A review of Christopher Mills Isett, State, peasant, and merchant in Qing Manchuria, 1644-1862 (original) (raw)

and a specialist in the economic history of Manchuria, Taiwan, and China during the Qing dynasty. His book consists of three parts. The first one deals with the ideological, political and economic interests of the Qing rulers in their 'homeland' and with their actual policies. The second one shows what property and labor relations evolved in the region. The third part presents an analysis of the way in which those relations limited possibilities for economic development. By Qing Manchuria Isett basically means the provinces Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, especially the southern parts of these last two provinces. The period covered is from 1644, the establishment of Qing rule in most of China Proper, to 1862, the opening of the Manchurian port at Niuzhang. The underlying, I am almost tempted to say 'real', subjectmatter of the book, in my view is how to characterize the economy of China, for which Manchuria by and large simply functions as a pars pro toto, as compared to that of Britain. Two models of economic (non-)development act as points of reference, one that is called 'Smithian' and one that is called 'Malthusian' or rather 'Malthusian-Ricardian'. In line with a long tradition, Isett claims that the economy of early modern Britain operated according to Smithian