A review of Christopher Mills Isett, State, peasant, and merchant in Qing Manchuria, 1644-1862 (original) (raw)
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The Journal of Asian Studies, 2008
Some of the analytical sections of the book might seem overly abstract. However, part of the joy of Regimes is the amazing scope of concrete case material on which Tilly draws-from France (1598 to 2003) and Great Britain (1750 to 1830) to contemporary India, Peru, and South Africa, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the genocide in Rwanda-with a reassuring competence to develop his hypotheses and to illustrate his arguments. Charles D. Brockett Sewanee: The University of the South Naval Blockades in Peace and War: An Economic History Since 1750.
State, Peasant, and Merchant In Qing Manchuria, 16441862 (Review)
Journal of Interdisciplinary …, 2008
Some of the analytical sections of the book might seem overly abstract. However, part of the joy of Regimes is the amazing scope of concrete case material on which Tilly draws-from France (1598 to 2003) and Great Britain (1750 to 1830) to contemporary India, Peru, and South Africa, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the genocide in Rwanda-with a reassuring competence to develop his hypotheses and to illustrate his arguments.
Economic development of the early modern China: A revisiting
paper presented at the World Economic History Congress, Kyoto, 2015
Recently, many Japanese have been shocked by the fact that the GDP of China had exceeded that of Japan, and that China had overtaken Japan as the world’s second-largest economy. This would further encourage economic historians of China to reevaluate potential of China’s economy, even before its encounter with the West. In this paper, I argue that i) in the recent China’s economic historiography, scholars have been increasingly focusing on quantitative changes, rather than qualitative and transformative “development”. This can be interpreted in the context of the important shift in social thoughts after the collapse of post-Cold War regime, and in the evolutional development in the cliometrics. ii) recent findings in quantitative history are best culminated in the historical statistics compiled by Angus Maddison, including those of pre-modern China. Maddison’s studies have made a great contribution: He incorporates the experiences of China into global economic historiography, in a way which encourages the comparison beyond time and space, and empirical and cross-disciplinal discussion as well. Yet the credibility of statistical records (and estimation itself) on population and productivity, for example, are still opened to debate. iii) one of the most critical issues is that most of the arguments in comparative history obviously resort to a conventional essentialism to understand the economic growth in pre-modern China, in which monotonous “institutions” are often identified as explanatory variables.
Unfolding the Turbulent Century: A Reconstruction of China's Economic Development, 1840-1912
2016
This paper reconstructs China's economic development between 1840 and 1912 with an estimation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It provides for the first time a time series of GDP (per capita) for the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), based on sectoral output and value added, in current as well as in constant prices. The present estimation of per capita GDP in the late Qing period comes out higher than previous estimations, but it still suggests low average levels of Chinese living standards. The economy during the late Qing Empire was characterised by a large and growing agricultural sector and displayed only minor structural changes. Only in the beginning of the twentieth century did the economy start to show signs of growth.
Via Peking back to Manchester. Britain, the Industrial Revolution and China, 109 pages
Copyright reserved. Subject to the exceptions provided for by law, no part of this publication may be reproduced and/ or published in print, by photocopying, on microfilm or in any other way without the written consent of the copyright-holder(s); the same applies to whole or partial adaptations. The publisher retains the sole right to collect from third parties fees in respect of copying and/or take legal or other action for this purpose. Via Peking back to Manchester This text is based on the inaugural lecture I gave when I formally accepted my position as professor in comparative global history at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. It was given on December 12 in 2001, and published in an extended version, as Via Peking terug naar Manchester, Engeland, de Industriële Revolutie en China (Nijmegen 2001) ISBN 90-9015464-7. (Via Peking back to Manchester: Britain, the Industrial Revolution, and China) The Foundation for the promotion of the study of world history and the history of mankind (Stichting ter bevordering van de studie van wereld-en mensheidgeschiedenis) gave me a grant to have it translated into English. The translator was Kate Williams. To really make it an adequate 'state of the art-piece', I decided to further revise and extend it, so the final version turned out to be what it is now: a little book more than three times the size of the original text. The book was written during my stay as Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The fellowship was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. (NWO). I would like to thank all who helped me in writing and publishing this text. Via Peking back to Manchester: Britain, the Industrial Revolution, and China 'The Industrial Revolution … a thrice-squeezed orange … with an astonishing amount of juice in it'. J.H. Clapham, 'The transference of the worsted industry from Norfolk to the West Riding', Economic Journal 20 (1910) page 195. '… wir jetzt durchaus über China Bescheid wissen. Wir haben so gründliche Kenntnisse ihrer Literatur und ihres ganzen Lebens wie ihrer Geschichte'.