Cotton textile production in Jiangnan during the Ming–Qing era and the matter of market-driven growth

If we search for [the fiber] that is most widely used, that is most reasonably priced and labor saving, that is suited to cheap and to expensive textiles, that benefits the rich and poor alike, we will find that only cotton has all these exceptional qualities…. In all the places that my feet have left their traces, there was no man who did not wear cotton and no soil that was not suited to its production.