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1 - Ideology and the Contours of Economic Change

from Part I - 1800–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2022

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

When visited by the British trade mission led by Lord George Macartney, who aimed to show off the best of Western trade and technology, the Qianlong Emperor of Qing China was known to have famously replied in 1792, “Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its borders. There is therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce.” Qianlong’s statement came at the height of Qing’s glory, overseeing a remarkable tripling of population and a doubling of territory between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. No single political entity at the time achieved such size in both geography and population under such stability and durability.

Keywords

ideologyinstitutionseconomic changeJapanWestern impact and Chinese responseparadigmChinese absolutismreformfinancial revolutiontreaty port
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of China , pp. 15 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Brandt, L., D. Ma, and T. Rawski, “From Divergence to Convergence: Re-evaluating the History behind China’s Economic Boom,” Journal of Economic Literature 52.1 (2014), 45–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Fukao, K., Ma, D., and Yuan, T., “Real GDP in Pre-war East Asia: A 1934–36 Benchmark Purchasing Power Parity Comparison with the U.S.,” Review of Income and Wealth 53.3 (2007), 503–37.Google Scholar
Zhaoguang, Ge 葛兆光中国思想史第二卷七世纪至十九世纪中国的知识，思想与信仰 (History of Chinese Thought, Vol. 3, Chinese Knowledge, Thought, and Beliefs between the Seventh and Nineteenth Centuries) (Shanghai, Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2001).Google Scholar
Zhaoguang, Ge “葛兆光十八世纪中国的盛世危机” (Crisis in China’s Glorious Eighteenth Century), Feb. 19, 2019, www.ftchinese.com/author/%E8%91%9B%E5%85%86%E5%85%89.Google Scholar
Guantao, Jin 金观涛, and Qingfeng, Liu 刘青峰, 兴盛与危机，论中国社会的超稳定结构 (The Cycle of Growth and Decline: On the Ultrastable Structure of Chinese Society) (Beijing, Falu chubanshe, 2011).Google Scholar
Guantao, Jin 金观涛 and Qingfeng, Liu 刘青峰, 开放中的变迁，再论中国社会超稳定结构 (The Transformation of Chinese Society (1840–1956): The Fate of Its Ultrastable Structure in Modern Times) (Beijing, Falu chubanshe, 2011).Google Scholar
Liang, Qichao 梁启超, “梁启超五十年中国进化概论” (A Summary of Fifty Years of Chinese Evolution), in 饮冰室文集点校第五集 (Selected Articles of the Yinbinshe Collection, Vol. 5) (Kunming, Yunnan Jiaoyu chubanshe, 1923), pp. 3247–52.Google Scholar
Ma, D., “Economic Growth in the Lower Yangzi Region of China in 1911–1937: A Quantitative and Historical Perspective,” Journal of Economic History, 68.2 (2008), 385–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ma, D., “The Rise of a Financial Revolution in Republican China in 1900–1937: A Survey and New Interpretation,” Australian Economic History Review 59.3 (2019), 242–62.Google Scholar
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Rawski, T.G., Economic Growth in Prewar China (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1989).Google Scholar
Xu, Dixin 许涤新 and Wu, Chengming 吴承明,中国资本主义发展史， 第一卷 中国资本主义的萌芽 (A History of Capitalist Development in China, Vol. 1, Sprouts of Chinese Capitalism) (Beijing, Renmin chubanshe, 1993).Google Scholar
Fansen, Wang 王汎森, “戊戌前后思想资源的变化以日本因素为例” (Changes in Intellectual Resources before and after the Hundred Days Reform), 二十一世纪 (Twenty-First Century) 45 (February 1998), 47–54.Google Scholar
Fansen, Wang 王汎森, 权力的毛细血管作用，清代的思想、学术与心态 (The Penetrating Role of Power, Ideas, Academics, and Moods in Qing) (Beijing, Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2015).Google Scholar
Shaodang, Yan 严绍璗, 日本中国学史 (Sinology in Japan) (Beijing, Xueshu chubanshe, 2009).Google Scholar

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