Kazuo Kobayashi | Waseda University (original) (raw)
Books by Kazuo Kobayashi
This book focuses on the significant role of West African consumers in the development of the glo... more This book focuses on the significant role of West African consumers in the development of the global economy. It explores their demand for Indian cotton textiles and how their consumption shaped patterns of global trade, influencing economies and businesses from Western Europe to South Asia. In turn, the book examines how cotton textile production in southern India responded to this demand. Through this perspective of a south-south economic history, the study foregrounds African agency and considers the lasting impact on production and exports in South Asia. It also considers how European commercial and imperial expansion provided a complex web of networks, linking West African consumers and Indian weavers. Crucially, it demonstrates the emergence of the modern global economy.
Articles by Kazuo Kobayashi
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, 2024
Textile production was among the most important manufacturing sectors in precolonial West and Wes... more Textile production was among the most important manufacturing sectors in precolonial West and West-Central Africa, enabled by the availability of local sources of fibers. Although the origins of this manufacturing are difficult to trace, the spread of cloth production was linked to Islam and consumer politics, followed by specialization of cloth production within the region over time. Textile production was usually based on the household division of labor: women were responsible for the primary activities of carding and spinning in cotton textile production, while men were in charge of weaving and finishing processes, such as embroidery. Male weavers used narrow strip (or band) horizontal looms to manufacture textiles, but in some areas, female weavers used vertical looms to produce textiles from cotton or raffia mixed with cotton. Some weavers were professional, full-time workers, whereas part-time weavers engaged in cloth production in the non-agricultural, dry season. Cloth strips served not only as material for clothing and interior decorations of houses and palaces but also as a currency in the regional economy. From the 15th century, the Portuguese came to West Africa and joined the coastal trade as middlemen who would be trading locally woven textiles from one place to another along the Atlantic coast. The Atlantic slave trade brought in increasing amounts of textiles from overseas, and in the 18th century, Indian cotton textiles became the flagship commodity whose quality met consumer preference. The impact of the influx of textiles from overseas on local cloth production remains a topic of debate. Although the dependency theorists claimed a negative impact, there is no evidence to support such a claim.
Afro-Ásia, 2021
Tecendo redes imperiais: uma dimensão asiáTica do comércio briTânico de escravos no ATlânTico no ... more Tecendo redes imperiais: uma dimensão asiáTica do comércio briTânico de escravos no ATlânTico no século XVIII*
African Economic History, 2017
This article proposes to give a new answer to one of the central questions in African and global ... more This article proposes to give a new answer to one of the central questions in African and global economic histories: how West Africa contributed to economies outside the region. Recent studies have highlighted that consumers played a significant role in the processes of trade and production. The article combines this consumer-led perspective with a new set of quantitative and qualitative data. Trade figures drawn from the British and French trade statistics reveal the peculiar demand for Indian indigo-blue cotton textiles, called guinées, in Senegal compared with other regions of West Africa in the early nineteenth century. This finding revises Joseph Inikori's argument about the triumph of British cottons in West Africa. Subsequently, this article places the consumption of guinées within the wider context of commercial networks in the trade in gum arabic in the lower Senegal River region and analyzes the social and ecological factors that underpinned the persistent demand for guinées among local consumers, taking into account the continuation of local textile production in West Africa. In so doing, this article argues that consumer behavior in Senegal mattered not only for the gum trade and but also conditioned a part of global trade networks that extended from South Asia through Western Europe and reached Africa in the early nineteenth century.
Socio-Economic History (社会経済史学), 2011
This article addresses the role of Indian cotton textiles as one factor in the rapid growth of th... more This article addresses the role of Indian cotton textiles as one factor in the rapid growth of the British Atlantic slave trade in the century before the abolition of slave trade. The Anglo-African trade statistics, compiled by Marion Johnson, opened our eyes to the importance of the re-export of East Indian textiles in the slave trade. Using the records of the London merchant Thomas Lumley, I have illuminated with great precision the commercial networks which stretched from India via Britain to Africa, to map the trade routes of Indian cottons, to examine the Asian dimension of the British Atlantic slave trade, and to show the regional differences in the consumption of Indian textiles in pre-colonial West Africa.
Note: this Japanese article will be translated into English and published as a chapter in an essay collection edited by Tomoko Shiroyama (forthcoming, Springer).
Book chapters by Kazuo Kobayashi
In Tomoko Shiroyama (ed.), Modern Global Trade and the Asian Regional Economy. Monograph Series of the Socio-Economic History Society, Japan. Singapore: Springer, 2018
This article addresses the role of Indian cotton textiles as one factor in the rapid growth of th... more This article addresses the role of Indian cotton textiles as one factor in the rapid growth of the British Atlantic slave trade in the century before the abolition of the trade in 1807. The Anglo-African trade statistics compiled by Marion Johnson opened our eyes to the important role of re-exports of Indian cotton textiles in the slave trade. I have therefore used the records of the London merchant Thomas Lumley to draw an accurate picture of the commercial networks that led from India via Britain to West and West-Central Africa. As a result, I have been able to map the trade routes followed by Indian cottons, examine the Asian dimension of the British Atlantic slave trade, and highlight the regional differences in consumer demand for Indian textiles in pre-colonial West and West-Central Africa.
Blog posts by Kazuo Kobayashi
Frontiers in African Economic History - African Economic History Network's blog, 2018
An extended summary of my 2017 African Economic History article
Book Reviews by Kazuo Kobayashi
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2020
This book focuses on the significant role of West African consumers in the development of the glo... more This book focuses on the significant role of West African consumers in the development of the global economy. It explores their demand for Indian cotton textiles and how their consumption shaped patterns of global trade, influencing economies and businesses from Western Europe to South Asia. In turn, the book examines how cotton textile production in southern India responded to this demand. Through this perspective of a south-south economic history, the study foregrounds African agency and considers the lasting impact on production and exports in South Asia. It also considers how European commercial and imperial expansion provided a complex web of networks, linking West African consumers and Indian weavers. Crucially, it demonstrates the emergence of the modern global economy.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, 2024
Textile production was among the most important manufacturing sectors in precolonial West and Wes... more Textile production was among the most important manufacturing sectors in precolonial West and West-Central Africa, enabled by the availability of local sources of fibers. Although the origins of this manufacturing are difficult to trace, the spread of cloth production was linked to Islam and consumer politics, followed by specialization of cloth production within the region over time. Textile production was usually based on the household division of labor: women were responsible for the primary activities of carding and spinning in cotton textile production, while men were in charge of weaving and finishing processes, such as embroidery. Male weavers used narrow strip (or band) horizontal looms to manufacture textiles, but in some areas, female weavers used vertical looms to produce textiles from cotton or raffia mixed with cotton. Some weavers were professional, full-time workers, whereas part-time weavers engaged in cloth production in the non-agricultural, dry season. Cloth strips served not only as material for clothing and interior decorations of houses and palaces but also as a currency in the regional economy. From the 15th century, the Portuguese came to West Africa and joined the coastal trade as middlemen who would be trading locally woven textiles from one place to another along the Atlantic coast. The Atlantic slave trade brought in increasing amounts of textiles from overseas, and in the 18th century, Indian cotton textiles became the flagship commodity whose quality met consumer preference. The impact of the influx of textiles from overseas on local cloth production remains a topic of debate. Although the dependency theorists claimed a negative impact, there is no evidence to support such a claim.
Afro-Ásia, 2021
Tecendo redes imperiais: uma dimensão asiáTica do comércio briTânico de escravos no ATlânTico no ... more Tecendo redes imperiais: uma dimensão asiáTica do comércio briTânico de escravos no ATlânTico no século XVIII*
African Economic History, 2017
This article proposes to give a new answer to one of the central questions in African and global ... more This article proposes to give a new answer to one of the central questions in African and global economic histories: how West Africa contributed to economies outside the region. Recent studies have highlighted that consumers played a significant role in the processes of trade and production. The article combines this consumer-led perspective with a new set of quantitative and qualitative data. Trade figures drawn from the British and French trade statistics reveal the peculiar demand for Indian indigo-blue cotton textiles, called guinées, in Senegal compared with other regions of West Africa in the early nineteenth century. This finding revises Joseph Inikori's argument about the triumph of British cottons in West Africa. Subsequently, this article places the consumption of guinées within the wider context of commercial networks in the trade in gum arabic in the lower Senegal River region and analyzes the social and ecological factors that underpinned the persistent demand for guinées among local consumers, taking into account the continuation of local textile production in West Africa. In so doing, this article argues that consumer behavior in Senegal mattered not only for the gum trade and but also conditioned a part of global trade networks that extended from South Asia through Western Europe and reached Africa in the early nineteenth century.
Socio-Economic History (社会経済史学), 2011
This article addresses the role of Indian cotton textiles as one factor in the rapid growth of th... more This article addresses the role of Indian cotton textiles as one factor in the rapid growth of the British Atlantic slave trade in the century before the abolition of slave trade. The Anglo-African trade statistics, compiled by Marion Johnson, opened our eyes to the importance of the re-export of East Indian textiles in the slave trade. Using the records of the London merchant Thomas Lumley, I have illuminated with great precision the commercial networks which stretched from India via Britain to Africa, to map the trade routes of Indian cottons, to examine the Asian dimension of the British Atlantic slave trade, and to show the regional differences in the consumption of Indian textiles in pre-colonial West Africa.
Note: this Japanese article will be translated into English and published as a chapter in an essay collection edited by Tomoko Shiroyama (forthcoming, Springer).
In Tomoko Shiroyama (ed.), Modern Global Trade and the Asian Regional Economy. Monograph Series of the Socio-Economic History Society, Japan. Singapore: Springer, 2018
This article addresses the role of Indian cotton textiles as one factor in the rapid growth of th... more This article addresses the role of Indian cotton textiles as one factor in the rapid growth of the British Atlantic slave trade in the century before the abolition of the trade in 1807. The Anglo-African trade statistics compiled by Marion Johnson opened our eyes to the important role of re-exports of Indian cotton textiles in the slave trade. I have therefore used the records of the London merchant Thomas Lumley to draw an accurate picture of the commercial networks that led from India via Britain to West and West-Central Africa. As a result, I have been able to map the trade routes followed by Indian cottons, examine the Asian dimension of the British Atlantic slave trade, and highlight the regional differences in consumer demand for Indian textiles in pre-colonial West and West-Central Africa.
Frontiers in African Economic History - African Economic History Network's blog, 2018
An extended summary of my 2017 African Economic History article
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2020