Rich Products, a large corporation in Buffalo, N.Y., has been making healthy profits in recent years supplying nondairy whipped topping to thousands of small bakeries across China that produce the elaborate birthday cakes that have become indispensible to urban Chinese life. Elizabeth Sinn's excellent book chronicles and analyzes earlier episodes in the rich history of U.S. trade with China. The discovery of gold in California in the 1840s quickly brought Hong Kong and San Francisco into a mutually beneficial relationship. Long before the invention of nondairy whipped topping, California sent Hong Kong, among other things, high-quality wheat flour for distribution across Asia. In return, it received thousands of migrant workers and entrepreneurs, as well as merchandise of all sorts, including granite, opium, and sugar.
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