The Great Divergence
reduced fertility rate relieved population growth and pressures on resources which then ensured a higher marginal product of labour and increased income per capita (Koyama and Rubin 2022, 99). People then began to spend more money on consumer goods and, to continue spending, had to increase their labour inputs, which facilitated the rise of the factories. In conclusion, China’s smooth topography and unchallenged political power facilitated its primary focus: the maintenance of order and stability. In pursuing this goal China harnessed a society that was averse to risk and therefore experimentation, exploration, and change as well. The means to exchange a variety of ideas and apply theories was the most important factor for industrialization, and the civil service exam and the turn away from foreign cultures diminished China’s scope for innovation. Europe, on the other hand, had developed institutions to challenge and disseminate ideas as well as systems that promoted cumulative application of knowledge to machines. As ideas, people, and machines developed, as did the factories, helped by the Atlantic economy and a favourable demography. It was the combination of these factors that explain Britain’s industrial ization and China’s stagnation.
Bibliography
Andornino, G. (2006) ‘The Nature and Linkages of China’s Tributary System under the Ming and Qing Dynasties’ , Working Papers of the Global Economic History Network 21.6:1-42 Barrett, O. (2022) China’s Tang Dynasty: A Cosmopolitan Golden Age. https://www.thecollector.com/tang- dynasty-golden-age-china/ 27/08/23 Baumol, W. (1990) ‘ Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive. ’ Journal of Political Economy 98.5: 893 – 921. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2937617 Bileta, V. ‘Zheng He’s Last Voyage: How Ming China Closed Themselves to the World.’ https://www.thecollector.com/zheng-he-closing-ming-china/. 27/08/23. Brandt, L., Ma. D and Rawski, T. (2014) ‘ From divergence to convergence: reevaluating the history behind China’s economic boom.’ Journal of Economic Literature 52.1: 45 – 123. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24433858 Cartwright, M. ‘ The Textile Industry in the British Industrial Revolution ’, at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2183/the-textile-industry-in-the-british-industrial- rev/. 01/09/23. Cartwright, M. ‘ The Steam Engine in the British Industrial Revolution ’, at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2166/the-steam-engine-in-the-british-industrial- revolut/#google_vignette. 01/09/23. Chang, Kuei-Sheng. (1974) ‘ The Maritime Scene in China at the Dawn of Great European Discoveries ’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 94.3: 347 – 59. https://doi.org/10.2307/600069 Cohen, Myron L. The Confucian Classics & the Civil Service Examinations. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/irc/classics.htm. 27/08/23. Diamond, J. (1997) Gun, Germs, and Steel. London Goldstone, J. (1996) ‘Gender, work, an d culture: why the industrial revolution came early to England but late to China.’ Sociological Perspectives 39.1: 1 – 21. https://doi.org/10.2307/1389340. Gronewald, S. (n.d.) The Ming Voyages. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000ce_mingvoyages.htm. 28/08/23 Jacques, M. (2009) When China Rules the World. London
268
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting