After the suicide of the last Ming Emperor, there was a struggle for control of the kingdom. The Manchu armies were enlisted by the Chinese to help overthrow the rebels that had seized power in the capital. After successfully defeating the rebels, the Manchu decided to stay for a while and keep China for themselves. Once again China was to be ruled by outsiders. Unlike the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty, the Manchus adopted the Chinese culture and customs as their own. Before long they were unrecognizable from the native Chinese. The Qing Dynasty was a time of great expansion. After years of being closed off to the rest of the world, China was finally open again for trade. The spice trade in the East Indies was flourishing. Merchant ships from Portugal, England, and the Netherlands made frequent trips to the Far East to trade western goods for cinnamon, pepper, and nutmeg. Many attempts were made to trade with mainland China, and after many years the ships began to visit the ports of Southern China. It was quite a unique experience for the western traders for they were buying items the Europeans had never known. They could only guess what the value of the goods would be when they resold them. The most important of these items was tea. 

As the Emperor of China was taking his first snuff of tobacco brought from Europe, the Queen of England was sipping her first cup of tea. Tea quickly spread throughout Europe and in less than 100 years, England's import of tea rose from 100 pounds a year to over 5 million pounds per year. This demand for tea meant many voyages to bring shiploads of tea from China. Along with the tea, came porcelain. To stabilize these large ships they required ballast. ( heavy objects or weights in the lowest section of the hull of the ship to counterbalance the weight of the masts and sails) On their journey eastward, the ballast consisted of lead and sulpher which was traded to the Chinese for tea. They needed something cheap and of equal weight for the journey home. Porcelain goods were the perfect solution. Unlike tea, which took time to cultivate and could only be grown in certain climates, the only requirement for porcelain was clay and craftsmen. Both of which were abundant in China. The Chinese were eager to supply porcelain goods to the west, as they could turn dirt into gold with the addition of labor. By the end of the 18th century, millions of pieces of porcelain were being produced for export. This mass production caused the quality of the craftsmanship to decline considerably. At the same time the quality of European porcelain began to rival the best of the Chinese goods. As quickly as it had begun, the mass export of porcelain had stopped.