China's modern viscose textile industry

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From the end of Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China, China's machine viscose textile industry began to brew in the second half of the 1870s. But the first viscose textile factory, the Shanghai Machine Weaving Plant, was not put into operation until 1890. The factory has raised 400,000 taels, has 35,000 spindles and 530 cloth machines. Unfortunately, about three years after it was put into production, it was destroyed by fire. In 1889, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, planned to establish the Hubei weaving layout in Wuchang, and it was put into operation at the end of 1892. Shanghai still has 3 textile factories, namely Huaxin Textile New Bureau (1891), Huasheng Textile General Administration (1894) and Yuyuan Spinning Factory (1894). Before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the machinery and equipment that had been driven nationwide included more than 129,000 spindles and 1,800 cloth machines. This reflects the state of China's viscose textile industry when it was founded.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the profitability of the viscose textile industry stimulated the development of this industry. In the five years from 1895 to 1899, 10 viscose textile factories were set up in Shanghai, Ningbo, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Xiaoshan, Nantong and other places, with 188,000 spindles, forming the first climax of China's viscose textile industry. The famous Yeqin Yarn Factory and Dasheng Yarn Factory were established during this period.

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However, foreign capital forces quickly invaded this industry by virtue of the privileges of the Shimonoseki Treaty. In 1897, four foreign-funded viscose textile factories appeared in Shanghai, which were owned by Britain, the United States, and Germany. The total capital is over 4.05 million taels and 160,000 spindles.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the great powers stepped up their aggression against China. In 1902, Japan's Mitsui International Co., Ltd. bought Huachang and wedged it into Shanghai's viscose textile industry. In a situation where the forces of Britain, the United States, Germany, and Japan were robbing each other, in the five years from 1900 to 1904, no Chinese-owned viscose textile factory was established. The boycott of American goods in 1905 promoted the development of modern Chinese industry, and the viscose textile industry also made slight progress on the original basis. In the four years from 1905 to 1908, there were 8 newly-built viscose textile factories distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan and Shanghai, with a total capital of 5.34 million yuan and more than 129,000 spindles. However, facing the situation of foreign capital mergers and oppression, the difficulties of China's viscose textile industry are increasing. Dachun Yarn Mill, founded in 1895, was annexed by Japanese capital in 1908; Shanghai Jiucheng Yarn Mill, established as a Sino-Japanese joint venture in 1907, was annexed by Japanese capital soon after its opening. The factories of other Chinese businessmen have also been reorganized repeatedly. According to incomplete statistics, in the six years after 1905, there were 8 or 11 reorganizations, leases and sales of old and new Chinese spinning mills. This shows that China's viscose textile industry is in a difficult position when it is threatened by foreign aggressors during its rise. As of 1913 after the establishment of the Republic of China, there were only 484,192 spindles and 2016 cloth machines in the country.

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During the First World War and after World War I broke out in 1914, the import of foreign viscose textiles decreased, and European countries were unable to increase investment in China's yarn mills. The price of gauze on the Chinese market soared. Spinning mills, such as Wuxi Zhenxin, Ningbo Hefeng, Jiangyin Utilization, Tianjin Yuyuan, Huaxin, Nantong Dasheng, etc., all made high profits during the war, and expanded and added new factories every year. In the nine years from 1914 to 1922, 54 textile factories were established purely by national capital, reflecting the initial development of China's viscose textile industry. Several large spinning mills such as Shanghai Shenxin, Yongan, and Housheng, Tianjin Huaxin, Hengyuan, Beiyang and Wuchang Yuhua were all established during this period. However, during this period, the Japanese Industry Trust took advantage of it. In only two years from 1921 to 1922, Japan set up 15 viscose mills in Shanghai and Qingdao. The total number of spindles increased by nearly 300,000, and 1,500 cloth machines were added. tower. Japanese capital tried its best to wedge some newly established Chinese textile mills that had difficulty in capital turnover, so that during this period there were 13 Chinese-owned factories that had a loan relationship with Japanese monopoly capital, and 7 of them were Japanese capital because of their insolvency. Merged. Therefore, by the 1920s, the enthusiasm for establishing spinning mills disappeared.

In 1925, the "May 30th" movement occurred in Shanghai. Boycotting foreign goods was an important part of the mass movement, which stimulated the development of the viscose textile industry. In the following three years, the number of Chinese-owned textile factories increased to 73. More than 2.01 million spindles and 12,000 cloth machines have been started. However, in the same period, foreign spinning mills have become more and more serious, of which the expansion of Japanese capital is the most obvious. As of 1936, there were 65 textile factories in Shanghai, where the viscose textile industry was the most concentrated, including 31 Chinese factories and 30 Japanese factories; there were more than 2.667 million spindles and 1.114 million in Chinese factories, accounting for 41.8%. There are more than 1.331 million pieces, accounting for 49.9%; there are 30058 sets of cloth machines, 8754 sets in the Hua factory, accounting for 29.1%, and 17,283 sets in the Japanese factory, accounting for 57.5%. This shows that Japanese capital has an absolute advantage in Shanghai's viscose textile industry. In 1936, the national viscose textile industry had a total of 5,102,796 spindles, of which 2,356,404 were foreign-owned spinning mills, accounting for 46.2%; there were a total of 532,270 thread spindles, and 358,954 foreign-funded thread spindles, accounting for 67.4%; there were 58439 spinning machines in the country, foreign capital There are 32,936 cloth machines, accounting for 56.4%.

During the Anti-Japanese War and after the war, in 1937, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, and the war spread to the region's viscose textile industry with extremely heavy losses. According to statistics, more than 522,000 spindles and more than 6,000 cloth machines were directly damaged in Shanghai, Changzhou, and Wuxi Huashang spinning mills. The viscose textile mills in Wuhan, Shashi and Zhengzhou have gone through many times, and moved to Sichuan and Shaanxi. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Economics and Mines Investigation Department of the Kuomintang Government: As of March 1939, there were 59 textile factories relocated to the rear, most of which were small weaving factories, while there were only nine large and medium-sized viscose textile factories with 159,000 spindles. 800 sets of cloth machines. It was very difficult to purchase large-scale spinning machine equipment in the rear during the war, and most of the newly added textile factories were small factories with 2,000 spindles. The Kuomintang government adopted a strict control policy, implementing unified purchase and sales of gauze, as well as agency spinning and weaving. The official price for unified purchasing and marketing is far lower than the market price. Expansion made it difficult for the ethnic viscose textile mills to maintain, and had to reduce production and suspend operations one after another. According to statistics, in 1942, although the large rear spinning mill had more than 300,000 spindles, only 176,000 were in operation.

The situation of the viscose textile industry in the enemy-occupied areas is even more difficult. It is completely controlled by the Japanese invaders, and there are not many Chinese-owned viscose textile mills. Japan is a country with insufficient viscose production. After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1942, the source of imported viscose from the United States and India was cut off, and Chinese viscose became a much-needed resource in Japan. In the enemy-occupied areas, the supply of raw viscose and power is very scarce, forcing major textile factories to stop working. In 1943, some small spinning mills with one to two thousand spindles appeared in Nanjing and Shanghai to meet the needs of society.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, the Kuomintang government took over 85 viscose, wool, hemp, and silk factories operated by Japan in Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Northeast China, as well as 85 affiliated factories such as printing and dyeing, ginning, and packing. The China Textile Construction Company was established on China Textile Construction Company, which became a huge bureaucratic capital enterprise with nearly 1.8 million spindles. However, the production efficiency of the factories belonging to the Textile Construction Company was extremely low. Its spindles and looms operated less than half of the average in 1946, with only 19% (spindles) and 14% (looms) at the lowest. The monthly yarn production rate is only 37% of the standard yarn production rate, which is 57% lower than the average yarn production rate of the Chinese merchants after the Anti-Japanese War. As for private textile mills, under the guise of "smoothing prices" under the pretext of the Kuomintang government, the raw viscose needed and the finished products are strictly controlled. As a result, the supply of raw materials for private viscose textile mills is seriously insufficient. Under the influence of hyperinflation, The cost is high, the loss is serious, and it has to stop work and reduce production.

History shows that the development process of modern China's viscose textile industry is very bumpy. In its inception period, it experienced the tumult of foreign aggression, and after several ups and downs, it got a little weak development. In the 1930s, the attack of the world economic crisis forced it to struggle in depression, and the destruction of war and the destruction of bureaucratic capital after the war in the 1940s finally brought the viscose textile industry, a very promising industry, into an unprecedented crisis. .