History And Economics Notes Chinese Economic History Since 1850 Notes
These notes and other materials cover the EH207: The Making of an Economic Superpower: China since 1850.
"This course provides a survey of long-term economic change in China from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. It focuses on China's long path to becoming a major global economic power at the beginning of the new millennium. The course examines the importance of ideological and institutional change in bringing about economic transformations by surveying major historical turning points s...
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State and commercial organization developed alongside each other in the long-run
Guilds were an important social organization
John Major encountered problems in the Lower Yangzi with them
Silk weaver guild destroyed Chen Qiyuan’s factory in Guangdong
Guilds overlapped with lineage
The problem was not that the State caused actively damaged prosperity
The bigger problem was they didn’t do enough
“Chinese people are like loose sand” (Sun Zhongshan)
Founding father of Modern China
Like many revolutionaries, Sun spent a lot of time overseas
The lack of social cohesion meant revolution and modernization were difficult
Civic identity was important, but was not organized nationally
Social organization was organized along family lines
Migrant merchants were attached to their hometowns not their trading city
Guild and other organizations were “feudal powers”
Searched for monopoly and rents
A fundamental feature of guilds
Often overlapped with lineage and family
Weber – A sociologist who invested the Chinese culture and lineage
Secret societies were another important social group
Dynastic leaders were weary of them
Commerce as a profession was ranked bottom, below handicrafts
In contrast to the West, where mercantilism was fundamental to Western ideology
E.g. East India Company
Lack of commercial and contractual law made it difficult for large scale firms to become established
What were the problems of family firm?
There was no distinction between public and private
Corruption and nepotism
Difficult to transcend beyond your individual households
Capital accumulation and pooling of capital was limited to close circles and your lineage
Rational accounting was the primary factory in the development of modern Western capitalism (Weber and Sombart)
Italian “double-entry” allowed:
Corporate form of organization
Separation between public and private assets
Arabic numerals were systematic
Chinese numeral system didn’t have place notations
Absence of calculating capital investment
The Chinese mercantile network was widespread in Southeast Asia
Huff notes that Singapore is the place where Chinese and English entrepreneurs met
Dominant in Yokohama in late Tokugawa and early Meiji
The Japanese Meiji revolution was a response to Chinese mercantile power as well as to Western challenge
There was a symbiosis in the treaty ports between the Chinese and West
There was a rise of Chinese industrialists in the 1920s
Although there was no formal laws, there was a widespread contractual culture
There was in fact widespread use of accounting at all levels
The abacus and Chinese numeral system worked very efficiently together
Account books were used for households, lineage entities, firms and the state
Must compare Chinese business organizations on their own terms, not set against Western standards
Chinese business organizations were vastly shaped by historical, political and social factors
They were far more flexible and fluid than we recognize
They responded to market incentives, had some corporate features and were quite rational given the constraints
They were more viable and enduring than expected
As an example of the importance of money to Chinese, they burned money when people died as they believed they needed it to survive in the afterlife
Possibly had a fairly integrated market for...
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These notes and other materials cover the EH207: The Making of an Economic Superpower: China since 1850.
"This course provides a survey of long-term economic change in China from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. It focuses on China's long path to becoming a major global economic power at the beginning of the new millennium. The course examines the importance of ideological and institutional change in bringing about economic transformations by surveying major historical turning points s...
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