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Silk cultivation in the Atlantic world, c.1500-1830: a history of imperial attempts, scientific & technological exchange, and political economy

大西洋世界的丝绸种植，c.1500-1830：帝国尝试、科学的历史

基本信息

批准号：
AH/I027312/1
负责人：
Benjamin Marsh
金额：
$ 7.77万
依托单位：
University of Stirling
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2013
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2013 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FI027312%2F1
关键词：
Silk cultivation Atlantic world c.1500

项目摘要

This project will unveil the extent to which colonial empires competed to grow silk in their outposts around the Atlantic world between c.1500-1830. Seeking to outdo one another, and bypass the expense of trading with the great silk regions in the East (specially China), European powers tried desperately to encourage the cultivation of silk in the Americas - bringing to bear cutting-edge scientific and botanical knowledge, as well as organised labour. Silk was outshone by a range of other New World products over the course of the Early Modern era: sugar, tobacco, rice, and slaves. But while these successful commodities have attracted a large amount of scholarship, the study of silk's failure has not, though it can also shed a great deal of light on contemporary societies (both in Old and New Worlds). The project will demonstrate that silk connected the desires of monarchs and courts to the designers of new colonies and their settlers. It connected the science of proto-industrial engines to the 'mystery' and art of specialised experts in winding and weaving. It witnessed the transformation of landscapes as thousands of mulberry trees and millions of silkworms were raised in New Spain, New France, British America, and across the fledgling United States. And more than anything else, the cultivation of silk in the Atlantic world connected people - from different countries, religions, races, and backgrounds.The prospective research will be comparative, investigating the many attempts made by a range of nations, colonies, corporations, communities and entrepreneurs to foster silk in their territories. It will address both the theory of silk cultivation (utopianism, colonial ideology, mercantilism and botany) and the practice of silk cultivation (environmental history, productivity, proto-industrialisation, and labour history). It will outline the commonalities that inspired attempts to cultivate silk in places as diverse as Sweden, the Caribbean, Ireland, Mexico, Prussia, Virginia, and Louisiana, as well as the different problems that were faced in transferring the knowledge and materials. A wide range of sources will be deployed to underpin this research, including colonial records, Board of Trade minutes, customs reports, correspondence, published tracts on silk, mercantilist propaganda, and surviving fabric. Together, they will help answer questions such as: who was involved in silk cultivation? Could silk have succeeded as a New World product, and why did it fail? How did early modern administrators try to bend people and landscapes to their designs?This research will have an impact in several ways on the many fields that the broad subject touches upon. For instance, the history of silk production both supports and defies popular geographical and chronological models. The notion of an integrating 'Atlantic world' between 1500-1830 seems to be upheld by tracing the connections between silk experts through their writings and employment history. But the obsession with home-grown silk also grew out of 'Pacific' interactions and global patterns in the exchange of goods and ideas, thereby challenging the integrity of an 'Atlantic' orientation. Silk, frequently a heavily-protected commodity, stood at the forefront of new ideas about technology, industrialism, empire, and trade. But if it was, on the one hand, a herald of modernisation (generating new factories and machines in Britain, and new schemes in the Americas), it was on the other hand an archaic, ancient craft whose workers - many of them female and most non-British - were secretive and unresponsive to pressure. Finally, in considering how (in)effectively man was able to deliberately reshape his environment, the project will have much to offer in the field of environmental history and political economy. Overall, I hope to show that a careful scrutiny of the theories, practices, and realities of silk cultivation can tell us much about the nature of the early modern world.

该项目将揭示1500年至1830年间，各殖民帝国在大西洋沿岸的前哨基地竞相种植丝绸的程度。为了超越彼此，并避开与东方丝绸大国（特别是中国）进行贸易的费用，欧洲列强拼命鼓励美洲的丝绸种植——带来尖端的科学和植物学知识，以及有组织的劳动力。在近代早期的发展过程中，丝绸在其他一系列新大陆产品面前黯然失色：糖、烟草、大米和奴隶。但是，尽管这些成功的商品吸引了大量的学术研究，但对丝绸失败的研究却没有，尽管它也可以为当代社会（包括旧世界和新世界）提供很多启示。该项目将证明丝绸将君主和宫廷的愿望与新殖民地的设计者及其定居者联系起来。它将原始工业发动机的科学与卷绕和编织专业专家的“神秘”和艺术联系在一起。在新西班牙、新法国、英属美洲和新兴的美国，成千上万棵桑树和数百万只蚕被饲养，它见证了景观的转变。最重要的是，大西洋世界的丝绸种植将来自不同国家、宗教、种族和背景的人们联系在一起。前瞻性研究将是比较的，调查一系列国家、殖民地、公司、社区和企业家在其领土上培育丝绸的许多尝试。它将涉及丝绸种植理论（乌托邦主义，殖民意识形态，重商主义和植物学）和丝绸种植实践（环境史，生产力，原始工业化和劳工史）。它将概述在瑞典、加勒比海、爱尔兰、墨西哥、普鲁士、弗吉尼亚和路易斯安那等不同地区培育丝绸的共同之处，以及在转移知识和材料时面临的不同问题。广泛的资料来源将用于支持这项研究，包括殖民记录、贸易委员会会议记录、海关报告、通信、关于丝绸的出版小册子、重商主义宣传和幸存的织物。他们将一起帮助回答诸如：谁参与了丝绸种植？丝绸作为一种新世界的产品能成功吗？为什么它失败了？早期的现代管理者是如何试图让人和风景屈从于他们的设计的？这项研究将在几个方面对这个宽泛的主题所涉及的许多领域产生影响。例如，丝绸生产的历史既支持又违背了流行的地理和时间模型。通过追溯丝绸专家的著作和雇佣史，1500-1830年间一个整合的“大西洋世界”的概念似乎得到了支持。但对本土丝绸的痴迷也源于“太平洋”互动和全球商品和思想交流模式，从而挑战了“大西洋”方向的完整性。丝绸是一种经常受到严格保护的商品，它站在有关技术、工业主义、帝国和贸易的新思想的最前沿。但是，如果它一方面是现代化的先驱（在英国产生了新的工厂和机器，在美洲产生了新的计划），另一方面它又是一种古老的工艺，其工人——其中许多是女性，大多数不是英国人——行事隐秘，对压力反应迟钝。最后，在考虑人类如何有效地有意识地重塑其环境时，该项目将在环境史和政治经济学领域提供很多东西。总的来说，我希望通过对丝绸种植的理论、实践和现实的仔细审视，可以告诉我们很多关于早期现代世界的本质。