Moirs Environmental Dialogues

Eric Jay Dolin talks with Rob about his newest book: When America First Met China, an exotic history of tea, drugs, and money in the age of sail. Colonial Americans were hooked on China’s high-tech instruments of leisure, including high-priced teas, silks, rhubarb, porcelains and lacquer-wear. To feed American consumerism, US traders went to the ends of the world, over-exploiting people & natural resources, especially seals, sea otters, sandalwood & sea cucumbers. Our voracious appetite for China-built goods drove tragedies of commons, the taking of public resources at a global scale. Dolin helps us to better understand our trading with China long ago and what informs China’s understanding of us today. Our relationship with China began in 1784, when the Empress of China set sail frm NY Harbor. The exploding demand for goods & rush for items to trade led a driven Stonington sealer to discover Antarctica in a very small boat. Foreign trade came with great benefits and bad detriments.