Textile use, technology, and change in rural textile production in Song China (960-1279) /
Journal Articles
Overview
Overview
abstract
Although peasants in the Northern Song mostly produced fiber and simple cloth part-time to meet tax payments and personal needs, some peasants entered commercial textile production full-time in the Southern Song. They supplied yarn to producers of fancy silk. They also created new silk and ramie varieties. Simpler than fancy silk but more complex than simple cloth, these local novelties required more skilled labor and technology of intermediate complexity.⌃ This study explores the causes and discusses the impact of this change in rural textile production in the Song (Introduction). Chapter One contrasts technological innovations between urban and rural textile production to show that rural producers found time-saving techniques that also increased output. Chapters Two and Three analyze the relationship between state use of textiles and fluctuation of textile prices on the one hand, and, the relationship between non-state market demand and the distribution system on the other hand. While both tax and price increases pushed peasants towards product specialization, the distribution system that already existed for collecting tax payment and selling fancy silk facilitated the sale of new rural commodities. Chapter Four examines rural production in detail. It analyzes the pattern of output, correlated with demographic change. It also discusses the relationship between landholding and tax quotas to show that peasants bore the heaviest burden of tax payments. Chapter Five discusses some rural producers’ shift from part-time to full-time textile production evidenced in new, local products for regional markets. This resulted from the growth of a mobile labor force that could challenge urban artisans (Conclusion). Workers who produced textiles of intermediate complexity in the Lower Yangzi and the Southeast macroregions in the Southern Song were the forerunners of fine cotton producers in rural areas during the Yuan and Ming dynasties.
