The textile industry of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) represents the pinnacle of pre-modern Chinese manufacturing and played a central role in the period's "economic revolution." This study adopts an interdisciplinary approach, integrating economic history, technological history, and global history to analyze how the internal marketization of this industry interacted synergistically with external trade dynamics to create a resilient, globally connected production and trade system. Through a critical analysis of diverse historical sources-including official records, archaeological materials, and foreign accounts-this paper revises previous assumptions regarding technological timelines and state-market relations. First, the production system underwent significant marketization, characterized by a shift from state dominance to a "state-supervised, privately-operated" workshop ("jihu") model, albeit one often constrained by coercive state procurement mechanisms, regional specialization, and the refinement of pattern-weaving technologies (precursors to the later documented drawloom), which enabled increased production of complex patterns. Second, foreign trade was driven by institutional support (the Maritime Trade Supervisorate system), multi-layered international demand (from East Asia to the Mediterranean), and evolving financial and logistical infrastructures (primarily bullion and ceramic exchange, with limited domestic currency circulation). Third, the port of Quanzhou served as a microcosm, demonstrating how local/regional production, foreign merchant communities ("fanfang"), and state regulation were integrated into an efficient export platform. The study concludes that the Song textile industry exemplifies a pre-modern, market-driven model of "Smithian growth," tempered by state intervention, where technological adaptation, institutional innovation, and integration into global networks converged to create a highly competitive and outward-oriented industrial complex, offering historical insights into the early globalization of "Made in China."

Song dynasty textile industry, marketization, hemai, drawloom technology, maritime trade