Key papers on Chinese economic history up to 1949 : : in two volumes / / edited by Michael Dillon.

• Superior document: Key papers on China ; set 1
• TeilnehmendeR: Dillon, Michael.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Series: Key papers on China ; set 1.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (702 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The development of China’s economy has long been an enigma to Western historians. Did it consist of centuries of stagnation followed by a period of collapse or was it a process of steady development, reaching a high point by the eighteenth century? What is certain is that China’s economic growth never developed into a full industrial revolution and China was overtaken by the West, but the reasons for this are highly contested both within and outside China. Topics of the Key Papers here include land use and land ownership, handicraft industries and early industrialization, trade and commerce, transport and communication and taxation and finance. It begins with papers on the earliest development of the economy in the Qin and Han dynasties, but concentrates on the periods of greatest interest and most significant development, namely the commercial revolution of the Song dynasty, the industrial and commercial expansion of the mid-Ming and the impact of Western and Japanese trade and investment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Table of Contents

section 1. China's economy : overview and perspective -- section 2. Historical economics -- section 3. Agriculture and the rural economy -- section 4. Industry and industrialization -- section 5. Taxation and finance -- section 6. Trade and transport -- section 7. Japan in China and the Manchurian question.