The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century

Dedication......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Figures......Page 8
Maps......Page 10
Tables......Page 13
Acknowledgments......Page 17
Introduction......Page 19
1 The Bronze Age economy (1045 to 707 BCE)......Page 34
The patrimonial state of the western Zhou (1045–771 BCE)......Page 39
Political economy of the Western Zhou......Page 49
Production and labor......Page 59
Accumulating wealth......Page 72
Conclusion......Page 78
2 From city-state to autocratic monarchy (707 to 250 BCE)......Page 87
The heyday of the city-state......Page 91
The rise of the autocratic state......Page 99
Economic transformation in the dawning Iron Age......Page 109
The city transformed......Page 117
The emerging political economy of the fiscal state......Page 129
Conclusion......Page 139
3 Economic foundations of the universal empire (250 to 81 BCE)......Page 151
Organizing imperial society: household registration, military service, and land tenure......Page 155
The public sector in the Qin economy......Page 166
Early Han fiscal and monetary policies......Page 173
Local society in the early Han......Page 185
Fiscal centralization under Emperor Wu......Page 192
The struggle over Wu’s legacy: the debates on salt and iron......Page 203
Conclusion......Page 211
4 Magnate society and the estate economy (81 BCE to 485 CE)......Page 227
Agricultural transformation in the Han period......Page 230
The rise of the estate economy......Page 236
Population trends......Page 246
Commerce, cities, and foreign trade......Page 253
Economic retrenchment during the Period of Disunion......Page 265
Settlement and economic development in Jiangnan under the southern dynasties......Page 271
Conclusion......Page 279
5 The Chinese-nomad synthesis and the reunification of the empire (485 to 755)......Page 293
Recovery and stabilization under the Northern Wei......Page 297
State-building in the reunified empire: Sui and Tang......Page 312
Agricultural and industrial development......Page 327
International trade in the heyday of the Silk Road......Page 334
The economic impact of Buddhism......Page 340
Demise of the Northern Wei institutional heritage......Page 345
Conclusion......Page 348
6 Economic transformation in the Tang-Song transition (755 to 1127)......Page 359
Economic consequences of the An Lushan rebellion......Page 362
Rise of the rice economy......Page 374
The return to mercantilist fiscal policies......Page 386
Wang Anshi’s new policies......Page 399
The great leap forward in economic productivity......Page 409
Conclusion......Page 421
7 The heyday of the Jiangnan economy (1127–1550)......Page 433
Fiscal policy in the Southern Song......Page 435
Trade, enterprise, and finance......Page 450
The land market......Page 460
The economic consequences of Mongol rule in China......Page 467
The early Ming reversal......Page 476
Conclusion......Page 487
8 The maturation of the market economy (1550 to 1800)......Page 500
Commercial revival in the late Ming......Page 502
The silver economy and the seventeenth-century crisis......Page 517
Fiscal governance under Manchu rule......Page 525
The economic boom of the eighteenth century......Page 537
Business organization and credit markets......Page 556
Conclusion......Page 570
9 Domestic crises and global challenges: restructuring the imperial economy (1800 to 1900)......Page 586
Measuring economic performance in late imperial China......Page 589
Economic depression in early nineteenth-century China......Page 604
Fiscal and economic strategies of the late Qing state......Page 621
The new institutional matrix in finance and commerce......Page 636
Conclusion......Page 651
Bibliography......Page 669
Index......Page 763