Coal Mining in China’s Economy and Society 1895–1937 by Tim Wright

Abstract

684 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Coal Mining in China’s Economy and Society 1895-1937. By Tim Wright. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1984. Pp. xiii + 249; tables, notes, appendixes, bibliography, index. $59.50. Tim Wright argues that the Chinese coal industry did not stagnate prior to the 1949 revolution; on the contrary, the industry experienced substantial growth that provided a basis for further post-1949 growth. It expanded as much as demand permitted. In addition, while Jap­ anese and European engineers modernized several of the larger mines, the Chinese “were resourceful in their efforts to control foreign pen­ etration . . .” (p. 197). Wright’s approach is primarily that of an economic historian and he includes chapters about the geographical and temporal patterns of growth and about the industrial, domestic, and export demand that spurred production. The chapters that directly treat technology and labor may most interest historians of technology. Wright provides a description of traditional Chinese coal-mining technology, identi­ fying Western-language reports. He also describes in some detail tech­ nical modernizations at the larger mines. These included mine construction (shift from pits to room and pillar), haulage (adoption of steam engines for hoisting; some larger mines used mechanical devices underground rather than mules), drainage (mechanical pumping), and ventilation (mechanization). Thus China had two min­ ing systems: smaller mines worked with traditional technologies that had at most steam hoists, and larger mines that were modernized to varying degrees. Steam and compressed air remained the dominant power sources since electricity was introduced into only a few mod­ ernized, northern mines that the Japanese ran. Also discussed are Chinese entrepreneurs and the state, the working and living conditions of the Chinese miners, and the slow, tentative development of organized labor. Wright concludes that, while modern mines tended to have better working conditions, China had the world’s worst safety record. Even the Japanese mines that used convict labor were safer. Perhaps because male wages were so low, few women or children were employed as miners. Although limited by the warlords’ power, changes in the national government policy, and the ease with which peasant agriculturalists could become miners, the unions did help improve conditions. Wright concludes that there was substantial growth in the industry until demand was satisfied. Once supply met demand, and the agrar­ ian sector provided no surplus to fuel further demand, the coal in­ dustry ceased to expand at the earlier rates. “The growth of demand was held back, in the final analysis, by the vicissitudes and difficulties of the peasant economy” (p. 194). The weakness of other modern sectors, the capitalist and working class, also delayed development. Chinese, Japanese, and Western sources provide lengthy bibliog­ raphies. A minor complaint is the system of documentation. Since the TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 685 endnotes are in the form of scientific referencing, the reader must first look there and then to the appropriate bibliographic section to identify the source. Cambridge University Press should use either scientific referencing or the traditional format. This well-written, well-documented study (with an excellent index) provides much information about the Chinese coal industry and in­ tegrates technology, economics, politics, society, and culture. The book will be useful for those who study diffusion of technology since, in addition to mine modernization, Wright discusses foreign investment and railroad development. Kathleen Ochs Dr. Ochs is associate professor at the Colorado School of Mines. She has taught a course on the history and contemporary conditions of foreign mining industries and is currently working on a history of the 20th-century American hard rock mining industry. Scientific Colonialism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. Edited by Nathan Reingold and Marc Rothenberg. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987. Pp. xiii + 398; notes, index. $29.95 (paper). Scientific Colonialism is a selection of papers from a conference of the same title held at Melbourne, Australia, in May 1981. Some of the conference papers have been omitted from the book, and others added, without explanation or justification. The book lacks the spon­ taneity and vitality of the conference, which represented a stimulating conjunction of experiences, but it is tidier. The papers come now in three fairly neat packets: Australia, the United States...