Finding a Germ of Transition to Capitalism within China

Abstract

Recent research shows the need to reinterpret nineteenth-century China’s economic condition, which can be defined as the beginning point of a transition to capitalism. I expand on the theoretical implications of the historical capitalism over the longue duree to theorize the great transformation of China’s economy from pre-capitalist to capitalist. I present a theoretical framework of China’s incorporation process that highlights how the nineteenth-century Chinese economy was gradually turned into a capitalist economy within the dynamics of the capitalist world economy, which led to China’s capitalist transition. To compartmentalize the nineteenth-century China’s incorporation process, I present two ideal types, the capitalist world economy’s positive and negative impacts and China’s active and passive responses. Then, I analyze how each incorporation process makes way for the Chinese economy’s capitalist transition. I also present historical evidences that Qing governmental apparatus, directly or indirectly, serves to foster China’s capitalist transition. It informs us of a hitherto unnoticed phenomenon, non-European areas’ capitalist transition; engagement with Western impact, which triggered both positive and negative impacts on China; and China’s active and passive responses. This serves to find a legacy of the nineteenth century China, as a tumultuous and complex initial stage of China’s capitalist transition process.