The Economic History of China Quotes

“By the time Zhu Yuanzhang (Emperor Hongwu, r. 1368–98) vanquished the last of his rivals and founded the Ming dynasty in 1368, millions had died and the economy was in ruins. Hongwu was determined to eradicate what he regarded as the pernicious influence of Mongol customs and to restore the institutions and values of the agrarian society enshrined in the Confucian Classics.”
― Richard von Glahn, The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century

“During the Southern Song period, the ascendant Neo-Confucian political philosophy stressed moral rejuvenation and community-based reforms under local leadership rather than state-driven institutional transformation. Nonetheless, the turn toward monetization of taxes and procurement of military provisions through market mechanisms continued and even intensified during the Southern Song.”
― Richard von Glahn, The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century

“As we saw in Chapter 6, commercial growth fostered urban development, especially in the Jiangnan region. Although we lack empire-wide commercial tax data for the Southern Song, commercial taxes in Jiangnan cities rose sharply compared to the Northern Song (Table 7.6), attesting to the robust vitality of the regional economy. Sustained growth in urban population led to a corresponding increase in the concentration of purchasing power in the cities.”
― Richard von Glahn, The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century

“China’s extraordinary rise as an economic powerhouse in the past two decades poses a challenge to many long-held assumptions about the relationship between political institutions and economic development.”
― Richard von Glahn, The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century