Memoirs of the Fruits of Globalization: The Markets for Chinese Textiles in New Spain by Jean de Monségur

Abstract

A revealing report produced by the French intelligence services of the beginning of eighteenth-century explores the production of luxury and fashion commodities and their distribution on a global scale. According to Jean de Monségur the main competitors in New Spain arrived through China commercial routes. On one hand, we intend to explore if the trade market in Mexico was reflecting or not European fashions, in particular French fashion so in vogue among European elites. On the other hand, some cultural aspects must be taking into account to discern how entangled Europe, Asia and the Americas were in 1700s underlying economic prestige and social status as in Europe. How cultural and symbolic message matters? Was New Spain contributing to develop an emerging hybrid consumer society?