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11 - The Economic Impact of the West

A Reappraisal

from Part I - 1800–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2022

By
James Kai-sing Kung
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

For the Chinese, the nineteenth century was a period of waking up and realizing why the Middle Kingdom had fallen behind the West in economic growth. Not only had this large and once prosperous country fallen behind economically (with its apparent failure to industrialize), it also fell prey during the two Opium Wars to the same country that first embarked upon the Industrial Revolution – Britain. Consequently, a long period of autarky came to an end. While initially China was forced to open up only several “treaty ports” for trade and commerce, eventually the entire country was subjected to the influences of the West, and in spheres that went far beyond trade and commerce to also include industry, education, and even politics. By assembling data from a variety of previously untapped historical sources, this chapter attempts to analyze the Western influences that shaped the economic trajectories of late imperial China.

Keywords

Western economic influencestreaty portsself-initiated portsforeign direct investmentsmodern firms and bankstechnological adoptionforeign missionarieshuman capital developmentpolitical modernization (Xinhai Revolution)
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of China , pp. 354 - 413
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Bai, Y., and Kung, J.K-S., Diffusing Useful Knowledge While Spreading God’s Message: Protestantism and Economic Prosperity in China, 1840–1920, Journal of the European Economic Association 13.4 (2015), 669–98.Google Scholar
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