China, Europe, and the Great Divergence: A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980-1850

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: University of Oxford; Peking University; Tsinghua University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050718000529
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 955-1000
• 关键词: england; ECONOMY; prices; state; wages; delta; iron

摘要

As a result of recent advances in historical national accounting, estimates of GDP per capita are now available for a number of European economies back to the medieval period, including Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. The approach has also been extended to Asian economies, including India and Japan. So far, however, China, which has been at the center of the Great Divergence debate, has been absent from this approach. This article adds China to the picture, showing that the Great Divergence began earlier than originally suggested by the California School, but later than implied by older Eurocentric writers.