EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY CHINESE SCHOOL Views of Canton Two gouaches Height 32.5 cm - Width 57.5 cm Height 34.5 cm - Width 47 cm At the time of their production, these works were intended for Westerners, often the merchants and shipowners who frequented Boca Tigris, the great port of the Middle Kingdom on the Pearl River, some one hundred kilometres from its mouth. The first Europeans to settle there were the Portuguese, in 1514, who fifty years later were granted a foothold on the Macao peninsula. Then came the Spanish and the Dutch, followed in the eighteenth century by the French, the British and the Americans. Silks, porcelain, precious woods, tea (of which Great Britain was the leading importer), rhubarb and other products used in pharmacopoeia were prized by the Europeans, while China had a great need for silver, the precious white metal that abounded in the mines of Potosi, in Bolivia. In the mid-eighteenth century, an imperial edict closed all ports to foreigners, with the exception of Canton. However, contact between Chinese and Europeans was prohibited, and only the Cohong guild (between eight and twelve people) was allowed to trade with Europeans. For the British, who favoured free trade, such constraints were hard to bear... Offices and factories were set up close to the junks and flat-bottomed barges, as the ships did not have the necessary draught to reach the port.