Proto-industrialization and the silk industry of the Canton Delta, 1662-1934

This dissertation addresses questions concerning the early industrialization process of silk-reeling in the Canton Delta--specifically the counties of Shunde and Nanhai located just south of Canton--from 1662-1934. The central issue is to test the ways in which "the proto-industrial model" derived from European experience offers analytical and explanatory power for the development and transition of the Delta silk industry in the critical core of the Lingnan macroregion. Because fishponds are an integral part of silk production--mulberry growing on dikes--the dissertation also traces centuries of regional development of the dike-pond system of environmental management in the Delta and the growing commercialization of fish fry production prior to proto-industrialization. The research is based on fieldwork in the Delta-Canton City area and includes the use of gazetteers, local surveys, archival materials, statistical reports, and large-scale maps as well as observational and oral historical information.; This study reconstructs the dynamic ecological and labor history of silk-reeling as well as the historical geography and environmental history of the then Cant on Delta silk region. Major findings are: (1) A human agent (i.e. an overseas Chinese entrepreneur) played a key role in promoting rural industrialization and leapfrogging from home-reeling to workshops and then to factories--skipping over the putting-out/small handicraft workshop stage; (2) this industrialization process prompts the emergence of cocoon and native raw silk markets linking by money shop and silk commission houses based in the Canton treaty port. The emergence of these specialized markets enhanced the urbanization of pre-factory towns and villages. (3) Women reelers with home experience were first tapped and organized in centralized workshop production in the Delta countryside rather than in big treaty ports. (4) The complex Delta commercial economy--its evolving, centuries-old pond culture, dike-pond agriculture and associated handicrafts--provides the foundation for interpreting a "proto-industrial" silk-reeling production within the context of regional ecological and labor-market analyses. The European proto-industrial model was found to successfully act as a pioneer example of South China's modern village-town enterprise system, linking the rural production to the world trading system albeit adjustments to the model are necessary.