In this book Shih deals with a subject that has seldom been accorded the attention it deserves in modern historical literature: the silk industry in traditional and modern China. He has focused on the Ch'ing period and the early twentieth century for a detailed study of this important facet of the Chinese economy. This study details background to the development of the silk industry during the Ch'ing period, with attention to business methods in the silk reeling and silk weaving industries, the three southern imperial Ch'ing silkworks, the modernization of silk filatures, and international trade in raw silk and silk textiles. It concludes by analyzing factors inhibiting the growth of the silk industry under the Ch'ing.