Arrested Development

Abstract

Among students of Chinese socioeconomic history, role of cotton and cotton products in commercialization of late imperial China has, in some respects, received much scholarly attention. The Japanese scholar Nishijima Sadao began to study subject as early as 1940s. Nishijima (1947, 1976) convincingly demonstrated that in Ming-Qing transition, Songjiang prefecture (which included Shanghai county) and its vicintiy became center of cotton trade in China, and this center was more closely linked with South China than with North China. Another Japanese scholar, Terada Takanobu (1958), studied function of cotton in urban development of Qing times and paid special attention to cotton market in Suzhou. Among Chinese scholars, Yan Zhongping (1963), Wu Chengming (1985), Xu Xinwu (1982), Quan Hansheng (1972), Fu Yiling (1963), and, more recently, Fan Shuzhi (1990) have studied role of cotton and cotton goods in commercialization and urban development of China since Song times. Many of these scholars (e.g., Tanaka, 1973) have related their studies to debate on sprouts of capitalism. In West, Mark Elvin's (1973, 1977) study of rural markets and rural industries focuses on cotton and cotton goods, Kang Chao's (1977) work on China's cotton textile production gives particular attention to improvement and spread of cotton textile technology, and Philip Huang's (1990) most recent book highlights role of cotton economy by terming whole process of commercialization in Yangzi delta during period 1350-1850 the cotton revolution.