Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T06:38:19.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Before the Great Divergence? Comparing the Yangzi Delta and the Netherlands at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2012

Bozhong Li  and
Jan Luiten van Zanden
Bozhong Li*
Affiliation:
Chair Professor, Division of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: bozhong.li@gmail.com.
Jan Luiten van Zanden*
Affiliation:
Professor of, Economic History, Utrecht University, Drift 10, 3512 BS Utrecht, The Netherlands. E-mail: jvz@iisg.nl.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article tests recent ideas about the long-term economic development of China compared with Europe on the basis of a detailed comparison of structure and level of GDP in part of the Yangzi delta and the Netherlands in the 1820s. We find that Dutch GDP per capita was almost twice as high as in the Yangzi delta. Agricultural productivity there was at about the same level as in the Netherlands (and England), but large productivity gaps existed in industry and services. We attempt to explain this concluding that differences in factor costs are probably behind disparities in labor productivity.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , 14 December 2012 , pp. 956 - 989
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, Robert C. “Agricultural Productivity and Rural Incomes in England and the Yangtze Delta, c. 1620–c.1820.” Economic History Review 62, no. 3 (2009a): 525–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Robert C.. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Robert C., Bassino, Jean-Pascal, Ma, Debin, Moll-Murata, Christine, and van Zanden, Jan Luiten. “Wages, Prices, and Living Standards in China, Japan, and Europe, 1738–1925.” Economic History Review 64, no. 1 (2011): 8–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergere, Marie Claire. Shanghai shi: zouxiang xiandai zhilu (History of Shanghai). Shanghai: Shanghai shehuikexue chubanshe, 2005.Google Scholar
Bieleman, Jan. Geschiedenis van de landbouw in Nederland, 1500–1950: veranderingen en verscheidenheid. Meppel: Boom, 1992.Google Scholar
Broadberry, Stephen N., and Gupta, Bishnupriya. “The Early Modern Great Divergence: Wages, Prices, and Economic Development in Europe and Asia, 1500–1800.” Economic History Review 59 (2006): 2–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buringh, Pieter, van Heemstra, H. D. J., and Staring, G. J.. Computation of the Absolute Maximum Food Production of the World. Wageningen: Agricultural University, 1975.Google Scholar
Burnette, Joyce. Gender, Work, and Wages in Industrial Revolution Britain. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawfurd, John. Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin-China, Exhibiting a View of the Actual State of These Kingdoms. 2 vols. London: Colburn and Bentley, 1830.Google Scholar
Jan, de Vries. Barges and Capitalism: Passenger Transportation in the Dutch Economy (1632–1839). Utrecht: Hes Publishers, 1978.Google Scholar
Jan, de Vries. “The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution.” The Journal of Economic History 54, no. 2 (1994): 249–70.Google Scholar
Elving, Mark. The Pattern of the Chinese Past: A Social and Economic Interpretation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Fang, Hanqi. Zhongguo xinwen shiye tongshi (A History of Chinese Journalism), Vol. 1. Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 1996.Google Scholar
Gernet, Jacques. A History of Chinese Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Griffiths, Richard T.Industrial Retardation in the Netherlands, 1830–1850. Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Huimin, ed. Songjang xianzhi (The Gazetteer of Songjiang County). Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1991.Google Scholar
Hemels, J. M. H. J.De Nederlandse pers voor en na de afschaffing van het dagbladzegel in 1869. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1969.Google Scholar
Ho, Ping-ti. Studies on the Population of China, 1368–1953. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horlings, Edwin. The Economic Development of the Dutch Service Sector, 1800–1850. Amsterdam: NEHA, 1995.Google Scholar
Jansen, Michael. De Industriele Ontwikkeling in Nederland, 1800–1850. Amsterdam: NEHA, 1998.Google Scholar
Jones, Eric. The European Miracle: Environments, Economies, and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Kander, Astrid, and Warde, Paul. “Energy Availability from Livestock and Agricultural Productivity in Europe, 1815–1913, A New Comparison.” The Economic History Review 64, no. 1 (2011): 1–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knaap, Gerrit, and Sutherland, Heather. Monsoon Traders: Ships, Skippers, and Commodities in Eighteenth-Century Makassar. Leiden, KITLV Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knibbe, Merijn. Agriculture in the Netherlands, 1851–1950. Amsterdam: NEHA, 1993.Google Scholar
Kuznets, S.Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure, and Spread. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Landes, David S.The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.Google Scholar
Li, Bozhong. “‘Zuidi shenghuo shuizhun’ yu ‘renkou yali’ zhiyi (Querying ‘Living Standard of Minimum Subsistence and ‘Population Pressure’ in the Study of Chinese Economic History).” In Zhongguo shehui jingjishi yanjiu (Xiamen, no. 1 (1996).Google Scholar
Landes, David S.. Agricultural Development in Jiangnan, 1620–1850. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Landes, David S.. Jiangnan de zaoqi gongyehu, 1550–1850 (The Early Industrialization in the Yangzi Delta, 1550–1850). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2000.Google Scholar
Landes, David S.. “Wages in Huating-Lou. 1820s.” Frontiers of History in China 3, no. 4 (2008): 1–38.Google Scholar
Landes, David S.. “Involution and Chinese Cotton Textile Production: Songjiang in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries.” In The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles, 1200–1850, edited by Riello, Giorgio and Parthaasarathi, Prasannan, 387–97. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Riello, Giorgio and Parthaasarathi, Prasannan. Zhongguo de zaogi jindai jingji: 1820 niandai Huanting-Louxian diqu GDP yanjiu (An early modern economy in China: A study of the GDP of Huating-Lou area, 1820s). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2010.Google Scholar
Riello, Giorgio and Parthaasarathi, Prasannan. “An Early Modern Economy in China: A Study of the GDP of the Huating-Lou Area, 1823–1829.” CGEH Working Paper 18. Forthcoming in New Perspectives on Historical Chinese Market Economy: Studies of Late Imperial Lower Yangzi Delta, edited by Billy K. L. So. Routhledge: Academia Sinica Series, 2012.Google Scholar
Li, Wenzi, and Taixin, Jiang. Qingdai caoyun. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1995.Google Scholar
Lindsay, Hugh Hamilton. Report of Proceedings on a Voyage to the Northern Ports of China in the Ship Lord Amherst. London: B. Fellowes, 1833.Google Scholar
Ti, Liu. “1600–1840 nian Zhongguo guonei shengchan zongzhi de gusuan (An Estimate of China's GDP from 1600 to 1840).” Jingji yanjiu (Beijing), no. 10 (2009): 144–55.Google Scholar
Lucassen, Jan, and Unger, Richard W.. “Economic Growth in the Lower Yangzi Region of China in 1911–1937.” International Journal of Maritime History 12, no. 2 (2000): 127–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ma, Debin. “Economic Growth in the Lower Yangzi Region of China in 1911–1937: A Quantitative and Historical Analysis.” The Journal of Economic History 68, no. 2 (2008): 355–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddison, Angus. The World Economy: Historical Statistics. Paris: OECD, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsuura, Akira. Qingdai fanchuan dongya hangyun yu zhongguo haishang haidao yanjiu (A Study of Junk Transportation in East Asia and Chinese Sea Merchants and Pirates). Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 2009.Google Scholar
Minami Manshu tetsudo kabushiki kaisha Shanghai jimusho (Mantetsu). Koso-sho So-kan ken noson jittai chosa hokokusho (Investigation of rural situations of Songjiang County, Jiangsu Province). Np, 1941.Google Scholar
Ni, Yuping. “Qi Yanhuai yu daoguang chunian caoliang haiyun (Qi Yanhuai and the sea transportation of the tribute grain in the Daoguang reign).” Qingshi luncong (Beijing), issued yearly (2006): 212–22.Google Scholar
Perkins, Dwight. Agricultural Development in China, 1368–1968. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1968.Google Scholar
Pomeranz, Kenneth. The Great Divergence. China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, Christopher A.Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876–1937. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent, and Bin Wong, R.. Before and Beyond Divergence: The Politics of Economic Change in China and Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiba, Yoshinobu. “Sodai no shohi-seisan suijun shitan (A Study of Consumption and Production in Song China).” Chuguku shigaku, Tokyo, no. 1 (1991): 147–72.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: The Electric Book Company Ltd., 1998 [1776].Google Scholar
Smits, J. P. H.Economische Groei en Structuurveranderingen in de Nederlandse dienstensector, 1850–1913. Amsterdam: NEHA, 1995.Google Scholar
Smits, J. P. H., Horlings, Edwin, and van Zanden, Jan Luiten. Dutch GNP and Its Components, 1800–1913. Groningen: Growth and Development Centre, 2000.Google Scholar
G.van der Poel, J. M. van der Poel, J. M. “De landbouw-enquête van 1800.” Historia Agriculturae 1 (1953): 48–194.Google Scholar
G.van der Poel, J. M. van der Poel, J. M.. “De landbouw-enquête van 1800.” Historia Agriculturae 2 (1954): 45–233.Google Scholar
van Dyke, Paul A.The Canton Trade: Life and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700–1845. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
van Zanden, Jan Luiten. De economische ontwikkeling van de Nederlandse landbouw in de negentiende eeuw, 1800–1914. Wageningen: Landbouwuniversiteit, 1985.Google Scholar
van Zanden, Jan Luiten. “Taking the Measure of the Early Modern Economy: Historical National Accounts for Holland in 1510/14.” European Review of Economic History 6, no. 2 (2002): 3–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Zanden, Jan Luiten, and Leeuwen, Bas van. “Persistent But Not Consistent: The Growth of National Income in Holland, 1347–1807.” Explorations in Economic History 49, no. 2 (2012): 119–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Zanden, Jan Luiten, and Riel, Arthur van. The Strictures of Inheritance: State, Economy, and Institutional Change in the Netherlands, 1780–1914. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Zanden, Jan Luiten, and Tielhof, Milja van. “Roots of Growth and Productivity Change in Dutch Shipping Industry, 1500–1800.” Explorations in Economic History 46, no. 3 (2009): 389–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voth, Hans-Joachim. Time and Work in England, 1750–1830. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Wei, Yuan. Wei Yuan quanji (The complete works of Wei Yuan). Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 2004.Google Scholar
Wrigley, E. A. “Energy Availability and Agricultural Productivity.” In Land, Labor, and Livestock, edited by Campbell, B. M. S. and Overton, M., 323–39. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Xu, Xinqu. Jiangnan tubushi (A history of cotton cloth in Jiangnan). Shanghai: shehui kexue chubanshe, 1992.Google Scholar
Xue, Yong. “A ‘Fertilizer Revolution’? A Critical Resonse to Pomeranz's Theory of ‘Geographic Luck’.” Modern China 33, no. 2 (2007): 195–229.Google Scholar