On the afternoon of April 23, 2014, a speech named “From Luxury Goods to Global Commodities: Porcelain, Chocolate and the Globalisation of Taste in Early Modern Europe” by Marta Caroscio from the Medici Archive Project, University of Florence is held at Education Center, CNSM.

        During the seventeenth century chocolate and coffee houses became extremely popular in Europe. Chinese porcelain was by then a widely traded commodity and it was often used for drinking chocolate, coffee and tea. The arrival and spread of new products in Europe – including food –from the Eastern and Western Indies occurred at the same time when porcelaincups started to be widely imitated and where circulating in larger amounts than ever before. Certainly, the late sixteenth century should be regarded as aturning point in terms of assimilation and understanding of different cultures,as well as of global circulation of goods.

        Firstly imported as a luxury item, porcelain  was collected and imitated. To what extent were fashion and demand a trigger in determining supplies of certain goods? Is it appropriate to talk about a “globalization of taste”during the early Modern period? Or is it more appropriate to consider goods such as porcelain, chocolate, coffee and tea as products destined to the éliteonly? This speach discusses the parallel diffusion and interrelated use of two products that quickly became extremely fashionable in early Modern Europe:chocolate, deriving from the cocoa seeds traded from the Americas, and porcelain, imported from China and widely imitated in Europe. The impact of globally traded goods is discussed as well in the perspective of re-adjustment to local taste and traditions with clear explanation and plenty of pictures.

        The series of speaches on China are sponsored by "Lila Wallage-Reader's Digest Endowment Fund".