COMPTES RENDUS - AFEC

Comptes rendus
account the spread of cotton is stated as having started in the Yuan in
northern Suzhou and Songjiang préfectures, but when its commercial
importance is somewhat surprisingly dated only to the Ming, one would
like to hâve been provided with more detailed explanations.
During the early Ming period, the well-known pressures put on
Suzhou at the beginning of the Ming by Zhu Yuanzhang could hâve been
maintained, in Marmé's view, if a Zhu Yuanzhang-like emperor would
hâve succeeded the founder. Marmé relativizes their impact, however, and
describes in détail Suzhou's vicissitudes under subséquent emperors and
state régulations; he then dates the nadir of Suzhou's fortunes to the early
fifteenth century. Within this early économie history, Marmé is not always
consistent: there are fréquent sentences stating that Suzhou ("and the surrounding
préfectures") bore the highest levels of land tax in the empire,
while other data are presented that show that such was not strictly true in a
relative sensé. In gênerai, however, both gênerai policies, which continued
to stress agricultural taxes, and their unintended opportunities for évasion,
tended to favor a trend toward increased commercialization throughout the
necessary fifteenth-century reforms, helped by Suzhou's closeness to a
foreign market. Exactly because of the importance of Suzhou's agricultural
taxes for the state, the crown's fortunes remained hostage to the
économie well-being and minimal coopération of the prefecture's most
heavily taxed landholders.
In Suzhou's agricultural history in particular, Marmé makes a consistent
effort to présent quantitative data to back up his narrative, or he
déclares honestly that they are lacking. However, as soon as social trends
are commented upon, his touch with reality seems less assured; the discussion
on tax captains, for example, seems to me more based upon what
should hâve happened theoretically, rather than what we know did happen.
Marmé claims that Suzhou achieved hegemony in China by the late
fifteenth century (p. 143), because the Ming state's policies triggered
Suzhou's commoditization, and the sale of thèse Suzhou products caused
the articulation of marketing hiérarchies elsewhere. Basic to this hegemony,
in addition to rice, was silk, and Marmé gives us some glimpses of its
market. His treatment remains centered on the agricultural background,
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