Measuring the Early Modern and Modern Chinese Economy : Data, Methods, and Limits

This is a comprehensive guide to measuring the performance of the Chinese economy in historical context, bridging the gap between economic methods and economic history to showcase the cutting edge of quantitative Chinese economic history research. The book brings together contributions from active scholars working in the area, integrating perspectives and methods from economics, history, and the digital humanities. It shows how Chinese economic history has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field over the past two decades, one that has increasingly adopted economic concepts and methodologies while maintaining a strong qualitative research tradition. The book sheds light on new data sources, methodologies and debates in Chinese economic history research while spanning core topics including taxation, land property, rural economy, population, gross domestic product, wage, lineage, and urbanisation. Chapters survey with unprecedented depth and breadth in current literature how economic data in Chinese history were generated, processed, and utilized byboth the state and the private sector. This volume is expected to help students better identify emerging types of historical data, how to make meaningful use of them, and gain deeper insights into the early modern and modern economic history of China.