The Cambridge Economic History of China

A comprehensive survey of Chinese economic history from 1800 to the present from an international team of leading experts.

Debin Ma (Edited by), Richard von Glahn (Edited by)

9781108425537, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 February 2022

864 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 4.3 cm, 1.5 kg

China's rise as the world's second-largest economy surely is the most dramatic development in the global economy since the year 2000. Volume II, which spans China's two turbulent centuries from 1800, charts this wrenching process of an ancient empire being transformed to re-emerge as a major world power. This volume for the first time brings together the fruits of pioneering international scholarship in all dimensions of economic history to provide an authoritative and comprehensive overview of this tumultuous and dramatic transformation. In many cases, it offers a fundamental reinterpretation of major themes in Chinese economic history, such as the role of ideology, the rise of new institutions, human capital and public infrastructure, the impact of Western and Japanese imperialism, the role of external trade and investment, and the evolution of living standards in both the pre-Communist and Communist eras. The volume includes seven important chapters on the Mao and reform eras and provides a critical historical perspective linking the past with the present and future.

Introduction to Volume II Debin Ma and Richard von Glahn
Part I. 1800–1950: 1. Ideology and the contours of economic change Debin Ma
2. Economic transition in the nineteenth century William Rowe
3. Agriculture Debin Ma and Kaixiang Peng
4. Handicraft and modern industries Linda Grove and Toru Kubo
5. The state and enterprises in late Qing China Chi-kong Lai
6. State enterprises during the first half of the twentieth century Morris L. Bian
7. Money and macro-economy Dan Li, Hongzhong Yan
8. Public finance Elisabeth Kaske and May-li Lin
9. Financial institutions and financial markets Bret Sheehan and Yingui Zhu
10. Chinese business organization Madeleine Zelin
11. The economic impact of the West: A reappraisal James Kung
12. Foreign trade and investment Carol Shiue and Wolfgang Keller
13. Transport and communication infrastructure Elisabeth Köll
14. Education and human capital Pei Gao, Bas van Leeuwen, Meimei Wang
Part II. 1950–Present: 15. The origin of China's communist institutions Chenggang Xu
16. China under the command economy in 1950–1977 Dwight H. Perkins
17. Living standards in Maoist China Chris Bramall
18. The political economy of China's Great Leap Famine James Kung
19. China's external economic relations during the Mao era Amy King
20. Chinese economy in the reform era Barry Naughton
21. China's great boom as a historical process Loren Brandt and Thomas G. Rawski.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Asian history [HBJF]