ABSTRACT
Between 1870 and 1936 market conditions in China were generally tolerable; population was stable, prices were low until 1900 with only a modest increase thereafter; 1 bank interest rates declined (Figure 8.1). It was remarkable that all this took place despite China’s political instability (Chapters 4–6). Key growth indices, 1800–1940 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203806418/d5ba6218-eb67-48c9-93bd-d86b95014cb0/content/fig8_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Sources: (1) Silver–gold ratio: Yu, A History of Prices in China (Beijing: China's Price Press, 2000), pp. 558, 755, 865. (2) Wholesale price index: Liu and Wang, Market Development and Economic Growth in Early Modern China (Beijing: TEP, 1996), pp. 164–5. (3) Shanghai banks' short-term interest rates, based on ibid. pp. 257–8. (4) Population growth, Deng, ‘Official Census Data’, Appendix 2.
