University of Groningen
Essays on China’s Economic History of the Late Qing Empire
Ma, Ye
DOI:
10.33612/diss.146792235
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Publication date: 2020
Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database
Citation for published version (APA):
Ma, Y. (2020). Essays on China’s Economic History of the Late Qing Empire: Historical GDP, Early Industrialisation and the Qing State’s Role in Economic Development. University of Groningen, SOM research school. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.146792235
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Propositions
This study on China’s historical GDP and population reveals a lower level of living standards and economic growth in the period 1840–1912 compared with other studies, suggesting that the welfare gap with advanced economies had widened even more at the turn of the twentieth century.
The new historical GDP estimation shows that the economy of the late Qing Empire was predominantly agricultural, which contrasts with the fast industrialisation in the world economy.
A new benchmark for China’s early manufacturing sector indicates a catching up in labour productivity in the inter-war period vis-à-vis the early industrialisers; however, the
improvement was not unique for China, as this also happened in other Asian economies. China’s industrialisation before WWII was region-specific: the lower Yangzi delta seemed to be not so different from other regions in the 1910s, whereas Manchuria already stood out early on, with a high level of labour productivity similar to the Japanese level.
Before 1896 the Qing state’s investment in new technology and new methods of production was concentrated in only a few provinces. In 1910, these investments covered almost all provinces, which reveals a pattern of geographical expansion of China’s early
industrialisation.
The Qing state’s investment may have had a negative influence on private manufacturing industry; however, investments in military construction had promoted heavy industry in some provinces.
The state civilian granary system was able to stabilise grain prices in the Qing period only in the eighteenth century, implying that the system was on the decline in the nineteenth century. The influence of the granary system depended partly on the location of a province relative to major inland waterways. The usefulness of the granary system, however, was conditional on a sufficient level of grain storage, which may have limited the effectiveness of the system. Groningen will always be my second hometown.
