Economic Change in China, c.1800–1950

by Philip Richardson

• ISBN13: 9780521635714
• ISBN10: 0521635713
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-11-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book provides a concise introduction to the economic history of one of the major world powers. China is probably the only major economy for which it is still not certain whether modern economic growth at the aggregate level had taken hold by the middle of the twentieth century. This introductory analysis of the process of economic change in China from the end of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth looks at the nature of the traditional economy, covers the pressure it came under from both internal and external sources during the nineteenth century and assesses the evolution of modern features in the twentieth. With maps, tables and bibliography to guide the student, this concise study will provide an invaluable introduction to crucial aspects of Chinese history.

Table of Contents

List of maps	vi
Acknowledgements	vii
Note on references	viii
Guide to pronunciation	ix
Dynastic chronology	xi
Weights and measures	xii
Map 1: China: provinces and cities	xiii
Introduction	1	(5)
Analytical frameworks	6	(10)
The eighteenth-century legacy and the early nineteenth-century crisis	16	(9)
Growth and structural change	25	(15)
Foreign trade and investment	40	(14)
Industry: traditional and modern	54	(14)
Agriculture	68	(16)
The state and the economy	84	(14)
Conclusion: the legacy of the past	98	(7)
Bibliography	105	(10)
Index	115