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12 - Foreign Trade and Investment

from Part I - 1800–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2022

Debin Ma
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Richard von Glahn
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

By the mid-eighteenth century, the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) was the dominant power within Asia. Its political system and institutions of state building were founded on structures inherited from previous Chinese dynasties as well as on the social and cultural codes of interaction among polities across Central Eurasia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Foreign trade between China and other countries within and outside Asia was a calculated matter of political strategy and economic gain. In the decades leading up to the First Opium War of 1839 to 1842, China’s stance with respect to the Sino-Western trade became increasingly at odds with British ambitions in Asia. The growing tensions stemmed from abiding differences in the political economy of not just two nations, but two empires. The overseas influence of the British Empire took on a forceful new impetus with the British Industrial Revolution, and, over the nineteenth century, technological improvements in transport continued to power Western expansion in global trade.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

China Maritime Customs (CMC), Decennial Reports, First Issue (1882–1891), Second Issue (1892–1901), Third Issue (1902–1911), Fourth Issue (1912–1921) and Fifth Issue (1922–1931) (Shanghai, Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs, 2001).Google Scholar
Great Britain Foreign Office, Correspondence Relating to China: Presented to Both Houses of Parliament, by Command of Her Majesty (London, T.R. Harrison, 1840).Google Scholar
Hamashita, T., China, East Asia, and the Global Economy: Regional and Historical Perspectives (Hoboken, Routledge, 2008).Google Scholar
Keller, W., Lampe, M., and Shiue, C.H., “International Transactions: Real Trade and Factor Flows,” in Broadberry, S. and Fukao, K. (eds.), Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World, vol. 1, 1700 to 1870 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp. 412–37.Google Scholar
Keller, W., Li, B., and Shiue, C.H., “China’s Foreign Trade: Perspectives from the Past 150 Years,” World Economy 6 (2011), 853–92.Google Scholar
Keller, W., Li, B., and Shiue, C.H., “The Evolution of Domestic Trade Flows When Foreign Trade Is Liberalized: Evidence from the Chinese Maritime Customs Service,” in Aoki, M., Kuran, T., and Roland, G. (eds.), Institutions and Comparative Economic Development (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 152–72.Google Scholar
Keller, W., Li, B., and Shiue, C.H., “Shanghai’s Trade, China’s Growth: Continuity, Recovery, and Change since the Opium War,” IMF Economic Review 2 (2013), 336–78.Google Scholar
Keller, W., Santiago, J.A., and Shiue, C.H., “China’s Domestic Trade during the Treaty-Port Era,” Explorations in Economic History 1 (2017), 2643.Google Scholar
Keller, W., and Shiue, C.H., “Capital Markets and Colonial Institutions in China,” presentation at NBER Summer Institute, July 2020 (Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
Keller, W., Shiue, C.H., and Wang, X., “Capital Market Development in China and Britain, 18th and 19th Century: Evidence from Grain Prices,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 13.3 (2021), 3164.Google Scholar
Morse, H.B., The Chronicles of the East India Company: Trading to China 1635–1834, 5 vols. (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1926–1929).Google Scholar
Morse, H.B., The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, 3 vols. (London, Longmans, Green, and Company, 1910–1918).Google Scholar

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