题  目：The dynamics of market integration in China, 1736-1911

报告人：顾燕峰    香港科技大学

主持人：叶建亮

时  间：2013年5月31日   星期五   15:00-17:00

地  点：浙大玉泉校区外经贸大楼418室

                         欢迎广大师生参加！

                                                         CRPE秘书处
                                                          2013-5-27

Abstract

Why did China not follow the European path of modern economic growth? Conventional wisdom in economic history mainly comes from the comparison between China and Europe before the onset of the Industrial Revolution.  Yet the existing literature suffers from a paradox: some scholars emphasized the differences between the two regions and observed that when Europe initially industrialized, China experienced a long stagnation at the subsistent level; while others focused on the similarities and suggested that the two regions displayed no substantial differences in terms of economic development.  Given the key role of trade in the modern economic growth, I explore the dynamics of market development in China during 1736-1911.  The research shows that the 18^th-and-19^th-centurty China witnessed a robust U-shaped trend of market development, namely, market integration in China declined in the 18^th and the early 19^th centuries; while the market reintegrated in the second half of the 19^th century. The findings suggest that when Europe initially industrialized in the 18^th and the early 19^th centuries, Chinese market integration was deteriorating, yet recovered to the pre-recession level until the mid-19^th century.