Sandalwood has been a rare and expensive wood since ancient times，belonging to the ancient international trade in goods． After 1500，sandalwood became an important commodity in international transaction．But the major traders for this oriental product were Westerners，Portuguese，Dutch，British，and later the Americans，who shipped bulk of the world sandalwood supply to Ming and Qing China． In the mid Qing Dynasty，the sandalwood trade gradually faded due to the destructive cutting of this precious wood in many of its producing places all over the world．