Raphael Perestrello, a factor, was sent in 1515 with orders to conduct trade in China. He travelled in a junk, and returned with a rich cargo and the news that the Chinese desired peace and friendship with Portugal and that they were “good people”. Perestrello’s voyage was not invested with any official status.

The first embassy was conducted by Fernão Peres de Andrade, appointed leader by Lopo Soares de Albergaria, who had succeeded Albuquerque as the Governor of India. He made a stop at Tamão at the mouth of the Canton River. Later his fleet sailed up the river. After some months, objection to receiving Thomé Pires was waived by the Emperor who agreed to receive the Portuguese ambassador. Fernão Peres de Andrade left Pires in China and on his return voyage carried a valuable cargo to Malacca with him. The leader of the next trade venture was also an Andrade, but one lacking the tact and ability of his predecessor Fernão; the second Andrade was called Simão, and his disagreements with the Chinese ended in fisticuffs and even the use of arms. His escapades were reported to Peking, where Thomé Pires was awaiting an audience with the Emperor. Upon Thomé Pires fell the ire of the Chinese Court, and from Peking he was sent in chains as a prisoner to Canton. There he and all his companions died.

Thenceforward there was a break in the chain of commercial events with the Chinese. The interruption permitted of business being conducted between the Portuguese and the Chinese in, first, the islands off Chekiang Province, called Liampo by the Portuguese, and then, successively, on the coast off Fukien, near Chuen-chow, and, later still, on the islands off the Kwangtung coast in the vicinity of Sanchuen and Lampacao, from which last place it moved to Macao.

Meanwhile Japan had been discovered and trade conducted with great success. The trade of China and Japan with Europe was carried on through Macao. Each year a regular fleet of ships fully laden set from Lisbon for the East. The cargoes they carried were of a diversified kind made up for the most part of woollen goods, coloured cloths, glassware, manufactures of clockwork and Portuguese wines, which have always found favour in foreign markets. On the return voyages the ships were laden with a general cargo of valuables consisting for the most part of spices, but also gold, silk, musk, pearls, ivory carvings, lacquered-ware and porcelain. Because of their better quality the lacquered objects of Japan found greater fame in the European market. On the other hand, “chinas” (i.e., porcelain ware of Chinese origin) were more highly appreciated than the Japanese. A singular point of history is worthy of record. It is that when Vasco da Gama returned from his maiden voyage to India, the great explorer laid at the foot of the dais on which the Queen was sitting musk and porcelain which he had bought in Calicut. The porcelain had cost in India its own weight in silver, thus speaking well for the quality and material of produce of Chinese manufacture and the appreciation in which the Ming ware of the time was held even in Asia. The initial shipment tickled the fancy of the Portuguese to such an extent that, in subsequent voyages eastwards, instructions to bring home porcelain from China were included among the directions issued in connection with the journeys of the Far Eastern traders.

This fancy for chinaware became quite a fashion not only in Lisbon but throughout Eufbrilhanrope, so much so that even up to very recent years it is recalled that invoices to Portugal and other European capitals invariably had listed among the “chow chow” (i.e., mixed) cargo, whether in execution of orders or on consignment, at least one complete tea or dessert set of Chinese porcelain. However, it was usually stipulated that they must not be of any European design but essentially of Chinese costume or of Chinese domestic scenes preferably with the figures clothed in official Chinese robes faithfully depicting Court dresses and with the Imperial yellow, or the red for “good luck”, so predominant in Chinese social life.

In this connection it is worthy of remark that in the heyday of the English East India Company at Canton and Macao, British firms were known to take pride in having for daily use crockery made to special order at Canton. The more prosperous firms were known to have burnt in on the plates, dishes and other pieces of tableware, large and small emblematic designs distinctive of the firms, as for example, national flags, or armorial bearings.

In other cases, illustrations of the firms’ ships and vessels, the memory of which it was the pride of many firms of those days to preserve with the national flags floating to the breeze, were a favoured design. Until a decade ago a complete set of chinaware from soup plates to coffee cups was kept as an heirloom in a Hongkong home. It bore the design of a Portuguese ship and was kept in the home of a direct descendant of the original owner. The origin of the design of the plate is of sufficient interest to be recorded. The ship perpetuated the name of the good ship Brilhante, which used to ply between Macao and Brazil in the early days of the XIXth century. It was in this ship that a Portuguese, Mr. João António Alves, a native of Selavisa, in Portugal, sailed from Brazil to Macao in his youth, as the result of which voyage he amassed a small fortune. This led the Portuguese merchant to wish to preserve the memory of the Brilhante. Following the custom of the period, Mr. Alves placed an order with the Chinese in the interior for a dinner service. A casual chance enabled a globe-trotter a few years ago in Hongkong to get into touch with the owner, a descendant of Mr. João Alves, by whom the porcelain set was disposed of. Doubtless the treasure is now safely deposited in some wealthy American home as a relic of bygone days when Macao was the home port of intensely keen trade competition for fast-sailing majestic vessels of elegant lines and graceful masts and sails which were the pride and boast of their owners.

It was left to the pertinacity of the pioneering spirit of the Portuguese to prove to the Chinese that, in spite of their belief that trade was beneath the notice of the ruling class, much could be gained mutually by an interchange of goods between the East and the West. Chinese mandarindom spurned the advances for commercial intercourse. Notwithstanding, Macao was not discouraged but persisted in a regular interchange from year to year and so developed a trade of small proportions in the beginning which slowly increased with the passing years. Silk from China, carvings in ivory and wood, decorated screens and fans, precious jade, all found their way to Portugal in ever-increasing quantities and higher values. In exchange for these Lisbon exported the wares and goods collected by Portuguese merchants from the industrial centres of Europe.

In the heyday of Portuguese prosperity, grandees sported silk-woven robes and brocades of elaborate design and workmanship. Tea was made fashionable in Portugal and its popularity in England was attributed to the Portuguese princess Catherine when she was married to King Charles II of England. In England tea became so fashionable that a contemporary English poet wrote an ode in praise of the Portuguese princess and her favourite beverage: