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Article: Eighteenth-century Chinese export porcelain for the French market.
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- March 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), Louis XIV's minister of finance, founded the Compagnie des Indes orientales, or French East India Company, in 1664. Two years later he ordered the construction of the port of L'Orient (now Lorient) (1) on the Atlantic Coast from which to develop a regular trade with the Far East. For many years Portugal, the Netherlands, and England had done business in India, China, and Japan through their own trading companies. The decision by France to create a trading company was meant not only to make up for lost time, but also to have better control over the exotic goods from the Far East imported mainly through Amsterdam by French aristocrats and ...