Robert M. Hartwell

A Revolution in the Chinese Iron and Coal Industries During the Northern Sung, 960–1126 A.D.

Two approaches have dominated the study of Chinese industrial history. Work of the kind Professor Joseph Needham has done in his Science and Civilization in China attempts to trace the history of Chinese scientific and technological achievement from the earliest times. Recently some interesting investigations have also been made of industrialization along modern Western lines since 1800. Needham has collected valuable data about all periods but neglects the relation of technology to general economic history. From the other work we get a more or less comprehensive view of nineteenth century economic development, but this tells us nothing about an earlier era of significant growth and change. The purpose of this article is to outline the importance of iron and coal during the remarkable economic and industrial expansion which took place in the 166 years from 960 to the Jurchen conquest of North China in 1126 A.D.

A Cycle Of Economic Change In Imperial China: Coal And Iron In Northeast China, 750-1350

The phrases ttraditional Chinese economyt, ttraditional agrarian economyt, and tpre-modem Chinese economyt have been used to categorize the economic system of two millenia of Imperial Chinese history. These concepts seem to refer to an agrarian based society characterized by tax-farming merchants engaged in the sale of government monopolized staples, the diversion of business profits to noneconomicuses, the absence of an acquisitive and capitalistic spirit, a non-development of rational business methods, the low status of the merchant, and bureaucratic interference in the running of commercial establishments. This chapter shows that the origin, rapid growth and subsequent decline of the Northeastern Chinese iron and coal industries can be more adequately explained by economic forces and unique historical circumstances than by those features commonly ascribed to the ttraditional Chinese economyt. Keywords: capitalistic spirit; coal industries; iron industries; Northeastern Chinese; pre-modern Chinese economy; traditional agrarian economy; traditional Chinese economy

Markets, Technology, and the Structure of Enterprise in the Development of the Eleventh-Century Chinese Iron and Steel Industry

From about 750 to 1100, China experienced a series of economic changes roughly comparable to the subsequent patterns of European growth from the Crusades to the eve of the French Revolution. The spread in the use of money, development of new credit and fiscal institutions, increase in interregional and international trade, and colonization of hitherto marginal land which took place in the Occident during the half millennium preceding the Reformation was paralleled by an earlier era of progress in East Asia during the two-hundred-fifty years from the rebellion of An Lu-shan (755) to the treaty of Shan-yA¼an 1004). And the achievements of late sixteenthand early seventeenth-century England, which John Nef terms an “early industrial revolution,†were in many respects even exceeded by the impressive expansion of mining and manufacturing in eleventh-century China.

Financial Expertise, Examinations, and the Formulation of Economic Policy in Northern Sung China

This paper is primarily concerned with the institutional framework of economic policy formulation in China during the Northern Sung dynasty (960–1126). During this period there evolved a professional financial service whose members had a direct influence on economic legislation either as incumbents in fiscal offices or as members of Imperial advisory organs. The financial specialist was seen as possessing a specific body of expertise—administrative ability, talent in mathematics, a knowledge of classical Chinese monetary theory and familiarity with the history of economic policy. These attributes were tested in the civil service recruitment examinations and used as criteria for the recommendation and assignment of men to fiscal posts. The resulting consistency and predictability in legislation was a significant aspect of material progress in eleventh century China. The article is based on an extensive analysis of biographical information contained in chronicles, dynastic histories, records of conduct, and funerary inscriptions, as well as extant copies of examination questions and answers and edicts of appointment contained in the collected papers of Nordiern Sung writers.