While the economic renaissance of modern day China was still in its infancy Chinese engineers where frequent visitors at automotive exhibitions in the West. They studied new models with great interest and carefully copied them in order to start reproduction in their home country. Their effort was meticulous since they sought to copy every single detail on the cars sometimes no matter whether they understood its purpose or not.
Critics could claim that the Chinese engineers were conducting nothing less than industrial espionage. Copying is despite this derogatory labelling a common feature in the world economy and has been a prominent way throughout history to promote spreading of technological development. An early example is the story of how the Western world managed to find out the Chinese secret of sericulture or silk making. Silk textile had been a luxurious commodity for hundreds of years and was exported by the Chinese on the famous Silk Road throughout the interior of Asia. To satisfy Western taste, mainly Roman, silk fabrics were brought to Syria where it was rewoven. The distance between the workshops in China and the markets in Europe resulted indubitably in high prices since the products had to pass between many intermediaries along the way. In order to reduce prices the Byzantine emperor Justinian ordered two monks to bring back the secret of sericulture from China in the sixth century AD. The effort was successful and to the surprise of the Westerners the secret turned out to be tiny worms that had to be fed with chopped mulberry leaves every few hours day and night in order to produce cocoons. The monks smuggled back this knowledge alongside a package of these silkworms whose cocoons where the essential base for silk production.
True to their mercantilist traditions, European states where eager to safeguard their technological secrets in the dawn of the industrial revolution of the 19thcentury. Smuggling and industrial espionage were thus common among inventors and entrepreneurs. A Prussian was for example arrested by the authorities in Berlin for being too generous with information about the construction of granaries while guiding the Swedish inventor Abraham Edelcrantz (1754-1821). The Swede was not primarily interested in espionage but it did occur during his journeys through Europe. Between 1801 and 1804 Edelcrantz stayed in Britain where he gathered information about technological development, bought machinery and recruited Samuel Owen (1774-1854) who later established a workshop in Stockholm. British technology was by these means transferred more or less legally to Sweden where the industrialization was still far from nearing the level in Britain.
These examples demonstrate that the Chinese engineers of modern automotive exhibitions are far from alone in their pursuit of technological secrets, at least in a historical perspective.
You can read more about the Swedish inventor Abraham Edelcrantz and his activities in 19thcentury England in the book “Guide till Sveriges historia i Europa” (2002) by Torbjörn Nilsson.
Daniel Nykvist
