Search Results

The Chinese Market for Japanese The Chinese Market for Japanese Cotton Textile Goods, 1914–30

Takeshi Abe

in Japan, China, and the Growth of the Asian International Economy, 1850-1949

This chapter traces the process of Japanese exports to China in the critical years of the late 1910s and the 1920s, when both countries tried to find markets to exploit. It discusses the ways in ... More

This chapter traces the process of Japanese exports to China in the critical years of the late 1910s and the 1920s, when both countries tried to find markets to exploit. It discusses the ways in which Japanese industry responded to Chinese competition. In addition to direct investment in China and diversification into artificial silk production, the Japanese cotton industry also focused increasingly on producing processed cotton cloths.Less

The Temper of the Times: Trade Unionism and Industrial Relations

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

Over the half-century from 1880, class identities in Britain appeared to find their most overt expression in the growth of trade-union organisation. Associational ties, for long confined to craft ... More

Over the half-century from 1880, class identities in Britain appeared to find their most overt expression in the growth of trade-union organisation. Associational ties, for long confined to craft minorities, came to extend to a peak of more than eight million workers by 1920. At the same time, a shared sense of interests within and across trades was seen to emerge from a series of large-scale industrial conflicts in the second and third decades of the 20th century. The necessary basis for the emergence of a collective consciousness of class appeared substantially in place. In certain sectors, including the coal and cotton industries, the density of membership in trade unions was such that questions concerning the role of labour organisations in promoting or containing class loyalties remain significant. This chapter considers the extent to which the temper of industrial relations gave rise to an unambiguous sense of class unity, as well as the extent to which the trade-union record accurately reflects the views of the rank and file.Less

The Work Experience

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

Both the coal and the cotton industries in Britain were subject to important technological innovations during the years 1880-1930. The implications such innovations had for work practices reflect ... More

Both the coal and the cotton industries in Britain were subject to important technological innovations during the years 1880-1930. The implications such innovations had for work practices reflect much about the attitudes and expectations which prevailed on both sides of industry and provide some insight into the relationship between the work experience and class identities. The decline of Britain’s established export industries in the early 20th century has been traced to technological conservatism and the survival of organisational structures inappropriate to altered competitive conditions. Of late, however, a sturdy defence of British entrepreneurship has been mounted, arguing that technical and organisational choices represented the most rational and profitable course in prevailing market circumstances. This chapter examines such points to elucidate the role accorded labour, particularly skilled workers, in the leading industries of south-central Lancashire.Less

Keeping it in the Family? The Search for Work in Coal and Cotton Lancashire

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

This chapter examines the process of recruitment, the factors determining the timing, and the direction of the individual’s entry to work in Britain during the years 1880-1930, focusing on the coal ... More

This chapter examines the process of recruitment, the factors determining the timing, and the direction of the individual’s entry to work in Britain during the years 1880-1930, focusing on the coal and cotton industries in Lancashire. Throughout the period, despite the increasing intervention of state agencies, entry to work was mostly determined by personal connections. Responsibility for recruitment continued to devolve on to the workforce itself. In such circumstances, it is argued, family linkages were readily utilised, so that sons tended to follow their fathers into the same trade. Yet the importance which has been attached to kinship calls into question the broader cultural implications of internal work hierarchies. This chapter looks at contemporary attitudes to work and the ways in which this experience helped to shape the social outlook and the evolution of class identities.Less

Changing the Culture of Work: Business Leadership and Industrial Welfare in the Coal and Cotton Trades

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

The half-century from 1880 witnessed significant changes in the structure and practice of industrial leadership across Lancashire, as private, proprietorial capital gave way to the adoption of ... More

The half-century from 1880 witnessed significant changes in the structure and practice of industrial leadership across Lancashire, as private, proprietorial capital gave way to the adoption of limited-liability organisation. The immediate effects of this development were twofold: first, authority within the day-to-day regulation of business operations increasingly passed to managerial personnel; second, the scale of industrial activity was transformed. Successive merger waves ensured that, by 1935, the largest 100 companies by capital value were responsible for almost one-quarter of national output. The coal and cotton industries were at the centre of these developments. This chapter examines changes in the culture of work in Britain during the years 1880-1930 and the increased provision of industrial welfare, especially in the coal and cotton industries in Lancashire. The growth of welfare provision was presented as continued evidence of management concern with labour efficiency and the need to ensure a disciplined and obedient workforce, but it could also be an adaptation of established patterns of paternalistic industrial leadership to modern business conditions.Less

The Chinese Merchant Community in The Chinese Merchant Community in Kobe and the Development of the Kobe and the Development of the Japanese Cotton Industry, 1890–1941

Naoto Kagotani

in Japan, China, and the Growth of the Asian International Economy, 1850-1949

This chapter challenges the traditional analysis of the development of the modern Japanese cotton industry, and argues that a critical role was played by Chinese and other Asian merchants in the ... More

This chapter challenges the traditional analysis of the development of the modern Japanese cotton industry, and argues that a critical role was played by Chinese and other Asian merchants in the export of Japanese yarn and textiles. The causes of the strength of Chinese merchant networks discussed and debated, emphasizing, as Kagotani does, the solidarity of Chinese merchants (vis-à-vis the Japanese) while Furuta focuses on the open and international nature of the Shanghai network unavailable elsewhere in the region. These two theorists contributed to the renewed recognition of the importance of networks as a key institution for modern Asian economic development.Less

The Values of Saving: Patterns of Thrift in Coal and Cotton Lancashire

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

This chapter examines the material and cultural influences which shaped working-class life in Britain during the period 1880-1930 by looking at the institutional arrangements by which families ... More

This chapter examines the material and cultural influences which shaped working-class life in Britain during the period 1880-1930 by looking at the institutional arrangements by which families endeavoured to manage their limited resources. Thrift touched many aspects of the working-class experience. At its most basic, it was preventive in intent, providing against an unanticipated loss of income through illness, accident, unemployment, or death. Alternatively, it could be used to satisfy material aspirations, enabling families to exploit expanding opportunities for consumption. The precise form which savings assumed strongly reflected underlying cultural influences. Over the period, distinctive forms of saving emerged in both the coal and the cotton industries in Lancashire. In the latter, the widespread adoption of joint-stock organisation after 1880 created new investment opportunities. A variety of non-occupational thrift institutions were established, ranging from affiliated friendly society orders to informal benefit funds based on local churches and pubs.Less

The Cotton Lobby and the Spanish Loan

Jill Edwards

in Anglo-American Relations and the Franco Question, 1945–1955

A key domestic issue in the United States in 1949 was the continuing post-war overproduction of commodities in a world of increased competition, especially American cotton. This problem focused ... More

A key domestic issue in the United States in 1949 was the continuing post-war overproduction of commodities in a world of increased competition, especially American cotton. This problem focused Senate grievances on Spain as a potential market. In the months leading up to the United Nations vote in May 1949, Francisco Franco had had good reason to suppose that the vote would go his way. He had ample evidence from visiting Americans that big business in the States was more than ready to welcome Spain back into international trade and commerce. Unless Spain could earn dollars or be given a dollar loan, it would not be considered a viable trading partner as a result of its exclusion from the Marshall Plan. The cotton issue in its wider, symbolic sense therefore became a power struggle between president and Congress. This chapter also looks at the United States cotton industry and the Spanish textile industry, along with the appointment of Stanton Griffis as U.S. ambassador to Spain.Less

The ABCS of Japanese and Korean Accumulation

Alice H. Amsden

in Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization

This chapter is concerned with how acceleration in South Korean investments and exports was activated from the beginning of the 1960s, largely by exploiting its low‐wage advantage. The main emphasis ... More

This chapter is concerned with how acceleration in South Korean investments and exports was activated from the beginning of the 1960s, largely by exploiting its low‐wage advantage. The main emphasis of the chapter is on the details of the competitive advantage of Korea over Japan with regard to the cotton textile industry. The various aspects covered are the emergence of an international division of labor, the model of accumulation pasted together by the Korean military regime in the early 1960s, Korean trade policies (import restrictions, export dependence and incentives, the tariff structure), and Korean investment policy.Less

Introduction

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

This book examines the forces which helped shape working class identities in Britain during the years 1880-1930. Reflecting the analytical weight given to developments at the point of production, the ... More

This book examines the forces which helped shape working class identities in Britain during the years 1880-1930. Reflecting the analytical weight given to developments at the point of production, the early chapters concentrate primarily on the world of work. If employers’ readiness to delegate responsibility for workplace operations to selected groups of skilled workers was apparent in both the coal and cotton industries through the 19th century, its implications for labour unity varied markedly. Divisions appeared most pronounced in the cotton trade, more especially in preparatory and spinning departments, where a relatively small number of adult males exercised authority within a predominantly female and juvenile workforce. This book also looks at work experience, trade unions and industrial relations, employment in the coal and cotton industries in Lancashire, industrial welfare in the two industries, the working-class family, and electoral politics in the coal and cotton trades.Less

Implementing Rural Reforms

Margherita Zanasi

in Saving the Nation: Economic Modernity in Republican China

This chapter investigates Cotton Control Commission (CCC) reforms in rural areas: their goals, their potential to change the socioeconomic structure of the Chinese village, and the problems these ... More

This chapter investigates Cotton Control Commission (CCC) reforms in rural areas: their goals, their potential to change the socioeconomic structure of the Chinese village, and the problems these reforms met. The CCC leaders tended to underestimate local market forces and the cultural trends that supported them. It is shown that CCC encountered difficulty in its work in the village. The CCC was trapped in its productivist rhetoric and often ignored the long-established social practices embedded in rural society. The work of the CCC in the rural areas was influenced by the different nation-building visions of Jiang Jieshi and the Wang Jingwei group. The CCC deserves credit for instituting a national network for reforming the cotton industry. The corporativist and reformist unity of the CCC was threatened when it came to reforming the industrial production of cotton.Less

Converting the Faithful: Electoral Politics in Coal and Cotton Lancashire

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

The social changes that occurred in Britain in the half-century from 1880 appeared to be registered most graphically through elections. A political system formerly structured around the vertical ties ... More

The social changes that occurred in Britain in the half-century from 1880 appeared to be registered most graphically through elections. A political system formerly structured around the vertical ties of religion and locality came to be replaced by one in which party allegiance was primarily determined by class. This shift is usually discussed in terms of the eclipse of a broadly progressive, pan-class Liberalism by a Labour Party committed to articulating the interests of the organised working class. This chapter explores electoral politics in the coal and cotton industries in Lancashire, testing the more influential arguments against the evidence garnered from Bolton and Wigan. Labour’s growth up to the outbreak of war in 1914 is considered, along with the impact of war and its aftermath, culminating in the restoration of conventional party politics in 1922. The extent to which Labour’s advance in the 1920s can be attributed to the adoption of neighbourhood-based welfarist politics is also examined.Less

A Bond of Necessity? The Working-Class Family, 1880–1930

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

The working-class family was a subject of recurrent concern through the 19th century. Seen by contemporaries as one of the essential building blocks of a morally healthy society, it had been subject ... More

The working-class family was a subject of recurrent concern through the 19th century. Seen by contemporaries as one of the essential building blocks of a morally healthy society, it had been subject to fundamental stresses as a consequence of the structural changes associated with industrialisation. This was thought to have weakened kinship ties and a separation of gender roles which discouraged close attachments between husband and wife. An alternative view is that, far from undermining the kinship tie, the separation of home and work under industrial capitalism had the effect of consolidating family relationships. Family unity rested on a sense of mutual dependence, enforced by recurrent crises. This chapter examines the standard of living attained by working class families in Britain during the years 1880-1930, focusing on the coal and cotton industries in Lancashire. The experience of women as wives and mothers is considered.Less

Ambassadors of Foreign Policy, 1945–1950

D. Clayton Brown

in King Cotton in Modern America: A Cultural, Political, and Economic History since 1945

This chapter describes efforts to restore the cotton industry’s foreign markets. Topics covered include the role of the American Cotton Shippers Association; the first cotton man in Europe, Robert ... More

This chapter describes efforts to restore the cotton industry’s foreign markets. Topics covered include the role of the American Cotton Shippers Association; the first cotton man in Europe, Robert Jackson; Cotton Trade Journal owner and publisher Francis Hickman’s private tour of several European countries to study the postwar cotton market; the Read Dunn reports; and the British Loan Agreement of 1946.Less

Conclusion

Trevor Griffiths

in The Lancashire Working Classes c.1880-1930

This book has examined the nature and dynamics of working-class identity in Britain in the half-century from 1880, focusing on the coal and cotton industries in Lancashire. It may thus be seen to ... More

This book has examined the nature and dynamics of working-class identity in Britain in the half-century from 1880, focusing on the coal and cotton industries in Lancashire. It may thus be seen to form part of a broader historiography which has sought to analyse more closely the central role accorded class in the social and political developments of that period. This historiography has come to emphasise alternative sources of identity which, at certain times and in particular contexts, cut across and so weakened the force of class loyalties. The fact that this period witnessed the emergence of a working class more culturally united than at any time before or since has not been fundamentally challenged. However, the evidence presented here suggests that, for Lancashire, that perspective is, in large measure, inaccurate. In reaching such a conclusion, this book has located the formation of class identity in the broader material context of working-class life, rather than in the agency of language: the medium through which perceptions of society and the individual’s place within it were articulated.Less

Daddy, what did you find to laugh about in the Great War? The cotton cartoons of Sam Fitton

Alan Fowler

in People, Places and Identities: Themes in British Social and Cultural History, 1700s-1980s

A source of historical evidence whose value has attracted greater attention in recent years is the newspaper cartoon, which Alan Fowler draws on in his essay on the Lancashire writer and comic ... More

A source of historical evidence whose value has attracted greater attention in recent years is the newspaper cartoon, which Alan Fowler draws on in his essay on the Lancashire writer and comic performer, Sam Fitton, a popular cartoonist on the Cotton Factory Times, the weekly newspaper of Lancashire cotton operatives, published between 1907 and 1917. Fitton’s work has been largely overlooked by historians and Fowler makes a valuable contribution to the biographical scholarship on British cartoonists, using Fitton’s cartoons on the home front to explore a neglected aspect of World War One history, the conditions and preoccupations of Lancashire cotton workers. Fowler places these within the broader context of the Lancashire cotton industry with which Fitton, himself a cotton worker, was very familiar, and draws attention to the richness of these cartoons as a regional source whose evocation of a sense of belonging and place among its Lancashire readers was very different from the civic pride exemplified by the local history societies and public statuary of the Victorian period, on which Kidd and Wyke focus.Less

The Mexican Cotton Textile Industry

in Revolution within the Revolution: Cotton Textile Workers and the Mexican Labor Regime, 1910–1923

This chapter presents a history of Mexican cotton textile industry from its establishment in the 1830s through its turmoil during the revolution. The companies, factories, mill towns, textile zones, ... More

This chapter presents a history of Mexican cotton textile industry from its establishment in the 1830s through its turmoil during the revolution. The companies, factories, mill towns, textile zones, and production processes were the site and object of Mexico's workers' revolution. Four elements that most strongly influenced the shape of that revolution are highlighted. First was the spectacular growth of an industry that constituted Mexico's industrial revolution. Second, the development of ownership groups with strong foreign participation gave workers the possibility of combining their social goals with a national/patriotic discourse, which strengthened their feelings and cohesion. Third, the concentration of industry in four industrial corridors immeasurably facilitated communication among rebellious workers, and ultimately, unionization. Finally, the profitability and importance of the industry in early twentieth-century Mexico allowed it to survive and function during the years of upheaval.Less

Officials, Industrial Magnates, and Bureaucratic Capitalism

Margherita Zanasi

in Saving the Nation: Economic Modernity in Republican China

This chapter addresses Cotton Control Commission (CCC) reforms in urban areas, reforms designed to modernize the production and management of industrial plants. It reviews the final political demise ... More

This chapter addresses Cotton Control Commission (CCC) reforms in urban areas, reforms designed to modernize the production and management of industrial plants. It reviews the final political demise of the Wang Jingwei group. The CCC attempted to organize and develop the domestic market in finished goods. It saw the 1934 crisis of the Shenxin mills as one more proof of Rong's questionable business practices and as an opportunity to modernize them. The Shenxin affair illustrates that the cotton industry had become a site of struggle between different groups in the government. Bureaucratic capitalism has been viewed as a product of the corruption that characterized the Nanjing government. The CCC reforms would lead to their gradual disappearance, with effects hard to gauge on the Chinese economy as a whole.Less

Memphis: The Epicenter of the Cotton Belt

D. Clayton Brown

in King Cotton in Modern America: A Cultural, Political, and Economic History since 1945

This chapter focuses on Memphis as the cotton center of the United States. No other city depended more on cotton and embraced it as did Memphis. The discussions cover the city’s infrastructure; its ... More

This chapter focuses on Memphis as the cotton center of the United States. No other city depended more on cotton and embraced it as did Memphis. The discussions cover the city’s infrastructure; its strong agricultural press, particularly publications bearing directly on the cotton industry; the Peabody Hotel; Beale Street, where toiling stevedores, the gin hands, the sharecroppers, and day workers from across the river or from Mississippi plantations took refuge from the white world; cotton and the blues; and the Cotton Carnival.Less

The Role of Textiles

D. Clayton Brown

in King Cotton in Modern America: A Cultural, Political, and Economic History since 1945

This chapter focuses on the relationship between the cotton and textile industries. The discussions cover the link between cotton farming, the textile industry, and U.S. Cold War policy in the 1950s; ... More

This chapter focuses on the relationship between the cotton and textile industries. The discussions cover the link between cotton farming, the textile industry, and U.S. Cold War policy in the 1950s; threats posed by overseas manufacturers and clothing made of synthetics; the two-price system; the Multi Fibre Arrangement (MFA) between the United States and other countries; the development of rotor or open-end spinning; and the impact of China’s rise as a trading partner of the US in the 1990s.Less