the trade with China that changed history
Anne Leyton-Bennett says historian Michael Pembroke offers valuable insight into how China evolved, both economically and psychologically, into the country we know today.
When people are asked the names of ancient civilizations, the answer will probably be: Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. These cultures have been the focus and feature of countless books, films and documentaries, while art galleries and private collections around the world contain artifacts found and donated over the years by archaeologists and intrepid travelers.
It can be argued that there is less knowledge and awareness of ancient China and the important role it played in shaping European history, particularly Chinese silk and porcelain, and later the trade in silver, tea and opium. They all played a very important role in the geopolitics of the period. These highly valuable goods influenced relations between Spain, Portugal, France, and Britain, as they vied for economic and political dominance on the world stage, especially in the 16th century.he and 17he centuries.
Son of a father whose career involved the family traveling the world ‘in the last decades of the colonial period’Growing up, historian Michael Pembroke absorbed the rich diversity of cultures in the Commonwealth.
Purpose of writing Silk Silver Afyonsays, ‘Rather than solve, shine a light; to reveal rather than solve; explain rather than analyze. And so to show not only how trade in the indispensable goods of the day creates and breaks economic and political fortunes, but also to compare how today’s trade has parallels with the indispensable goods of the day in the making and unmaking of economic and political fortunes.
The flip side of the beauty and artistry of Chinese silk and porcelain, whose production secrets were closely guarded for many years, was the cruelty and brutality towards the Chinese people that characterized much of the country’s early history. Pembroke chronicles the rise and fall of ruling dynasties such as the Song, Ming, and Qing, and the determination of various dynastic rulers to remain in power while also increasing their wealth, documenting how disregard for human life against the existing regime may have become a natural characteristic now ingrained in the Chinese psyche.
There is no doubt that China was ruthlessly exploited by the West’s passion for silk and porcelain, but by the 1600s China’s ‘Chinese’s unquenchable thirst for silver’this changed the dynamic.
Its rulers at the time demanded that silver, mined largely in the Americas, be the only accepted method of payment for coveted items traded in large quantities with Western countries:
‘China’s demand for silver mobilized international markets; as is the modern demand for commodities such as oil, coal, iron ore and more recently lithium, copper and gold.’
Pembroke has certainly done his research, and this book is a comprehensive history of how trade in today’s fashionable and highly sought-after goods can dominate economies and influence international relations. This influence extends to the dark side of business; In the case of China in the 1800s, there was an illegal opium trade that the British and Americans shamelessly exploited for their own interests.
Chinese resistance resulted in two Opium Wars, which ultimately saw rivers of silver flowing back from China to Britain and America, leaving a bankrupt, fragmented country ripe for further exploitation by the end of the 19th century.he century and even after the two world wars in the 20th centuryhe Century:
‘In the nineteenth century, opium became one of the first mass-produced, mass-marketed global commodities, allowing the British to create ‘the world’s first drug cartel’ and ‘one of the most harmful, yet well-organised and profitable drug trades that has ever existed’.
At times too much detailed information and research can make reading heavy for the general reader, but overall Pembroke’s book offers valuable insight and a deeper understanding of how China developed into the country we know today. It also offers a deeper understanding of how and why trade in goods has historically played such an important role in shaping international relations.
‘Ipek Gumus Afyon: History-changing trade with China’ Michael Pembrokepublished by Hardie Grant BooksJuly 1, 2025 ($37.99).
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Anne Layton-Bennett is a writer living in Tasmania.
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