still drinking from wood, pewter, silver, or earthenware. Porcelain was physical evidence of just how much more technically advanced the Chinese were than anyone else in the world. To have a set of porcelain tea cups and to serve the best China tea immediately set you apart. Consequently an enormous trade in this sublime white porcelain, called “white gold” or “china,” started up. The trade became so great that many in Europe realized that if they could learn how to make porcelain themselves, they would become very rich. But no one got close, and the method for making porcelain remained a
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