Miracle or Mirage? Foreign Silver, China's Economy and Globalization From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries

Deng, Kent

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0106.2008.00404.x

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…In the absence of a reliable government-issued, large-denomination currency, the Chinese used silver bullion and foreign denominated silver coins for large trans- (2006) and Tsuchiya and Yamaguchi (1972); (2) DQHD (Yongzheng edition) and Vaporis (1994); (3) Rozman (1973, Table 5); (4) Saito (2009); (5) Eto (1970);Yoshida (1991);Wang (1985Wang ( [1890); Will and Wong (1991); Li and Jiang (2008) actions. As Deng (2008) put it, "China's silver stock was made of a collage of pieces in just about all shapes, sizes and qualities under the sun." Lin (2006) suggests that even in its heyday, the Qing state did not produce enough copper coins to satisfy the needs of its growing population.…”

Section: Coinagementioning

confidence: 99%

Asia’s little divergence: state capacity in China and Japan before 1850

Sng

Moriguchi

2014

J Econ Growth

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This paper explores the role of state capacity in the comparative economic development of China and Japan. Before 1850, both nations were ruled by stable dictators who relied on bureaucrats to govern their domains. We hypothesize that agency problems increase with the geographical size of a domain. In a large domain, the ruler's inability to closely monitor bureaucrats creates opportunities for the bureaucrats to exploit taxpayers. To prevent overexploitation, the ruler has to keep taxes low and government small. Our dynamic model shows that while economic expansion improves the ruler's finances in a small domain, it could lead to lower tax revenues in a large domain as it exacerbates bureaucratic expropriation. To check these implications, we assemble comparable quantitative data from primary and secondary sources. We find that the state taxed less and provided fewer local public goods per capita in China than in Japan. Furthermore, while the Tokugawa shogunate's tax revenue grew in tandem with demographic trends, Qing China underwent fiscal contraction after 1750 despite demographic expansion. We conjecture that a greater state capacity might have prepared Japan better for the transition from stagnation to growth.Keywords Comparative institutional analysis · Geography · Principal-agent problem · Institutions and growth JEL Classification D73 · N15 · N40 · O43 · P52

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Section: Coinagementioning

confidence: 99%

Asia’s little divergence: state capacity in China and Japan before 1850

Sng

Moriguchi

2014

J Econ Growth

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“…In early seventeenth-century Lower Yangzi, cash components were around 20 per cent of a hired farmhand's wage, with the remainder being foods and other payments in-kind. 10 The portion of cash wages for unskilled urban workers were higher, usually ranging between 20 and 40 per cent (Deng andO'Brien 2016, 1063). The market premium found in the test falls into the range of the cash component of unskilled wages.…”

Section: Wage Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Wages, Labour Markets, and Living Standards in China, 1530-1840

Liu¹

2023

Preprint

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“…Some works support both parties in this vein by claiming, "What began as an age of globalizationsoft and limited, but realended as an age of colonialism, something completely different." (de Vries, 2010) Flynn and Giraldez (2004) were criticized for their incomplete understanding of the ramifications of foreign silver in China, with research showing that an analysis of silver in Early-Modern China must be nuancedboth macroeconomically and microeconomically, to grasp its full effects (Deng, 2008). Still other works suggest that within both schools of thought there discrepancies in the definition of Globalization, which carry significant impacts.…”

Section: Commentary On the Two Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Furthering the debate on globalization’s origins: New evidence

Leffler¹

2016

JGBI

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Throughout recorded human history there have been small shifts in how humans have interacted with each other. The ancient empires of the Far East, Near East, and Europe emerged from the city and city-states, tribe and communities began to trade with each other, written language allowed for the transference of knowledge between cultures and across the span of time. Of these monumental shifts there have been few. The most recent of these event thresholds is Globalization. Globalization is here, for our benefit or loss, and has begun to affect every part of our society: from the goods we consume, to the money we use, to the music we listen to, to the people we are friends with. Subsequently, one of the most prevalent questions in most social science literature is: How long has Globalization been around? By examining literature on multiple sides of the globalization discourse, specifically new evidence from social scientists examining greater arrays of early traded commodities, this paper will further the argument that economic globalization began in the early 16 th century with the birth and expansion of inter-continental trade between the New World, Asia, and Europe. At the same time, this paper will refute the opposing arguments against this theory and the opposing theory that Globalization has only really began in the early 20 th century.

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Miracle or Mirage? Foreign Silver, China's Economy and Globalization From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries

Cited by 19 publications

References 25 publications

Asia’s little divergence: state capacity in China and Japan before 1850

Asia’s little divergence: state capacity in China and Japan before 1850

Wages, Labour Markets, and Living Standards in China, 1530-1840

Furthering the debate on globalization’s origins: New evidence

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