2. The Qing Central Government Institutions in Control of the Handicrafts

Abstract

This chapter explores the institutional structure of those agencies of the Qing central government that controlled craft production and construction, together with one of their most important bureaucratic instruments, the handicraft regulations. Temporally it covers the entire range of the dynasty from the Ming-Qing transition through to the demise of the monarchy and the rise of the Republic of China. It does so by concentrating on the craft branches in the capital or in its close vicinity. For the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during the transition to 'modernity' in the sense of mechanized production, innovations in the government vocational schools are discussed, and the industrial policies of the Qing administration are outlined. By the nineteenth century, a divergence between the court and the central government in terms of government policy towards the craft institutions can be analyzed on the basis of official documentation: while the government and provinces had their artisan staff reduced to practically nothing, the court institutions were strengthened rather than weakened. Government Institutions in Control of the Crafts: Ministries of the Central Government and Court Administration From the beginning, the number of government workshops and manufactories in the Qing period was more modest than during the preceding dynasties, but their product range was still broad. The main branches of activity were the construction of public, religious, and court buildings; silk weaving; the production of weapons and armour; ceramics and other arts and crafts objects; shipbuilding; cash casting; and printing. In the central government in Peking, these tasks were mainly organized into three institutions: the Ministry of Public Works (gongbu), the Imperial Household Department (neiwufu), and the Ministry of Revenue (hubu). Provincial administrations organized, in cooperation with the lower-level prefectural or district authorities, the construction and maintenance of official civilian, religious, and military buildings; traffic arteries; cash production; armaments and ammunition; and shipbuilding. To this was added, depending on the local situation, river or sea dike conservancy, mining, and salt production, although in the latter two cases, the actual work and technical organization was in the hands of monopoly merchants rather than officials. The total numbers of artisans in the direct service of the government around 1800 may have been more than 40,000, of which about 14,000 were engaged in Peking and 26,000 outside the capital in various state manufactories and construction sites (see tables 14 and 15).