Download China and the Positive Feedback Loop

Unit 4:
Silk
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China and the Positive Feedback Loop
Feedback Loops in History – China from 750-1250
by Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin and Linda Walton
excerpts from In the Balance: Themes in Global History
This article describes the impacts of a positive
feedback loop on Chinese society. It argues
that the positive feedback loop did not take
place in isolation, since it was situated at the
beginning of a trade network that linked
people across Eurasia. This positive feedback
loop resulted in massive changes at all levels
of Chinese society, from the growth of cities
to gender roles.
When Italian merchant and explorer Marco
Polo arrived in China in the 1200s he was
amazed at the size and sophistication of the
civilization he observed. He saw advanced
wonders, so much so that all his stories and
details of the unimaginable were rejected,
and many Europeans called him the “man of
a million lies”.
The amazing heights of Chinese civilization that Polo wrote about were the product of changes that took place
in China previously, changes that fundamentally altered Chinese society. The capital city at that time was
Chang’an, and the government there influenced the population eastward to Japan and westward all the way to
North central Asia (west and south of where Mongolia is today). Each element of Chinese society at the time
played a critical role in the development of a positive feedback loop. Let’s look at several elements individually
to see how they all played their part.
The Foundation
No feedback loop can arise without an ignition point. China in the 1200s experience tremendous growth and
prosperity –a product of the foundations that were created 200-300 years prior during the Tang Dynasty. The
Tang dynasty developed many practices that eventually led to a positive feedback loop; but there were limits
during the Tang – some things in the control of the Tang and some outside their control didn’t allow the
feedback loop to really begin until the 1200s.
The government of the Tang dynasty created regulations that benefited many businesses. The Tang
government controlled a lot of the commercial activity – even determining punishments for trade practices like
using incorrect weights and measures, selling cheap and poorly-made goods and price fixing. This can be
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China and the Positive Feedback Loop
beneficial for both buyers and sellers. If you are a customer and you know that the product you are buying
works and is going to be long-lasting, then you more likely will purchase that product [and pay more for it]!
The Tang also organized all merchants by location according to the goods they traded or made. These were
called hangs [literally “alleys”]. The Tang government controlled a powerful military, but also were skilled
enough to settle problems by using alliances instead of fighting. The Tang used these alliances to exercise
varying degrees of control over regions of Central Asia, SE Asia (like modern day Vietnam) and Korea.
But trade during the reign of the Tang family wasn’t perfect. Confucianism was the popular belief
system/philosophy of the Tang. According to Confucian teachings, merchants were considered low on the
social scale [scholars and government officials were seen as the highest positions]. Merchants were subject to
laws that regulated what kinds of clothes they could wear, where they could live and what types of homes they
could build. Buying and selling goods was seen as a vulgar occupation – inferior to scholarship and
government jobs, as well as agriculture. A Chinese writer from the 800s once said, “[Merchants] desire only to
act like scavenger dogs or crows, delighted to get hold of some putrid leftovers [profit]”. These feelings didn’t
keep merchants from being successful and making lots of money during the Tang, but it did mean that
merchants never really developed the kind of independence they acquired in other places, like Europe [when
Europe eventually rose up out of the Middle or “Dark” Ages].
China under the Tang was also
weakened by 2 events that both
ended up reducing the power of
the Tang in China. In 751 Tang
armies were defeated attempting
to confront the expanding Islamic
Empire in Central Asia. This
altered the balance of power in
Central Asia, where China had
once been dominant. The
second event that weakened the
Tang was a rebellion. In 763 a
military commander named Au
Lushan tried to claim the throne
for himself. The Tang family
survived the challenge, but the
Au Lushan Rebellion had a high cost. The central government was weakened by the rebellion (as many of the
regional military commanders were friends of Au Lushan), and the Tang dynasty faded into a power vacuum.
Unit 4:
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China and the Positive Feedback Loop
The rise of the Song Dynasty and a true Positive Feedback Loop
As the Tang Dynasty faded in China, conditions were ripe for a true positive feedback loop. First, the political
breakdown of the Tang allowed trade to expand beyond the restrictions of “official” markets. Merchants were
freer to grow as wealthy as possible by operating without the government regulating their lives. China, starting
in 960, became ruled by a new family, called the Song. The Song Dynasty started by moving the capital along
the Yellow River in north China, which became a lively center of population and trade. The capital city lay at
the place that linked the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers and was thus strategically located as a transport depot for
goods brought by boat from the rich Yangzi delta region. The Song also developed an efficient transportation
network, by both water and land.
Agriculture and Population Growth feeds the positive loop
By around 1000,
Chinese farmers were
introducing new strains
of early-ripening and
drought-resistant
strains of rice from SE
Asia. This increased the
overall supply of food.
These imported strains
of rice either allowed
planting and harvesting
more than one crop a
year, because the rice
plants matured quickly,
or enabled farmers to
plant rice in places that
were not well irrigated
and where it had not been possible to plant before. At the same time, improvements in dam technology
allowed farmers to open up lowland swampy areas to agriculture.
The resulting increases in food production contributed to population expansion. From a rough estimate of 60
million in the Tang Dynasty, China’s population grew to around 100 million by the middle of the 1200s.
Population growth, in turn, contributed to the expansion of markets for products. An expanded marketplace,
combined with efficient transportation networks facilitated by stable political conditions encouraged
specialization of production for the overall market in China.
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China and the Positive Feedback Loop
Expanded trade and the Song market economy
Trade during the Tang Dynasty was localized. Villages produced what they used and trade was limited to local
exchange (with the exception of the long-distance trade in luxury goods and salt). The Song Dynasty
encouraged the production of goods for the market which had expanded with the increase in population.
Specialization in the production of certain goods for the market generally means more efficient use of labor
and raw materials. Regional specialization was possible because there were relatively rapid and efficient means
of moving goods to central markets – both roads and waterways – and a distribution network of merchants
and warehouses to store goods and bring them to markets in a timely fashion. Regions began to specialize in
the production of textiles, like silk, which required the cultivation of mulberry bushes and the feeding of
silkworms as well as the skill of human silk weavers, or in agricultural products such as oranges. Tea, for
example, was produced in the SE of China but was marketed all over China.
Trade with China’s nomadic neighbor populations, who were at times enemies, provided the Chinese both with
markets for their own products and a source of necessary or luxury goods. During the Song Dynasty, the
Chinese imported silver, hemp cloth, sheep, horses and slaves from the nomadic people of the North, in what is
today the area of Manchuria. The Chinese exported tea, rice, porcelain, sugar, silk and other goods in exchange
for medicine, horses and other items to the people to the west of China.
Sea Trade in the Song
Maritime (connected with the sea) trade had begun to prosper under the Tang, but the Song recognized it as a
vital part of the economy and sailors received official government supervision. By the middle of the 1100s,
profits from maritime trading was about 1/5th of China’s total cash revenues.
Shipbuilding was highly developed during the Song.
The boats traveled to many places and created
extensive markets for the many products of China.
Seagoing boats, sometimes with bamboo matting
used for sails, relied on the regular monsoon winds,
and traveled south in the winter and north in the
summer. With those favorable winds it was possible
to go from the SE coast of China to Korea in as few as
5 days. Since oceangoing sailing ships couldn’t
navigate shallow coastal water or rivers [they would
run aground], goods were efficiently transferred to
shallow smaller boats for inland transport. In
addition to the use of sails and oars, boats were also
pulled over dangerous rapids by haulers who worked
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along the riverbanks dragging the boats by ropes. Navigation for the ocean-going ships was aided by the
magnetic compass [though it wasn’t invented in the time of the Song…it had been developed about 1000 years
prior].
Chinese traders exchanged goods with Japan, SE Asia and lands as far away as the east coast of Africa and the
Arabian Sea. From Japan came gold, pearls, shells, copper vessels, and weapons, among other things. The
Chinese exported to SE Asia precious metals, iron tools and utensils, ceramics, silks, paper, books, grains and
other specialized items. From SE Asia came spices, cotton and luxury items like ivory and rhinoceros horn.
Money, Taxes and Trade
In the northern part of
China the government
charged businesses
taxes and also had a
government monopoly
on iron and salt. These
taxes equaled the
amount of money that
was taken in by the
government in farming
taxes. In the southern
part of China, taxes on
businesses far exceeded
the income from farming taxes. Metal and paper money increased in usage during this time, and the
development of banking and credit were both vital aspects to the positive feedback loop that developed in
China during the Song Dynasty.
During the Song, people shifted from mainly using barter locally to using paper currency and credit regionally
and even internationally. The round copper coin with a square hole, called “cash”, which was strung in units of
1000, was the basic unit of currency minted by the Song government, but it was heavy and hard to use and
transport. Innovations such as the use of certificates of credit or bills of exchange (documents showing that
money deposited in one place could be exchanged for a receipt that could be used to pay for goods in
another) made it possible for merchants to carry on trade across regions with ease.
Paper money had already been used during the late Tang period, but by the Song period official paper
currency was printed by the government. Traders could deposit large amounts of metal money with a reliable
person or institution [like a Buddhist temple], in one location and receive a receipt redeemable for the same
amount in another location.
Unit 4:
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China and the Positive Feedback Loop
Gender Roles
Trading prosperity brought
both positives and negatives
to the lives of women. The
dramatic increase in textile
production during the Song
period, for example, meant
that the traditional female
work of spinning and weaving
cloth took on greater
economic value at least within
the Chinese household. But
the shift unfortunately did not
appear to produce any gains
in the status of women in
society as a whole.
There also seem to be clear signs that the status of women actually declined, but it is difficult to explain why
this should be the case. The most notorious of Chinese customs with regard to women is without a doubt the
practice of footbinding. We know little about the origins of this custom other than it began sometime in the
late Tang period, most likely in the royal family. By the early Song Dynasty it had spread beyond the royal
court to at least the upper levels of society. The feet of young girls were tightly bound so that their toes were
turned under to produce a tiny foot, which was considered beautiful. This painful procedure was carried out on
daughters by their mothers so that they would meet standards of beauty and be good candidates for marriage.
The spread of footbinding, precisely during the same time as the Chinese Positive Feedback Loop was
booming, suggests that increasing material prosperity made it possible for some women not to engage in
physical labor, since the bound foot would at the very least make a woman’s movement limited. It may even
have been regarded as a kind of status marker indicating wealth [the more daughters a family could afford to
bind their feet would indicate having enough money to provide for all of them]. The spread of footbinding is a
powerful example of the sometimes contradictory effects on society of economic changes and the
transformations produced by a commercial revolution.
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