Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a detailed study of the modern silk industry in a county in the Yangzi delta. It reopens and restructures the grand debate on Chinese economic development, combining quantitative analysis of both industry and agriculture with study of how local politics, class, culture, and gender also shaped the modern Chinese economy.
Trade Review"Bell has taken immense pains to provide the detailed factual evidence for a chronic economic tragedy." --
Canadian Journal of History"This book should set new standards for local historical research and for studies of political/economic development in China. It is not just an important contribution to a field of study but a landmark of sorts. . . . With her careful organization and engaging style, Bell succeeds in presenting an extremely complex subject with remarkable clarity." -- Jerry Dennerline * Amherst College *
"With this book Lynda Bell contributes a major piece to our understanding of China's modern economic history. The core of the book is a detailed description of the evolution of the sillk industry in central China between the late 19th century and the mid-20th century. . . . Specialists in Chinese economic and social history will want to add this book to their personal libraries. It would also serve as an excellent material for graduate or advanced undergraduate students because of its comprehensive analysis and Bell's clearly explained utilization of a wide variety of historical sources." --
The China Quarterly"Bell treats her subject with remarkable clarity, neatly steering her discussion between the optimistic and the pessimistic approaches taken by many previous commentators on economic development during the period covered by her book. . . . [This] is a work of impressive scholarship, eminently readable, and of value to anyone interested in the history of Chinese industrial development and the silk industry in particular." --
Enterprise & SocietyTable of ContentsNote on Wuxi county's administrative boundaries, commerical districts, and size Weights, measures and exchange rates 1. introduction: a tale of two Chinas 2. Markets and power in the late imperial era 3. Why Wuxi? merchant competition and the changing contours of Yangzi Delta Silk Production 4. Public sphere or private interest? Defending the Wuxi cocoon trade 5. Investors at risk in the Wuxi filature industry 6. Women in sericulture, or how gendered labor (re-)shaped peasant-family production 7. Imparting modernity: women and the politics of silk-industry reform 8. Success at last? Bourgeois practice and state intervention under the nationalists 9. Conclusion: peasants, industry, and the state Appendices Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Character list Index.
