Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

History of foreign trade in China

The Old China Trade (Chinese: 舊中國貿易) refers to the early commerce between the Qing Empire and the United States under the Canton System, spanning from shortly after the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 to the Treaty of Wanghia in 1844. The Old China Trade represented the beginning of relations between the United States and East Asia, including eventually U.S.–China relations.

2 episodes

Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:

  1. The East India Company

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the powerful private trading company that redrew the map of India, built an empire and reinvented the fashions and the foodstuffs of Britain.

    26 June 2003

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Huw Bowen, Linda Colley, Maria Misra

     
  2. The Silk Road

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Silk Road, the trade routes which spanned Asia for over a thousand years, carrying Buddhism to China and paper-making and gunpowder westwards.

    3 December 2009

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Frances Wood, Tim Barrett, Naomi Standen