Course Description
Chinese economic history in world perspective, from the medieval commercial revolutions to the 19th-century crisis. The rise of European-dominated industrial capitalism was a reversal of long-term trends of a China-centered world system. A comparative approach will explain how the Chinese and European economic trajectories diverged between labor intensive commercialization and land-intensive capitalism.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
In order to achieve mastery of the major theoretical and
interpretive issues in the field, graduate students will be
challenged to read additional books and articles. Their papers
and other written assignments will be graded with more rigorous
academic standards and higher intellectual expectations than
those submitted by undergraduate students. As a capstone
project, graduate students will write a 25-page historical
research paper, on a course-related topic to be devised in
conjunction with the instructor. Intended to introduce them to
and familiarize them with the writing and practice of history,
the research paper will require graduate students to read
primary sources (in translation, when necessary) and synthesize
them into an interpretation of an event or process in Chinese
economic history.
Athena Title
Chinese Industrial Revolution
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Writing-intensive and discussion-driven, this course will emphasize the development of critical thinking skills. In a series of weekly papers and analytical essays, students will test historiographic models against the empirical evidence. In a final paper, students will have the opportunity to offer an interpretation of Chinese economic history in world perspective. Course requirements will emphasize active participation in discussions.
Topical Outline
I. Core and Periphery: China and Western Europe in the Medieval World-System II. The Early Modern Chinese Economy: Commercialization without Capitalism? III. The Early Modern European Economy: From Commercialization to Capitalism IV. Divergent Historical Trajectories: Labor-Intensive vs. Land-Intensive Paths V. Re-Orientations: Towards a Comparative Economic Macrohistory