Edited by Thomas G. Rawski and Lillian M. Li, University of California Press, November 1992

The essays assembled here represent a turning point in the study of Chinese economic history. Previous work has emphasized the institutional and social bases of economic change. These studies break new ground, bringing Western economic theory to the study of China's economy since the seventeenth century.

Ten impressively researched essays prove the editors' point that "historians can and should enrich their work through the use of economic theory, as well as common economic methods." The first five, under the heading "Price Behavior," deal with grain prices and family planning of Qing Dynasty China. The others, in the section "Market Response," address agricultural, labor, and monetary issues during the Republican period. The authors could have done more to link their findings to broader issues of Chinese history, but they certainly have given social historians much to ponder. Recommended for China studies and international economics collections. (From Library Journal)

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About the Author:

Thomas G. Rawski is Professor of Economics and History at the University of Pittsburgh. Lillian M. Li is Professor of History at Swarthmore College.

Preface: 

This volume is based on papers and discussions from the Workshop and Conference on Economic Methods for Chinese Historical Research sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Science Foundation and held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in January 1987 and Oracle, Arizona, in January 1988. In the 1987 workshop, a number of economists who work in economic history were asked to prepare seminars on broad subjects, such as choice, long-term trends, macroeconomics, international and interregional issues, and economic institutions, for which the historian-participants had prepared by doing assigned readings. The fact that none of the economists, except Thomas G. Rawski, were China specialists added an important comparative dimension to the proceedings. The economists were Jon Cohen, University of Toronto; Peter H. Lindert, University of California, Davis; Donald N. McCloskey, University of Iowa; and Richard Sutch, University of California, Berkeley. The papers they delivered at this meeting, together with additional material on monetary and labor economics, will be published separately in a volume entitled Economics and the Historian .

The same group of historians and economists convened at the 1988 conference. This time, however, the historians presented their papers, which they had written on the basis of guidelines and suggestions from the previous year, and the economists served as the discussants. In addition to those participants whose papers are included in this volume, I-chun Fan, Bozhong Li, and Guangyuan Zhou also attended the conference. Their participation and the contributions of the economists are gratefully acknowledged by the editors and authors of this volume.

We would also like to express our gratitude to Julius Rubin, who helped us start the whole project, to two anonymous referees for their insightful reviews of the entire manuscript, to David Arkush, Philip Kuhn, Susan Naquin, Evelyn S. Rawski, and William T. Rowe for their assistance in revising the introductory essay, to Shu-jen Yeh for helping to prepare the glossary and the bibliography, and to Eleanor Bennett, Sarah S. Fought, William Karunaratne, Debbie Kwolek, Patty Huchber, Sharon Wetzel, and Debra Ziolkowski for their invaluable efforts behind the scenes.

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