Song Dynasty Handicraft Industry Employment Research

The phenomenon of wage-labor has existed since the ancient China, and expanded widely in various sectors with the development of social economy. In the Song Dynasty, with the adjustment of taxes and corvee policy, the government began to impose relaxed control over servitude and to reduce the requisition of servitude. In the handicraft industry field, it was those labors hired from Xiang Force and craftsmen hired from the folk who were in the majority of the employee in government-run handicraft industry. Those employees were paid (money or grain as their wage) according to the amount of their work or time. It was rarely found that the servitude or prisoners were employed in government-run handicraft industry. With the development of commodity economy and expansion of the professional division of labor, more and more people began to join in the team of wage_labour employment. They earned their wage with their own labor to supply their family income, and maintain their life. The wage_labour team in handicraft industry became very large, which solved the livelihood problem of many unemployed people.In different industries, handicraft employees mainly exist in the government-run industries, such as silk production, money coining, weapons manufacturing, brewing, etc, which employing the most Xiang Force in their production. In the folk handicraft industry, it is mainly in such industries as mining, textile, and ceramic metallurgy that most of wage-labour employees were hired. In particular, the scale of employment is so sweeping in mining that the number of employees can reach up to tens of thousands in some large-scaled pits. There are as many as hundreds of thousands of handicraftsmen in the whole handicraft industry. In this way, hundreds of thousands people’s lives can be resolved. Those employees who worked in both official and private handicraft industries can get certain amount of money and grain. In general, the wage for those employees who worked in the government-run handicraft industry is relatively favorable, which could or barely could solve the problem of their food and clothing, but they are not free as a human. What’s more, the employees’wage is deducted by some government officials now and again, and the employees would be employed by some officials as servants privately. The general level of wage for the employees in the folk handicraft industry is not too high, especially for the ordinary handymen, while those skilled workers, who are engaged in the handicraft industry for generations, are highly paid. However, most employees are both workers and peasants, who are engaged in agriculture at the same time of industry. It is a way for them to subsidize the insufficiency of agriculture by being engaged in handicraft industry.It is just because people can get certain economic income to contribute to the family by being engaged in handicraft wage-Labor that the livelihood of a great deal of unemployed and half unemployed people could be resolved, which relieved the social contradictions in the song dynasty to some extent and maintained the stability of the country. On the other hand, due to the fact that a large number of people entered into handicraft industry, the development and prosperity of handicraft at that time had been greatly promoted.The whole thesis comprises the chapters below:The introduction, which mainly introduces the theme and the motivation of the research subject; the current research situation of the wage-labour in the handicraft industry of Song Dynasty at home and abroad in recent years as well as the research priority of this paper.The first chapter is about "The general situation of the development of the handicraft industry in Song Dynasty", including the general situation of the development of the handicraft industry in the Song Dynasty; the great breakthrough of the handicraft industry in the production scale, the number of employees, the division of labor, etc. The development of folk handicraft industry has exceeded the government-run handicraft industry in various aspects, which will be briefly introduced in this part.The topic "The number of employees in each department of the handicraft industry in Song Dynasty" is continued in chapter four. It will take the number of employees in each department of the handicraft industry in Song Dynasty as the research object, and introduce the distribution of the number of the employees in major departments of both government-run and folk handicraft industries, which will make us have a clear understanding of the employment in various departments at that time.Chapter three, entitled "The employees’wage and living conditions in the handicraft industry of Song Dynasty", will summarize the employees’wage situation which was recorded in the literature in charts, taking the industry as a clue. In this way, the overall level of the employees’income (money or grain) can be reached, and a rough estimation of employees’living condition can be made on the basis of the price level at that time.Chapter four,"The identity relationship of the employees in the handicraft industry in Song Dynasty", introduces the identity relationship of the employees both in the government-run and folk handicraft industries respectively. Due to the difference between the employees from Xiang Force and employees from folk in the government-run handicraft industry, the identity relationship of the government-run handicraft industry is classified into two parts:the identity relationship of employees from Xiang Force and the identity relationship employees from folk.Chapter five is about "The ways of hiring labors、the social class composition and the role in Song Dynasty". It comprises three parts,"The ways of hiring labor in the government-run handicraft industry" and "the social class composition of the handicraft industry and its characteristics", in which how to employ labors for the government in Song dynasty and the employers’social class will be generally introduced so that the reader will have a better understanding on the social groups of the employers in Song dynasty."The development of the wage-labor’social influence on Song Dynasty", will make an introduction to the role of the development of wage-labor in promoting every aspects of the society in Song dynasty, meanwhile, it points out that the development of wage-labor of the handicraft industry in Song dynasty has played a certain role in maintaining the stable of the society.The last chapter is a conclusion of the whole thesis, which summarizes the development of the wage-labor of handicraft industry in Song Dynasty.