Establishment of European Style Silk Filature in Shanghai at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: Case of Jardine Matheson & Co. Reflected in the Morel-Journel Archives

Abstract

This article discusses how the Ewo filature, a European style silk filature owned by Jardine Matheson & Co., was organised in Shanghai at the beginning of the twentieth century. With the rich documents of the Morel-Journel Archives, we were able to probe and get a glimpse into the functioning of this foreign establishment by analysing the composition of its personnel and the costs. As far as the quality of silk is concerned, plenty of efforts were made to guarantee a better quality than locally produced silks, such as by adopting European style machines; moreover, attention was paid to the water used in silk reeling, to the selection of cocoons, and to the supervision system for labourers. The findings show that the filature was running as a modern factory and that the productivity of the female reelers was comparable to that of an Italian filature in Europe. Although running with technologically advanced machines and under modern factory managerial organization, the Ewo filature, as well as those similar ones resulted from the spillover of Western technology, was not able to be profitable; moreover, in the historical context of China, stuck in political turmoil, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the union of Western capital, technology and managerial organization failed to achieve a real industrial revolution in the silk reeling sector.