From Integration to Isolation: Xinjiang Cotton and Commercial Networks (1759-1890)

Abstract

This dissertation examines the transformation of Xinjiang from the mid-eighteenth to the late nineteenth century within the broader context of global capitalist expansion. Following the Qing conquest in 1759, cotton and cotton textiles produced in Altishahr (southern Xinjiang) and Turpan became highly sought-after commodities in transnational trade, positioning Xinjiang as a central hub within the Eurasian commercial network. However, by the mid-nineteenth century—amid warfare, Russian expansion, and industrialization—Xinjiang gradually became isolated from surrounding markets and, by the early twentieth century, was relegated to a peripheral role as a supplier of raw cotton within the global capitalist system. Adopting a commodity chain approach, this study analyzes the production, transportation, and distribution of cotton and textiles to illuminate the changing institutional, political, and socio-economic landscapes of Qing Xinjiang. Drawing on Manchu, Chinese, and Chaghatay sources, it examines Qing economic governance and frontier policies through the lens of local production, a perspective that remains underexplored in existing scholarship. While historians have often argued that the rise of maritime trade in the early modern period led to the inevitable decline of overland Eurasian trade networks, this dissertation challenges this narrative. It reveals the persistence—and transformation—of a new kind of Eurasian commercial network during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, characterized by merchant capitalism: the dominance of merchants in conducting long-distance trade in bulk commodities without altering the production process. Therefore, Qing China remained deeply integrated into both overland and maritime networks. However, restrictive Qing policies on the mobility of Altishahr merchants ensured that this trade was largely dominated by actors outside of the region, namely Central Asian and Chinese merchants. As a result, Xinjiang functioned primarily as a production site, leaving it especially vulnerable to external market fluctuations. As this interconnected Eurasian commercial system underwent reorganization beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Xinjiang experienced significant economic dislocation and political instability. In this way, the dissertation contributes to a more nuanced understanding of a connected Eurasian world undergoing profound transformation amid the global expansion of capitalism.East Asian Languages and Civilization