An Early Modern Economy in China: The Yangzi Delta in the 1820s

Description

The first English translation of Li Bozhong's pioneering study An Early Modern Economy in China uses sophisticated analysis to reconstruct the GDP of the Yangzi Delta. In this innovative economic history, Li provides a basis for understanding the Delta's economy, an area of unprecedented growth in modern times. Using quantitative research Li carefully reconstructs the economies of the region, combining three methods for estimating GDP: output, income, and expenditure. The result reveals the structure and level of income and production in this highly commercialized and urbanized part of China, establishing a benchmark for future reconstructions of regional economies through GDP. This is a landmark text in the field of economic history which has had a great impact on understanding Chinese economic history in global perspective.

Li Bozhong is Chair Professor of Humanities at Peking University, having previously taught at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Tsinghua University. He is recognised as one of the foremost scholars of the economic history of China.

'This is a bold and important book, which aims to provide a more rigorous baseline than we have had before for thinking about the early modern Chinese economy, and about East-West comparisons. And Li Bozhong, perhaps the most important economic historian of China working today, is just the person to make such an attempt. The book's argument is provocative, and parts of it will be controversial - but it rests on deep research and sophisticated methods. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the historical development of China's economy, and will remain so for years to come.' Kenneth Pomeranz, University of Chicago 'This is a monumental book in Chinese economic history. It is the first in-depth study of GDP in Jiangnan (the Yangzi Delta), which has been the most prosperous region in China for millennium, before the coming of the West. Readers of the book should thank the author for combing through thousands of historical documents and modern investigations to fill a gap in the study of Chinese economic history. The present is a continuity of the past. The book is must read in Chinese history. It helps the readers understand how China's miraculous growth after Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening up in 1978 is possible.' Justin Yifu Lin, Dean, Institute for New Structural Economics Peking University; former Chief Economist of the World Bank