| This project explores the textile trade network between the Jiangnan Imperial Textile Manufactories and Xinjiang region within the broader context on transregional material culture exchanges in the Qianlong era. Focusing on the records in imperial memorials, official dispatches, and other documents, this paper argues that textiles, as material media, was used by the Qing state to extend its power to the local level and the material world in Xinjiang. Following the textile inventory given by the court, Jiangnan textile officials organized production and purchase of different kinds of textiles and arranged transportation. To make the trade work, the central state created a mechanism within this network to deal with potential incidents and quality crisis, including clarifying the inspection standards for textiles, dividing responsibilities according to the re-inspections at each transportation stations, and a penalty system. In Xinjiang, the textiles from Jiangnan became important commodities in exchange for necessary supplies for the Qing troops. The sudden decline of the textiles trade in the late Qianlong years suggests a link of this trade to the broader dynamics in the northwest frontier of the Qing Empire in the 18th century. |
