Generally speaking, changes in the production factors themselves do not necessarily affect labour productivity.
They do so only when they interact with each other and with a particular unit of production. Since the basic unit of production is a single peasant family in pre-industrial Jiangnan, these changes will influence farm labour productivity only through the peasant family economy.
The changes discussed above suggest a new pattern of peasant economy, which appeared at the turn of the seventeenth century and spread during the subsequent centuries. I call this pattern ‘the trinity pattern', because three of the most important advances in the Jiangnan peasant economy are combined within it. These advances include ‘one year double-cropping', ‘one man works 10 mU, and ‘man ploughs and woman weaves'. More specifically, these expressions mean that a man works 10 mu of fields with double-cropping, while the woman raises silkworms and reels silk, or spins and weaves cotton. I will now discuss each of these aspects in greater detail.3.1