• Acta Via Serica
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.91-116
• /
• 2021

India has had a rich and diverse textile tradition since the 3rd millennium BCE. The origin of Indian textiles can be traced back to the Harappan period. Owing to the hot and humid climate in most parts of India, cotton has remained India's favourite choice of fabric for normal use. Thus, India is supposed to be the first nation to have grown, woven, and patterned cotton fabrics. Moreover, India is one of the leading cotton-growing countries in the world. The earliest occurrence of cotton thread in India is roughly datable to 4000 BCE and of dyed fabrics to about 2500 BCE. Large numbers of needles and spindle-whorls found in Harappa and other early historic sites in India reveal the prosperous state of textile production and its trade in the early period. The textile producers used a wide range of skills to process raw materials and make regionally idiosyncratic dyes, weaves, prints, and embroideries. Additionally, the silk from wild indigenous forms of silkworms was known in the Indian sub-continent roughly contemporary with the earliest clear archaeological evidence for silk in China. The analysis of thread fragments found inside a copper bangle and ornament from Harappa and steatite beads from Chanhu-daro, have yielded silk fibers dating to 2500-2000 BCE. Apart from other products, cotton and silk textiles were important export materials from India right from the Harappan period. Actually, the sea-borne trade had played an important role in the economic growth and prosperity of the Harappan civilization. Several ancient seaports in the entire coastline of India played a vital role in the maritime trade during the Harappan period and cotton and silk textiles of Indian origin have been found in various countries. The contemporary writings and epigraphy have also attested to the vast maritime trade network of India and the export of textile materials. The paper discusses in detail the origin and development of cotton and silk textile production in India through the ages and its role in maritime trade networks.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.34
• /
• pp.135-150
• /
• 1997

The purpose of this study was to inves-tigate the economic performance of the textile industry for the Korean traditional clothes. The content of this paper had two pars; The first part was for the macroeconomic aspects such as location production employments and the produc-tion facilities of the textile industries. The second part was for the microeconomic aspects such as business type branding method fabric type R&D efforts sourc-ing and the distributional channel The major results were as follows: 1.) Most textile firms for the korean traditional clothes were located in Gongju for man-made fibers and in Jinju for silk fabrics. 2) The size of the textile industry in terms of the number of business produc-tion amount the number of employee de-creased during 1994 and 1995 due to the decreasing demand. 3) Over the half of the textile firms produced raw fabric products while only 20% of them were involved in additional dyeing and /or printing finish which re-sulted in low value added production 4) The R&D effort of the textile indus-try for the Korean traditional clothes was very low due to the market uncertainty lack of technological knowledge and most of all small size of the firms 5) Most raw materials for the textile in -dustry were imported with high(25%) tariff rates resulting in price increase and thus low competitiveness in the market. 6) The textile producers sole about the 70% of their products to the wholesalers while selling the rest to the retailers di-rectly. This showed the dual structure of the distribution channel in the textile products. These results suggested some implica-tions for the firms the policy makers and the researchers. The firms should develop new and improved products to increase and create consumer demand by intensive R&D efforts. The government policy ma-kers should give financial supports the firms with R&D investment and legal help such as lowing tariff rate for the raw ma-terials. The researchers from the academy could help the textile industry with the advanced technological knowledge and up-date information for the consumer fashion demand.