All The Silks Of China Summary

The general topic of “All the Silks of China” is economic rise and fall of the Chinese Empire as a power in the Indian Ocean trade system (317). The central question is, “Why did China, when it was on the verge of a hegemonic role, withdraw from the Indian Ocean trade system(322)?”.
Abu-Lughod systematically explains why China was capable of being a major world power during the 1300s. Her main pieces of evidence was China’s “technological sophistication” and its “Business Practices and Institutions” followed by a in-depth study of the Hangchow, the world’s largest city at the time (322,330,337-340). To defend her claim that China was technologically superior to the rest of the Eurasian ecuemene, Abu-Lughod explains how several technological elements vital for economic power were in place in China before several other empires. Paper was invented by the Chinese, then diffused to other areas (323); the extent of Chinese steel and iron manufacturing was not met anywhere in the world until the Industrial Revolution (324); gunpowder (which fueled cannons and guns) originated in China, providing
China had a variety of guilds, which bore a striking resemblance to the Medieval European and Middle Eastern bazaars (331). Paper money was commonplace in Yuan China, which originated in its most rudimentary form in T’ang China as food tickets (332). Not only did paper money serve as a medium of exchange, drastically aiding trade, but it provided universal credit (334). China exerted great control over foreign sea trade through the collection of customs duties at Hangchow and Ch’uan-chou, two major port cities in the Indian Ocean system (335). Abu-Lughod then deeply examines Hangchow, detailing the immensity of the city and commenting on the amount and diversity of markets present, calling it the “embryo of a ‘national market.’”