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Document Type

Article

Abstract

At the turn of the first millennium A.D. the Chinese empire was perhaps the most technologically and economically advanced civilization on the planet. Economic historians continue to wonder why China stopped progressing along a path which seemed to promise an industrial revolution similar to that experienced by the West. This paper examines how the social and political institutions which made pre-industrial China different from Europe may have prevented such a revolution from happening. The imperial bureaucracy, Confucian philosophy and the centralized nature of the empire all played a role in preventing China from escaping the pre-modern world until the 20th century.

Publication Date

Spring 2001

Journal Title

Major Themes in Economics

Volume

3

Issue

1

First Page

35

Last Page

52

Copyright

©2001 by Major Themes in Economics

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Economics Commons

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