Indian cotton textiles and British industrialization: Evidence of comparative learning in the British cotton industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
本文利用18-19世纪英国和印度棉纺织品的实物数据集，检验了英国棉纺织业通过模仿印度质量实现产品升级的假说，发现1746-1820年间英国棉纺织品质量提升并趋近印度手工棉布。
Abstract This article contributes to a topic central to interpretations of British industrialization and the role of Indian cotton textiles in shaping notions of cloth quality and, eventually, innovations. Textual evidence indicates that manufacturers in the early British cotton industry compared the quality of their products to that of Indian cottons. These texts suggest the hypothesis that there was a shift towards finer cotton textiles in Britain, via attempts to make the cotton warp yarn match Indian quality. Using a novel dataset of surviving British and Indian textiles of the period, the article puts this hypothesis to the test, and concludes that between 1746 and 1820 there was an increase in the quality of British cottons, leading to a convergence with the quality of handmade Indian cottons.