EH327      One Unit
China's Economy and its Growth in the Very Long-Term

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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The course explores main aspects China’s very long term economic growth from c. 220 B.C. when the Chinese Empire took shape to the present-day growth and development.

The course contains a survey of general models, themes and debate regarding Chinese economic history. It is followed by particular issues: formation, expansion and function of the Chinese empire; function of Confucian values and state economic polices; establishment of property rights; nature of the peasantry and peasant economy; development of handicrafts and proto-industrialisation; growth in commerce and trade; emergence of science and technology; trends of demographic fluctuations; levels of living standards; shocks from internal and foreign sources; mechanisms of socio-economic equilibrium. It will also deal with China’s current rise as a new economic power.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 40 hours across Autumn Term and Winter Term, with 1-2 revision sessions in the Spring Term.

This course includes a reading week in the Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Students are expected to do prior readings and to make presentations on a regular basis.

One formative essay (1200 words) in the AT.

One formative essay (1200 words) in the WT.

A full reading list and course outline are available on Moodle. The following readings provide indication of the scope and nature of materials used in the course: K G Deng, 'A Critical Survey of Recent Research in of Chinese Economic History', Economic History Review (2000); J K Fairbank, Chinese Thought and Institutions (1957); M Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past (1973); C A Ronan, The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China (1978-86); J Y Lin, 'The Needham Puzzle: Why the Industrial Revolution did not Originate in China', Economic Development and Cultural Change (1995); G W Skinner, The City in Late Imperial China (1977); J Lee & F Wang, One Quarter of Humanity (1999); K Pomeranz, The Great Divergence, Europe, China and the Making of the Modern World Economy (2000); A Watson, Economic Reform and Social Change in China (1992); R B Wong, China Transformed (1997); K Deng ‘Imperial China under the Song and Late Qing’, in Andrew Monson and Walter Scheidel (eds), Fiscal Regimes and Political Economy of Premodern States,  Cambridge University Press (2015): ch. 10 (pp. 308–42). Deng, Kent and Zheng, Lucy (2015) Economic restructuring and demographic growth: demystifying growth and development in Northern Song China, 960–1127 Economic History Review, 68 (4). 1107-1131.

Exam (70%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Essay (20%, 2000 words)

Course participation (10%)