The handicraft industry of China usually developed in areas where raw materials were produced. This tendency of specialization will be seen from the industries to be discussed in this chapter. Since technological changes during the Ch’ing dynasty were slow and since there are special studies on technology, this chapter will not deal specifically with this aspect. The focus will be on the production and trade of individual articles manufactured by the handicraft industry.
First, I shall discuss the textile industry in terms of cotton, silk, and ramie.
Along with food, clothing is an essential for human life. Under the traditional economic framework, rural households usually combined tilling of land and weaving of cloth as their basic way of earning a living. However, this survey of the textile industry along the Han rive4r will show that achieving self-sufficiency was not the sole aim of those producing cloth. Cotton was abundantly grown along the lower Han River and the cotton cloth woven in this area was marketed to many provinces. On the other hand, the cotton industry did not develop to a significant extent along the upper Han River, despite efforts of local officials to promote it. However, districts along the upper Han River did produce a considerable amount of silk for export. Although a balance between the cotton imported into and the silk exported from the upper Han River area cannot be drawn precisely, this development indicates very clearly a tendency to produce what was most profitable under local conditions. As for ramie, the amount produced along the Han River was not very large, but there was a demand for it in the long-distance trade.
In addition to textiles, paper, timber, iron, coal, and gypsum will be discussed.
Papermaking factories were found in hilly areas in Hupeh and southern Shensi.
Although the paper industry did not disappear following the deforestation of this area, it seems that the quality of paper degenerated. Both the timber and iron industries developed during the late eighteenth century when migrants moved into the upper Han River highlands. These two industries were quite extensive, but both were in decline by the first half of the nineteenth century. Small coal mines were also discovered along the upper Han River in the late eighteenth century when forests were gradually destroyed. Throughout the nineteenth century, coal was one of the goods shipped downstream. Gypsum was a special product of Ying-ch’eng, Hupeh, and it had a nationwide market.
To be sure, there were other handicraft goods which people living along the
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Han River manufactured. But it seems proper to leave out those items about which no meaningful discussion can be made with the available information.
Cotton and Native Cotton Cloth
Cotton cultivation and cloth-making along the lower Han River differed from that along the upper Han River. The districts along the lower Han River produced a surplus of cotton and cotton cloth while those along the upper Han River required imports of these goods. This section will first describe the processes of cotton cultivation and cloth manufacturing in Hupeh and southern Shensi, and then will turn to the function of the Han River as trade route for cotton goods.
While it is not the aim of this section to trace the development of the cotton industry from the beginning, it is possible to demonstrate that during the sixteenth century cotton was already grown quite extensively in Te-an prefecture, Hupeh, and that a prosperous cotton handicraft industry prevailed. It is said that thousands of households depended on cotton cultivation and cloth-making for their livelihood at that time. A native merchant was given the credit for promoting this development, while Shansi and Shensi merchants were great buyers of the product.1 Available seventeenth-century local gazetteers, such as the Sui-chou-chih (1667) listed cotton and cotton cloth as the only two items of local commercial goods,2 and the Ch’ien-chiang hsien-chih (1694) listed cotton at the forefront of other goods.3 While Sui-chou 隨州 was located along the Yün-ho 溳河, a tributary of the Han River;
Ch’ien-chiang 潛江 was situated on the alluvial plain between the Han and the Yangtze rivers. In fact, by the end of the Ch’ing dynasty, cotton was grown in almost every district in Hupeh except for Ho-feng-chou 鶴峰州 in the southwestern part of the province.4
The plain along the Han and the Yangtze rivers was the main area of cotton cultivation in Hupeh. There is no estimate of the output of cotton during the nineteenth century. But literary impressions reveal that cotton was grown over a wide area. For instance, Wu Ch’i-chün 吳其濬 (1789-1847) wrote a poem on his travels along the road between Ying-ch’eng and Yün-meng, the last two lines of this poem state:
Countless cotton plants are blooming in snowy white,
There should be no cries of freezing worms during frosty nights.5
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1 An-lu hsien-chih pu-cheng (1872), chüan A: 29.
2
Sui-chou-chih (1667), 1: 38b.
3 Ch’ien-chiang hsien-chih (1694 ed; 1879 reprinted), 8: 42.
4 Hu-pei t’ung-chih (1921), 24: 37.
5 Yün-meng hsien-chih (1840), 12:38b.
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In the Ching-shan hsien-chih (1882), a poem written by a native says:
In late spring one has counted on making winter clothing.
Several ten thousands of cotton plants are planted.
Flowers bloom like a sea before forming peach-shaped husks.
Do the farmers ever complain that they labor so hard? 6
The same gazetteer also said that surplus cotton was exported; this suggests that the output of cotton was not small. Moreover, three bridges in the district were built and repaired with funds collected from the likin on cloth (pu-li 布釐) which shows that the cloth trade was also quite large.7
Districts further up the Han River also produced cotton. In the local gazetteers of Yün, Fang, Chu-hsi, and Chu-shan districts cotton is listed among the local goods.8 Moreover, the Fang-shien-chih (1866) said that in mountain villages both men and women wove cotton cloth.9 According to Ch’iu Chi-heng, cotton produced from the Wei-ho 渭河 Valley in Shensi was transported overland to northwestern Hupeh for weaving.10 This indicates that the output of raw cotton in northwestern Hupeh was not adequate for the needs of the area. It is not clear whether the cloth made in this area was only marketed locally or also exported. In Hsiang-yang prefecture, Tsao-yang was the most productive district of cotton and cotton cloth. The Tsao-yang hsien-chih (1854) remarked that Shansi and Shensi merchants came to buy un-dyed cotton cloth every year and that the local people benefited from the trade.11 In the I-ch’eng-hsien hsiang-t’u-chih (1906), it was estimated that the annual output of raw cotton was about 10 million catties in good years. The native cloth consumed within the district city and other market towns was about 50,000 pieces, and the cotton yarn and thread consumed locally totaled more than 30,000 catties. Moreover, more than 30,000 catties of cotton and cotton goods were exported to Shasi and Honan.12 The cotton industry in the Shasi area was quite notable, but the finished products were chiefly designed for markets in Szechwan and Yünan rather than in the northern provinces.13 Little information is known about the cotton industry in Nan-yang, Honan. It seems likely that this area was more or less self-sufficient in producing cotton cloth.14 __________
6 Ching-shan hsien-chih (1882), 21: 35.
7 Ibid., 1: 13b-14; 2: 24.
8 Yün-hsien-chih (1866), 4:56b; Fang-hsien-chih (1866), 11: 15b; Chu-hsi hsien-chih (1867), 6: 5b-6.
9 Fang-hsien-chih (1866), 11: 15b.
10 Ch’iu Chi-heng, Shan-ching Han-chiang liu-yü mao-i-piao, chüan A: 4b-5
11 Tsao-yang hsien-chih (1854), 2: 28.
12 I-ch’eng-hsien hsiang-t’u-chih (1906), 4: 21b-22.
13 Chiang-ling hsien-chih (1877), 22: 26; P’eng Tse-i ed., Chung-kuo chin-tai shou-kung-yeh-shih tzu-liao (Peking, 1957), II, 240-241.
14 P’an shou-lien, Nan-yang-hsien hu-k’ou ti-t’u wu-ch’an hsü-mu piao-t’u-shuo (reprint, 1968), p. 18.
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It is difficult to ascertain patterns of production and consumption of cotton in Hupeh. The Sui-chou-chih (1869) said that in the district every household planted cotton and everyone learned cloth-weaving.15 However, the Ying-shan hsien-chih (1871) stated that the annual output of cotton cloth was from 200,000-300,000 pieces to 400,000-500,000 pieces and that seven-tenths of the cotton needed for weaving was obtained from other places.16 The Yüan-an hsien-chih (1886) mentioned that peasants who produced silk sold their new silk in exchange for cotton. The peasants did not clothe themselves in silk, but they did weave their own cotton cloth.17 A full picture of practices in the exchange of cotton cannot be depicted here, because little information about the cotton brokers, such as those found in the lower Yangtze delta, is available.18
On the whole, the cotton industry was a domestic handicraft. Before foreign yarn was imported into China in considerable amounts, it seems that spinning and weaving were done in the same households in Hupeh. For instance, an evening working scene of a rural household during the first half of the nineteenth century was depicted by a native poet in Yüan-an. He wrote:
The loom creaks through the chilly night.
The whole family gathers under a lamp light.
The old woman spins while the old man twists the hemp.
The boy does his studies nearby the low lamp stand.19
In many local gazetteers, spinning and weaving are often mentioned together, or else weaving is mentioned while spinning is omitted. But there is not a single case in which only spinning is mentioned. Of course, one should not rely only this negative evidence to exclude the possibility of cases in which just spinning was done in a household. However, those who owned no loom were probably few in number in places which specialized in the cotton textile handicraft. For example, the T’ien-men hsien-chih (1765) said, “Previously, only three out of ten households had their own loom, now nine-tenths have looms.”20 Literary descriptions such as, “Creaking of looms can be heard next door,”21 also indicate that looms were widely owned.
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15 Sui-chou-chih (1869), 13: 2b.
16 Ying-shan hsien-chih (1871), 8: 2.
17 Yüan-an hsien-chih (1866), 8: 6;7b.
18 For the cotton trade in the lower Yangtze area see Fu I-ling, “Ming-tai Chiang-nan te fang-chih kung-yeh yü chih-kung pao-tung,” in Ming-tai Chiang-nan shih-min ching-chi shih-t’an (Shanghai, 1963), p. 85; Miyazaki Ichisada, “Min-shin jidai no Soshū to keikōgyō no hattatsu,” Tōhōgaku, 2 (August 1951): 69-70; Nishijima Sadao, Chūgoku keizaishi kenkyū (Tokyo, 1966), pp. 874-882; Craig Dieterish, “Cotton Culture and Manufacture in Early Ch’ing China,” in W. E. Willmott ed., Economic Organization in Chinese Society (Stanford, 1972), pp. 128-129.
19 Yüan-an hsien-chih (1866), 8: 7b-8.
20 T’ien-men hsien-chih (1765 ed., 1922 reprint), 1: 36b.
21 Han-ch’uan hsien-chih (1873), 6: 19b.
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According to Yen Chung-p’ing 嚴中平, one loom required an amount of yarn equal to that which could be spun by three persons using traditional methods.22 If spinning and weaving were mostly done in the same household, how did people manage to obtain enough yarn? Both local gazetteers of Han-yang and Han-ch’uan state that during the slack seasons of farming, everybody in a household was mobilized to work day and night in spinning and weaving.23 Under these circumstances, if one household had four units of labor, it would be able to supply the yarn necessary for weaving on one loom.
If this pattern of production organization was predominant, it seems that productivity would not be high. One piece (p’i 疋) of cloth a day was probably the maximum one person could weave.24 However, this would have produced more than enough for an average sized family. Apparently mere self-sufficiency was not the sole aim of household production. Even after foreign yarn and cotton pieces were imported in considerable quantity, the weaving sector flourished for a short period, although the spinning sector was seriously injured. This was partly because foreign cotton pieces were not durable as the native cloth and were not welcomed by peasants, and partly because foreign yarn which was cheaper than cloth pieces could be used to weave the types of cloth which people preferred.25 for instance, Mishiro Kiyohiko found during an investigation in northwestern Hupeh in the late 1890s that the peasant weavers bought foreign yarn for the warp, while they spun their own yarn for the woof.26 The cotton cloth marketed in Hupeh had long been known by names derived from either the place of its production or its size. At the end of the eighteenth century, Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng mentioned that cloth gathered in Hankow included the hsiao-pu 小布 (small cloth) from Huang-p’i and Hsiao-kan, the Mian-yang blue cloth, the Pa-ho blue cloth, and the Chien-li “shuttle” cloth (so-pu 梭布).27 In the nineteenth century the variety of cloth was even greater. The Han-yang heien-chih (1868) said that people living in the villages in southern Han-yang were especially industrious in weaving. Their cloth was known as k’ou-pu 扣布 (lit. “fastening” cloth). Moreover, many inhabitants in the villages of Teng-chia-ling 鄧家嶺 and Ch’i-li-miao 七里廟 wove corduroy. The k’ou-pu was purchased by merchants for conveying to Shensi, Shansi, Yünnan, and Kweichow. The corduroy was marketed in Kiangsi, Hunan, Szechwan, and Kweichow, but this trade was in decline by the end of the Ch’ing
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22 Yen Chung-p’ing, Chung-kuo mien-fang-chih shih-kao (Peking, 1963), p. 25.
23 Han-ch’uan hsien-chih (1873), 6: 19b; Han-yang hsein-chih (1868), 9: 3.
24 Han-yang hsein-chih (1868), 9: 3.
25 Li Wen-chih ed., Chung-kuo chin-tai nung-yeh-shih tzu-liao (Peking, 1957), I, p. 511. Cf. Yen Chung-p’ing, p. 82; Albert Feuerwerker, The Chinese Economy, ca. 1870-1911 (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1969), p.17.
26 Li Wen-chih ed., pp.512-513.
27 Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng, Chang Shih-chai hsien-sheng i-shu, 1: 16b.
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dynasty.28 The Han-ch’uan hsien-chih (1873) stated that there were two kinds of cloth:
the big cloth and the small cloth. For nearer markets, the cloth was sent to Fan-ch’eng and Hsiang-yang or Hunan; for more distant markets, to Shensi, Shansi, Yünnan, and Kweichow.29 The Hsiao-kan hsien-chih (1882) mentioned that the cloth collected by Shansi and Shensi merchants was known as Hsiao-kan-pu 孝感布, while pien-pu 邊 布 (lit. “margin” cloth), a cloth narrower and shorted than the other, was used by the villagers themselves.30 In the Te-an fu-chih (1888), un-dyed cloth and dyed cloth are mentioned. The former was simply mien-pu 棉布 (cotton cloth) which was in demand chiefly by northern provinces, the latter was called so-pu which supplied markets in southern provinces. The former was gathered in the prefecture city, while the latter was gathered in Ying-ch’eng for redistribution. Moreover, the cloth going in different directions was distinguished as shan-chuang 山莊 (stores for mountain route) and shui-chuang 水莊 (stores for water route); the former went north and the latter went south.31
At the end of the nineteenth century, the cotton textile handicraft became all the more prosperous around the Hankow area. This development was due chiefly to the importation of foreign yarn which provided the weaving handicraft a chance to compete with foreign cotton pieces. Table 13 shows the major varieties of cloth.
The varieties of cloth were, indeed, many. However, this does not imply that there were no trade rules or standards of production. According to in investigation by Mishro Kiyohiko, Shensi merchants who traded cotton cloth in Ying-shan had regulations about the standards of the cloth: each piece of the hsin-kai-pu 新改布 was to be 0.95 ch’ih 尺 (1 ch’ih = 32 cm) wide and 44 ch’ih long and each roll of this cloth was to weigh 70 catties. Each piece of the ko-hsien-pu 葛仙布 was to be 1.1 ch’ih wide and 32 ch’ih long and each roll of this cloth was to weigh 60 catties. When the cloth rolls were ready for shipment, merchants of the same trade were to be invited to check the size and weight. If a shortage was found, a fine of 20 cash was levied for each piece of substandard cloth. The fine would be used for public funds.
Other regulations for the cloth trade flowed by the same merchant groups were as follows:32
(1) When a chuang 莊 (seasonal store) was organized to collect cloth from the producing places, each was not comprise more than three persons. No matter where a table was set to collect cloth, it must not be set along a roadside. These restrictions were to prevent unnecessary competition and disorder.
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28 Han-yang hsien-chih (1868), 9: 3; Hu-pei t’ung-chih (1921), 24: 37.
29 Han-ch’uan hsien-chih (1873), 6: 19b.
30 Hsiao-kan hsien-chih (1882), 5: 39.
31 Te-an fu-chih (1888), 3: 87; Ying-ch’eng hsien-chih (1882), 1: 55.
32 Peng Tse-i ed., II, 242-243.
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Table 13: Varieties and Prices of Cloth Produced around Hankow, c. 1900 Names of Cloth Producing Places
Size per Piece (ch’ih) Price per Piece (tael) Length Width 1st gr. 2nd gr. 3rd gr. Han-yang-pu West-gate, Han-yang 34-36 1.15 480-490 cash
Ko-hsien-pu Ko-tien (Wu-ch’ang) 32 1.05 0.32 0.30 0.29 Source: Mizuno Kōkichi, Kankō (Tokyo, 1907), pp. 499-502. Cf. Peng Tse-i ed., Chung-kuo chin-tai shou-kung-yeh-shih tzu-liao (Peking, 1957), II, 241; Li Wen-chih ed., Chung-kuo chin-tai nung-yeh-shih tzu-liao (Peking, 1957), I, 511-512.
(2) In each cloth-producing place there was a certain spot for setting up the table for collecting cloth. One was not allowed to move to other spots for his own convenience. One was not to raise the prices freely and one was not to accept any unsuitable pieces of cloth.
(3) Before each business season began in spring and autumn, merchants of the same trade would be notified to attend a meeting in order to decide the date for starting the business and the prices for that season. One was not allowed to monopolize the trade by starting earlier or to offer different prices. One who disobeyed the rules would be forced to treat his fellow traders to two banquets and two theatrical performances.
(4) Once the prices of the season were fixed, merchants in the same trade were to gather to discuss possible changes in price on the first and the fifteenth day of each month. An individual could not raise or lower the prices independently.
(5) The chuang-shou 莊首 (head of the seasonal store) representing the hang 行 (the main store) to which he belonged and he was responsible for any abuses occurring in the business.
(6) Each hang 行, regardless of whether it was in the city or in the countryside, was to confine itself to trade at certain markets (p’u 埠). No member of any hang was allowed to move from one market to another or to conspire with people in the sane trade to obtain cloth illegally. If such practices were discovered, the cloth obtained
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from other markets was to be confiscated by the guild.
(7) Payment for the cloth was to be made in cash for the full amount. Money
(7) Payment for the cloth was to be made in cash for the full amount. Money