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History And Economics Notes Chinese Economic History Since 1850 Notes

3 Silk Sector Notes

Updated 3 Silk Sector Notes

Chinese Economic History Since 1850 Notes

Chinese Economic History Since 1850

Approximately 215 pages

These notes and other materials cover the EH207: The Making of an Economic Superpower: China since 1850.

"This course provides a survey of long-term economic change in China from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. It focuses on China's long path to becoming a major global economic power at the beginning of the new millennium. The course examines the importance of ideological and institutional change in bringing about economic transformations by surveying major historical turning points s...

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Silk Sector in China

  • Most important export commodity for China and Japan

    • France and Italy silk cloth production

  • Historically the technology transfer was towards Europe

  • Hand-reeled silk persisted in China despite partial transfer of European technology

    • Higher transaction costs

    • High learning effort

    • High capital investment required

    • Centralization required institutional and social changes

    • Labour was cheap in East Asia anyway

  • Fundamental change only occurred after Sino-Japanese War

European Technology Transfer

  • Four new features from Southern Europe

    • Rigid-axis and cogwheel to more efficiently drive the belt adopted from China

    • Additional twisting mechanism to cross silk threads dry

    • Centralized steam boiler

    • Mechanization

  • Uniformity of European style silk

    • Demanded higher price

Silk Sector in Japan

  • Meiji government promoted industrialization

    • Promoted standardization movement of cocoon varieties

  • After 1900s began to deprive China of the raw-silk export market

    • Has a traditional Zaguri raw-silk production system before Meiji

  • 1500 water or steam powered filatures by 1895 and rapid diffusion of the filature system

  • Firth’s hypothesis on the time-sequence of adaptations in transplanting foreign culture (inc. tech.):

    • Acceptance of new foreign tech proceeds organizations, institutions and beliefs

  • A 1/3rd cheaper than European silk

  • By 1930s, exports were 3x that of China

Case Studies

Ewo Filature

  • First Western-style, steam-powered, silk-reeling factory, began 1860 in Shanghai

  • Jardine-Matheson adopted western techniques

  • Wrongly believed it would be easy to bring cocoons from the interior

  • Three main problems:

    • Cost

      • Shanghai was still primitive

      • Equipment had to be built in HK and transported to Shanghai

      • Delays increased capital costs

    • Labour force

      • Labour force had to be recruited and trained to European standards

      • Less troublesome than thought

    • A regular supply of good quality cocoons had to be found

      • No investment allowed outside the treaty ports

      • Had to dry them in the countryside potential spoilage, costly, difficult for indigenous

  • Technologically successful, economically not so sure

  • Couldn’t operate in isolation from the traditional institutions and values of...

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