ABSTRACT
The Qing economy and the idea of economic growth In this chapter, I will discuss the political economy of Qing China (1644-1912). I will focus on ‘practices’ more than on abstract ‘theories’ and will systematically compare Qing China’s case with that of Western Europe in the early modern era. As an economic historian of Western Europe in that era I will certainly even with my ever-increasing interest in the history of East Asia have a certain Eurocentric bias in the sense that my knowledge of the European case is deeper and broader than that of the Chinese case for which I have based myself on quite general literature. I nevertheless hope the text will be interesting and relevant for scholars of both regions. The bulk of the text will deal with roughly the fi rst 200 years of Qing rule till the 1840s, in which China’s rulers could basically implement their ideas unchallenged. The much smaller second part deals with roughly the last half century of their rule in which they had to confront the challenge of ‘modernization’.
