What happens
This 1943 episode of The Pacific Story, broadcast by NBC on August 1, 1943, traces China's history and its gifts to the world. It opens in Venice, where Marco Polo returns from China with tales of paper money, black stones that burn as fuel, and jewels hidden in his garments. The story then surveys Chinese inventions such as paper, printing, and gunpowder, along with the silk trade. It moves on to American ships reaching Canton in 1784 and to the British and American trade rivalry that led to the Opium War and the Treaty of 1842. The narrator, Owen Latimore, closes by discussing China's literacy, mechanization, and its readiness to adopt Western industry.
Venice and China across several centuries, from the thirteenth century to the nineteenth century, including Canton and Peking
Characters: Marco Polo, Nicolo Polo, Maffeo Polo, Captain Firth, Owen Latimore
Listen for: Marco Polo's tales of Chinese paper money and burning black stones in Venice, and the account of the Opium War and the Treaty of 1842
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.