The imperial silk factories of kangxi in china, 1661-1722A mirror for Louis XIV’s royal factories?

Abstract

Abstract This thesis explains the theoretical background and development of contemporary global and consumer historiography; it examines the interactions and connections between a then seemingly closed China and the outside world through missionaries, the tribute system and overseas trade during the Qing empire. It examines the forms of business organisation, production processes, sources of finance, personnel management, the income and social status of artisans, products and trade channels of the imperial silk factories in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century China and those court-supplying silk factories of Louis XIV in France. Comparisons and correlations reveal the links established through the exchange of missionaries and goods between these two distant monarchical territories, and the impact of these cultural contacts. The jesuits sent by Louis XIV arrived at the court of the Kangxi emperor with a well-thought-out research programme and the best equipment of the time to investigate almost all areas of China, such as history, geography, medicine, flora and fauna, handicrafts and so on. The missionaries left behind abundant letters, diaries and translations that built bridges for western research and understanding of China, as well as completing Colbert’s global information-gathering project, thus contributing to his mercantilist strategy. Both the imperial silk factories of Kangxi and those court supplying factories of Louis XIV were the expression of the will of the central power, which, by virtue of its economic control and administrative power, planned, designed, produced and marketed silk production at the highest level throughout its territory. The Chinese imperial silk factories, which flourished under the Kangxi period, were entirely subordinate to the central power and catered entirely to the needs of the court and the bureaucratic administrative system, and were not market-oriented for profit. The mercantilist economic line of Louis XIV also brought a strong influence of royal power over the state silk industry, with the difference that the court-supplying silk factories were mostly privately owned and the royal family was their main customer. The imperial silk factories of Kangxi were under strict control of a centralised feudal system, with countless laws and regulations, inscriptions warning of common faults and defects in the weaving industry, and even severe punishments, all of which served to guarantee the quality and efficiency of production in the imperial silk mills. In France, on the other hand, during the same period, in order to promote the development of the country’s silk weaving industry, Colbert produced an unprecedented number of decrees and specific regulations on production processes and quality control, as well as corresponding punitive mechanisms. A wealth of historical sources has been used in this thesis, such as the imperial archives of the First Historical Archives of Chinese, “archival collections” and old books, local gazetteers, municipal archives, archive of “Fonds de la Grande Fabrique de soie 1563-1791”, and other works and essays. The cross-reference of historical sources and the biases created by cultural differences could stimulate new perspectives and understandings. Although more direct evidence is lacking, in the context of missionary activity at the Chinese court and the encyclopaedic global research of the French Royal Academy of Sciences, and the well-documented collateral evidence of commercial espionage in the manufacture of ceramics, it would be inferred that information about the silk factories of the Kangxi emperor must have served Colbert’s mercantilist economic strategy. Comparing the imperial silk factories of Kangxi with those court-supplying silk factories of Louis XIV, this thesis examines the connections and integration, the extensive central intervention in the national silk industry, the flow of silk production, the separation of production and distribution, and the specific decrees and regulations for quality control. All of this suggests that the Chinese imperial silk factories of Kangxi may well have influenced the French silk industry, thanks to the role of the missionary bridge, and that the court-supplying silk factories of Louis XIV can be presumed to be a mirror reflection image of the Kangxi imperial silk mills.