The production of habutae, a simple silk fabric, expanded rapidly between 1890 and 1918 in Japan's Fukui Prefecture, with large exports to Europe and the United States. The production of habutae, initially woven by hand, was labour intensive, but it gradually became capital‐intensive after the introduction of power looms. Production and export of this fabric declined precipitously from 1918. In this paper, we attribute the rise and then fall of Japan's production and export of habutae to its changing comparative advantage, which is associated with shifts from labour‐using to capital‐using production technology initiated in the United States.

中文翻译：

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工业化的兴衰：以近代日本的丝织区为例

1890 年至 1918 年间，日本福井县的 Habutae 是一种简单的丝织物，产量迅速扩大，大量出口到欧洲和美国。最初由手工编织的 habutae 的生产是劳动密集型的，但在引入动力织机后逐渐成为资本密集型。这种织物的生产和出口从 1918 年开始急剧下降。在本文中，我们将日本羽绒服生产和出口的上升和下降归因于其不断变化的比较优势，这与从劳动力使用到资本使用生产技术的转变有关在美国发起。