

“The lamp is good, but the oil…” Master Gao appeared regretful about this price.

“One bottle of oil can keep the lamp alight for more than ten hours. In a month you’d use only ten or twenty taels of silver on the oil, this cannot be said to be too expensive.”

Master Gao stood his ground. “If the oil were cheaper this thing would definitely spread like fire…”

Xiao Zishan snorted, and didn’t answer. Master Gao knew that these Australians were refusing to go lower. Yet, he had gotten this lamp for free, and even twelve bottles of kerosene with it. This was a grand gesture from the Australians. Maybe vegetable oil can be used instead, I should definitely try tomorrow, he thought to himself.

Xiao Zishan then demonstrated how to dismantle and load the oil bottle. Gaoju ordered a boy on the side to come watch and learn. After the boy followed Zishan a few times and made no errors, Xiao Zishan then started to take account of the bill.

According to their pre-negotiated price the settlement came to a total of more than 3,000 taels. Xiao Zishan initially asked for 1,500 taels of silver to be paid in gold instead, but Master Gao shook his head, and explained that at night there was nowhere to go to exchange for gold, and that in his own possession there was only fifty or sixty taels of gold. In the end, 60 taels of gold replaced 600 taels of silver.

Xiao Zishan next proposed to buy porcelain instead, which was entirely within the expectations of Master Gao. After all, these foreign merchants loved to buy porcelain. This was not a difficult request to fulfil, as the porcelain was stacked high in his warehouse. He ordered people to bring a few baskets of export porcelain over.^[12]

Opening the straw packaging and taking a few pieces out to inspect, Xiao Zishan recognised the porcelain as the so-called Kraak porcelain. Such items were representative of the late Ming export porcelain varieties.

How much could this porcelain sell for now? Usually, even a single plate would not be less than a few thousand yuan. On December 10th, 2005, a marine excavation led by Sten Sjostrand uncovered several pieces of ceramics, of which 214 pieces were sold at auction for a total turnover of 2.727 million yuan with 92% turnover. This was in spite of the serious corrosion damage and even flaking evident in the pieces due to the long term submersion. One of the late Ming dishes with a blossoming bird and flower pattern was auctioned for 55,000 yuan.

At that moment, the Kraak porcelain in front of their eyes filled up several big baskets! And the total was less than twenty taels of silver. The three travellers felt that this was cheap, while Master Gao secretly mocked these merchants for not knowing the market. But both sides felt they had made a great bargain.

Before leaving, Wen Desi left two hundred taels of silver behind, and asked Master Gao to purchase a place nearby where they could stay for a while. According to their plan, this place could be used as a temporary destination for their wormhole.

After the Australian merchants left, Master Gao pondered for a long time in his study, and even the concubine who came and tried to invite him to bed was kicked out. Naturally, buying a house was nothing for a person like him, but the thing that made him worried was that these people were still shrouded in mystery and unidentified. Ultimately, he called the steward and instructed him that anything about the Australians should be kept under tight wraps, and to also make a list of all the servants that knew. This was to make sure that if any information leaked there could be a strict investigation and heavy punishment.

NB: My knowledge of Kraak ware comes from Mr. Ma Weidu's book.

[TN] Sorry, don’t know which book the author is referring to, there’s too many. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Ma Weidu is a collector of Chinese antiques. Apparently there was a pretty big sensation in 2011 in Chinese media circles relating to a post Ma Weidu made about the left-right asymmetry of testicles in ancient Greek sculptures. Which is absolutely hilarious to me, especially since it features on his english wikipedia page as one of the more prominent aspects of his biography. He also has a reputation as a swindler, so there you go.

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1. Well I said 40 grams previously, so sue me. ↩︎

2. 3 yuan = 0.4 USD ↩︎

3. Reminder: 2009 prices. About 20 USD back then. ↩︎

4. A British auction house. It is one of the largest, if not the largest, auction company in the world. Most famous recently for the sale of the Salvator Mundi in 2017 for $450 million US dollars. ↩︎

5. The title of the chapter, Kraak Porcelain, is a type of Chinese porcelain made especially for export. The name derives from Dutch, which in turn comes from the name of Portuguese sail ships carracks that would have carried most of these Chinese wares to the European market. ↩︎

6. I believe this has something to do with Chinese burial customs, as the deceased would be offered a bunch of tributes made from paper. Not sure about the latter part with the chicken blood and dirt puppets though. ↩︎

7. Nanjing satin is a special type of satin ↩︎

8. The Chinese word for kerosene, Meiyou (煤油), would be less alien to Master Gao than ‘kerosene’ sounds to an English-speaker hearing it for the first time. The first character, mei, means coal (which they would of course know of). The second part of the phrase, you, means oil. The phrase literally means ‘coal oil’. Also, I emphasise that they specifically use the word for kerosene, not paraffin. ↩︎

9. In this time period, oil lamps were in fairly widespread use in China. They would have used fuels derived from a wide variety of sources, such as plants, seeds or animal fats. In the west, a lot of whales were hunted for their fat to be used in such oil lamps (que Moby Dick), but I’m not sure if whaling was as prevalent in the sinosphere. By the 18th and 19th centuries (pre-electric) many of these oil lamps would have switched to gas-based or petroleum based fuels such as kerosene. ↩︎

10. A legendary, almost mythical, craftsman of yore. Known as the father of Chinese carpentry. See wiki. ↩︎

11. This is an extra-narrative comment from the author when the chapter was published in 2009. ↩︎

12. Porcelain used in export was, as rumours had it, slightly inferior to the stuff sold domestically. ↩︎