| This paper selects handicraft industry of Chengdu in modern times as the research object, discourses the historical reasons for its rise and fall, and explores the relationship between the change of socio-economic and the development of handicraft on the basis of reconstruction of basic facts of the handicraft industry of Chengdu in modern times.After the Opium War, more and more foreign products began to enter the China, which first arrived for the coastal cities in the early years, and then gradually penetrated to the mainland by the treaty ports. Since Chengdu was located in the southwest corner and the transportation to Chengdu was inconvenience, foreign goods into the city later, and the handicraft industry of Chengdu has not been affected by foreign products. However, since the opening of Chongqing port, foreign goods have began to pour into the market of Chengdu, breaking the local handicraft orphaned state of the handicraft industry of Chengdu. However, compared to other places in coastal cities, Machinery products that entered into the market of Chengdu were much less, and mainly machine yarn, kerosene, cigarettes, metal products, dyes, etc. Therefore, a small part of manual trades declined significantly because of the impact of foreign products, for instance, spinner, soap candle industry, soil indigo industry; most of the manual trades still maintained a momentum of hand development. At the same time,, some new manual trades had gradually fall flowering under the stimulation of foreign goods, such as soap industry, match industry, knitting industry, glass industry, cigarette industry; the emergence of these new manual trades further enrich the constitutes of the handicraft industry of Chengdu. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the local government had adopted a series measures aimed at maintaining and promoting the development of handicraft industry, such as the establishment of a teaching institution, organized exhibitions and the abolition of exorbitant taxes and levies, to promote the improvement of local handicraft products and promote cooperation; the implementation of these measures has become an important reason for the development of handicraft industry of Chengdu.The most revolutionary changes occurred in production technology:some manual trades improved product quality through improving production crafts; some manual trades improved production efficiency through innovating production tools. The innovation of production tools was reflected in the following manual trades:the iron wheel machine was used in the cotton industry; the lithography machine and letterpress machine was introduced into the printing industry; and the "stone +steam engine" technology model appeared in the leather industry and cigarette industry.Production and Management Forms of Chengdu Handicraft industry also became diversified. The business forms of Chengdu handicraft industry mainly included cottage crafts, handicraft workshop, handicraft cooperatives; different forms of handicraft had adopt different mode of business, generally speaking, cottage crafts was under buyer system mostly, handicraft workshop was generally under owner system, but when the market slump, the prices of raw materials and finished product changed intensely, handicrafts workshop also tend to take a dependency management system under the buyers in order to avoid the risk. Handicraft cooperative was a new mode of business, but it was short-lived and was not popularized. The business modes of handicraft operators were not static, they would make a reasonable choice depending on the circumstances in order to seek to maximize the benefits and minimize the risk of loss.The change occurred in the apprenticeship of handicraft industry also clearly visible. In modern times, with the dramatic changes in the political, economic and social environment, significant changes occurred in the traditional apprenticeship, these changes includes the rules about limiting the number of apprentices to use had canceled, the functions about teaching skills of apprenticeship had degraded, and increasingly had the nature of labor and employment. This shift in favor of handicraft operators got a lot of cheap labor, and promoting the emergence and development of the handicraft workshop. However, in Chengdu, due to the capital of handicraft operators generally weak, the low level of production technology and handicraft operators generally had a strong sense of old-fashioned, extensive use of apprenticeship mainly played the role of enhancing the ability of handicraft operators to withstand market risks, and there is no spawned more handicraft workshops. After the handicraft operators in Chengdu who originally lack of innovation had appreciated cost savings that been brought by extensive use of apprentices, they were more reluctant to work on the technical updates. We can say that the negative effects arising from the extensive use of apprentice was more obvious in handicraft industry of Chengdu.Although under the new historical conditions it made some positive adjustment, overall, the handicraft industry of Chengdu was always in a state of low development in modern times. The innovation of production tools only sporadically appeared in a few workshops in individual industries, so the range is extremely limited, and the effect that could Induce other manual trades made by this change was also little; The vast majority of the manual trades still followed the traditional production process and production tools; The organization of production is still mostly "family" as a unit, so production sites are living places; in these workshops, we rarely saw a higher degree of cooperation in the division of labor organizational form. This paper argues that the role of government not been apparent, lack of "local genius", handicraft operators were generally conservative, small market and closed geographical environment were the main cause resulting in a low degree of development of handicraft industry of Chengdu in modem times.Although it showed a significant lag during the transition to modern industry, the invasion of foreign goods or the development of local modern industry was not enough to shake the dominance of handicraft industry in the structure of industry in Chengdu. Handicraft industry ensured the basic needs of urban residents in the daily life with its variety of handicraft products and services; and it also offered a wide range of employment opportunities for the urban population. In the process of development, the handicraft industry has formed a positive complementary relationship with the city's other industries, so they maintained the normal operation of the urban economy together. However, Industrialization has become the main driving force to promote urban development, so the slow transition from handicraft to modern industry clearly not conducive to the modernization of the city of Chengdu. |
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