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September 7

First documented reference to a textile industry in China

I am working on the textile industry in China article and would like to know the earliest reference to a textile industry for the history section. Muzzleflash (talk) 08:31, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

See History of clothing and textiles which says that there is evidence of textile production in China going back at least 5000 years, and possibly longer. Obviously, it rather depends on your definition of "industry" Wymspen (talk) 17:50, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I am quite sure that 40kya textiles have been found, but I think in Africa, and calling it an "industry" would be unjustified. If the OP has more interest, he can google or ask me to look, although my internet connection is at about 1/10th of normal, with many abilities disabled. μηδείς (talk) 21:49, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The earliest known silk textiles excavated in China are dated to circa 3630 BCE; earlier pseudo morphs (impressions left by a textile on bronze or jade) or patterned textiles date from the Shang dynasty (16th-11th century BCE).[1]. According to legends, the Yellow Emperor's wife Lei Zu invented the textile technology.[2]. However the earliest textile product discovered by far is the scraps of kohemp cloth excavated at the site of the Caoxie (Straw Sandal) Hill, Wuxian County, Jiangsu province that are more than 5700 years old, long before the Yellow Emperor period. AllBestFaith (talk) 22:41, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

However, if you mean "industry" in the modern sense, the first steam-powered silk weaving factory in China was established in 1874 at Chefoo by a German company, Crasemann & Hagen; see China’s Foreign Places: The Foreign Presence in China in the Treaty Port Era (pp. 58-59). However, Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century (p. 111) says that Jardine Matheson established a silk factory at Shanghai in 1870 (perhaps it was a water mill rather than steam powered). Alansplodge (talk) 13:59, 10 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]