ABSTRACT
The historiography of the pre-1949 Chinese economy has recently begun to take a new direction, as scholars in both China and the West emphasize the successes as well as the failures of China's early modern economic development. Quantitative studies are revealing that very considerable growth took place, especially in the modern sector, so that the old problematic of stagnation is no longer appropriate. China's organizational heritage, both state and private, is now also seen" as having had a favourable rather than a purely negative impact on China's development.
