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China’s Early Industrialization in the Age of the European Colonial Powers: A Controversial Beginning

At the end of the nineteenth century, China presented the characteristics of a stationary economy, rich in resources but weakened by a traditional society and a lack of understanding of economic dynamics. The extraordinary fact was that until the eighteenth century, China was equal to, if not more advanced than, Europe in scientific, technological knowledge and manufacturing processes. Scholars in the second half of the twentieth century underlined that China’s traditional society failed to create endogenous factors that would have encouraged the rise of capitalism and drew attention to ineffective institutions and government policies. More recently, modern scholars have explained that “divergence” was caused by the lack of available commodities. The empire barely stayed ahead of a soaring population and could not cope with the higher demand for natural resources. This article proposes an overview of this debate and examines arguments that are still open to intellectual contribution.