COMPTES RENDUS - AFEC

Comptes rendus
commoditization), except for the fact that its économie actors were not
atomized individuals but households. On the other hand, Marmé favors
those authors who classify the Ming period as "late impérial" over those
who call it "early modem," because of the continuous dominating effect
state structures had on the development of market forces.
As for Suzhou's économie importance, in his introductory remarks,
Marmé is careful not to see Suzhou's central status as eternal, or preordained:
he makes some welcome comparisons with Hangzhou, or even
Huzhou. Suzhou was chosen by Zhang Shicheng as a capital in late Yuan
times, apparently partly because it had by then gained weight vis-à-vis
Hangzhou and Ningbo, since unlike the latter cities Suzhou had capitulated
to the Yuan without a fight. However, as Marmé convincingly shows,
that dominance was not secure at ail; if the Ming had been really as hostile
to Suzhou as many traditional accounts would hâve it, Suzhou's newfound
eminence could hâve been as ephemeral as Zhang Shicheng's was.
Nor does Marmé suppose the économie development of Suzhou's hinterland
as having culminated in the Ming, after it presumably had achieved
its dominance over China: there was still further development to come, for
example in water management. In Marmé's actual description of the économie
development from Song to mid-Ming times, however, one would
wish perhaps for some more critical analysis: in the lists of "important"
processed and semi-processed goods mentioned by Marmé ("embroidery,
the mounting of pictures, pottery-making, copperwork, printing, lacquerwork,
wine-making, the weaving of mats, rattan pillows, gauze caps, fine
brushes, jade carvings, food products - plus silver work, needles, iron
work, tin work, wood work, tile-making, fine paper, lanterns, fan bones,
gauze towels, willow chests, cattail-rush shoes, jewelry, antiques, and the
copying of books and pictures"), one would like to know which were
crucial, which were secondary; which were culturally, which were economically
relevant; which were both? For instance, it is obvious that
amongst thèse various endeavors, the textile industry was of primary importance,
and Marmé makes the point, of which I was not aware, that there
were - temporary - climatic reasons why cotton had to be processed in
Jiangnan rather than in Northern China (p. 137). However, when in his
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