Re-thinking the Late Imperial Chinese Economy: Development, Disaggregation and Decline, circa 1730–1930

Abstract

In this paper, I want to explore a very simple contrast which has many potential implications. China at the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth century was, by most measures, a very poor society. China in the latter part of the eighteenth century seemed – both to its own members and to most, though not all, visitors from abroad – a very rich society. So what happened in between?