On The Cotton Industry In Taihu Area During The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Cotton industry in Taihu area rose in the Yuan Dynasty, developed in the Ming Dynasty, and in the early Qing Dynasty reached a unknown prosperity. In the late Qing Dynasty with the impact of modern industrialization, cotton industry has undergone an important change. The academic results on cotton industry research of Taihu area in Ming and Qing Dynasties, mainly in cotton textile industry, cotton domestic trade research as the main body is rich and involves all aspects of the cotton industry, which for the writing of this article provides some advantages in resources. But in many research results, more are related treatise and specialized study isless, the system arrangement and scouting is lack,So there are still a lot of space to develop.This thesis takes cotton industry which is one of the pillar industries of Tahu area in Ming and Qing dynasty (1368-1911) as the research object,and systematically discusses the cotton industry development and change process,and close relationships between each link,so as to construct a complete research system of each link interactive effects. On one hand analysis deep reasons of promoting cotton development, on the one hand, discusses the influence of cotton industry development and changes on regional economy and society, and on this basis to reveal cotton industry overall characteristics in Taihu area, thus further deepening the whole Chinese cotton industry research, and for realizing the healthy development of the regional economy provides history reference.In Ming Dynasty, a series of policies to encourage economic crop to cultivate which were carried out by the government, promoted the cotton regional expansion. To the late Ming dynasty, the cotton farming popularized gradually in Taihu area, formed with the songjiang mansion and taicang state as the center cotton area of Edge River, coastal area. The popularity of Cotton cultivation provided sufficient raw materials for the cotton textile industry,and the improvement of textile machinery improved the production efficiency of cotton textile industry,promoted the rapid development of commodity production of the cotton textile industry. The increasing commercialization of Cotton textile production promoted the development of cotton trade in the area.In the early Qing Dynasty, with further development of cotton textile goods production, cotton planting area was expanded, the proportion of cotton field was increased, planting area also continued to increase, which provided raw materials for cotton textile production; cotton textile technology had been improved and promoted, cotton textile industry was increasingly prosperouse; cotton trade was all-time booming, and after a short market adjustment in early Qing Dynasty cotton trade had formed a new market circulation pattern, cotton sales much increased.In the late Qing Dynasty, increasing input of foreign muslin and calico made a lot of shock on the cotton industry in Taihu area.The cotton planting industry had a decline because of the death of the hand spinning industry. Under the influence of the machine cotton textile industry development at home and abroad increasing demand for raw cotton,cotton planting industry gradually resuscitated, and some departments improved cotton planting technology, improved the yield and quality cotton,in order to adapt to the needs of the development of machine cotton textile industry. Hand spun and woven separated In traditional handmade cotton textile.Hand woven industry insteaded machine yarn in soil yarn which was made as textile materials, Rerulting in hading been improved the production efficiency and appeared a batch of handmade cotton factory.The rise of the domestic machine cotton textile with production machine yarn was given priority to, Machine yarn and imports yarn had commonly become a raw materials of knitting industry production.Manual cotton industry and machine spinning industry in cotton textile coexist and complement each other.Cotton trade in imported yarn and calico cloth increased year by year, homespun trade cut,cotton exports quantity increased, domestic mechanism yarn and cloth sales also gradually increased.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, cotton industry in Taihu area development was affected by a number of factors, including the support of the government policy, the development of transportation, market demand, and production technology development, etc.The two generation of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the government not only took a series of policy incentives for cotton planting, but also attached importance to the development of cotton textile industry and actively promoted the spread of cotton textile technology. In the late Qing Dynasty, in the face of the influx of yarn and calico cloth, the Qing government realized to must develop machine cotton textile industry for retrieving sovereignty, therefore issued a series of encouraging plant measures and policy, and rewarded the development of cotton textile machine. In Taihu area, The priority of transportation way was given priority to change the water for the comprehensive development of waterway, railway, highway. Transportation tools changed too.The traditional wooden junk was replaced by a ship, and train and car. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, the development changes of cotton industry in Taihu area was closely related to market. After the middle period of Ming Dynasty, along with the development of commodity economy, the strengthening of the circulation of commodities. The cotton of Taihu area began to sell to all parts of the country.To the early Qing Dynasty, the market demand reached the top. In the late Qing Dynasty, the market demand changed, and handwoven cloth market slowly decline and mechanism cloth sales increased.The introduction of Western-style spinning machine and the rise of spinning factory of domestic machine solve the bottleneck of low efficiency of the hand spinning industry production and provided high quality and low price machine yarn for hand woven industry. At the same time, it also promoted the improvement of handmade cotton textile technology and cotton planting technology, so as to promote the increase of cotton production and the improvement of homespun quality and provide high quality raw materials and sales market for the development of spinning machine industry.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the development and change of cotton industry in Taihu area had an important impact on economic and social development,mainly reflected in promoting development of towns,the change of planting structure and family handicraft industry in the area, strengthing the regional economic exchanges, and changing the tax form and so on.In short, in Taihu area of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the cotton industry experienced a process from mutual promotion and common development and prosperity of the cotton industry, cotton textile industry, cotton trade and other aspects in early days to later under the impact of western industrial input the adjust gradually of cotton industry and through various means to revitalize the cotton industry. Especially in the late Qing Dynasty, in the face of imported yarn and cloth influx, cotton industry in Taihu area adjusted itself to adapt to the changing market environment.Thereby the cotton industry in Taihu area still maintained a good momentum of development, became the birthplace and center of the country’s machine cotton textile industry. Cotton trade were still prosperous, Machine yarn as raw material of hand woven industry production saled to all parts of the country. Cotton production no longer closed in farmhouse world for helping oneself. The commercialization of cotton too greatly increased.