A Cycle of Economic Change in Imperial China: Coal and Iron in Northeast China, 750-1350

Abstract

The phrases ttraditional Chinese economyt, ttraditional agrarian economyt, and tpre-modem Chinese economyt have been used to categorize the economic system of two millenia of Imperial Chinese history. These concepts seem to refer to an agrarian based society characterized by tax-farming merchants engaged in the sale of government monopolized staples, the diversion of business profits to noneconomicuses, the absence of an acquisitive and capitalistic spirit, a non-development of rational business methods, the low status of the merchant, and bureaucratic interference in the running of commercial establishments. This chapter shows that the origin, rapid growth and subsequent decline of the Northeastern Chinese iron and coal industries can be more adequately explained by economic forces and unique historical circumstances than by those features commonly ascribed to the ttraditional Chinese economyt. Keywords: capitalistic spirit; coal industries; iron industries; Northeastern Chinese; pre-modern Chinese economy; traditional agrarian economy; traditional Chinese economy

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