Identify the main differences between the economies of Europe and China in the three centuries before 1800. What factors can account for these differences and what were their implications on economic wellbeing?
INTRODUCTION
Over the centuries pre-1800 there have been many economic circumstances that have had different implications for both China and Europe and have thus since created many differences in their individual situations of economic wellbeing. My essay will discuss and outline the main conflicts of interests between both the European and Chinese economies whilst discussing the reasons behind them and indicate the impacts they made upon economic wellbeing. The first section of my essay will discuss the main differences and the factors that led to there being these differences arising. Both Europe and China will be compared based on categories which are Environmental, Demographic, Trade, Technological and Political differences. The second section will outline the impacts that these differences had upon economic wellbeing, it will show how both regions improved their economic wellbeing separately despite being interlinked with each other.
SECTION 1:
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN AND CHINESE ECONOMIES
1.1 DEMOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES
In the centuries pre-1800 both Europe’s and China’s population where on the incline and growing. However, this lead to a scarcity of resources in both locations. David Landes, The Wealth of Nations said “The land is scarce and the people are many”. Chinas rising population was the result of old customs where people married at a young age and had more children and larger families, due to large families being needed to run the farms their parents could no longer. This age-old tradition is later seen to have even more severe results on china’s economy as the one child policy had to be introduced to help ease the strain on the economy that first started in the centuries pre-1800.
The Malthusian model shows that if a economies population grows too rapidly it will be unable to support itself. This is what was occurring in Europe and this time, new orders were put in place to prevent this happening such as new crops being grown that could be grown all year round to ensures the countries did not suffer from famine during the long European winters, China also had this problem occur and they began to cultivate new strains of rice which grew in half the time of normal rice. Often overlooked is the importance of early maturing rice varieties with their ability to escape droughts, avoid floods, and in some localities, open up the opportunities for double cropping. Most varieties grown in china until the last half century matured in 150 to 180 days or longer, despite their lack of nutritional value this benefitted china immensely. From this we can see how there was a similar issue between both china and Europe during this time and subsistence farming was neccesary in order to address resource constraint.
1.2 THE ENVIRONMENTAL DIFFERENCES
The environments between Europe and China are very different which is largely as a result of their geographical location. Very little has changed between the centuries pre-1800 and today. Given its vast territory, the climate in China is a bit complicated. The climate and weather vary in different areas and change in different seasons. A trip to China allows a visitor to experience various weather and climates in different parts of China. With a marked continental monsoonal climate, most parts of China are in temperate zone. Geographically, the southern areas are in tropical or subtropical zone, while the northern areas are in frigid zone. The rain levels often fluctuate hugely between both Europe and china. Europe had an uneven climate with Western Europe producing higher rates of rainfall compared to its sunnier partner, eastern Europe. China was known known for its specialisation in the production of rice which came as thanks to its wet and warm climate make grow situations ideal. The warm climates in Europe made it ideal for crop growth and they were also able to grow livestock easily which is why Europe in the centuries pre-1800 were largely subject to subsistence farming, the economies largely farmed to survive. When endemic disease struck both regions they had vastly different ways of coping due to their varying climates. Due to Europe having a colder climate certain parasites and disease could not survive due to the low temperature, as a result the rates and spread of pandemics such as the black death spreading much more slowly but when it spread the population did not have a disease resistance or immunity, when the Black Death arrived from Asia it caused a major pandemic and the population took a huge hit. Densely populated cities took the worst hit. London for example, the 1347 outbreak killed roughly 25% of its population and the second outbreak in 1655 killed roughly 15%. (Cipolla 1978: page 34). Disease in china was also rife but this largely occurred as a result of farming or poor hygiene. This section outlines the differences between both china and Europe and how the overcame their problems that came as a result of their environment.
1.3 TRADE IMPACTS
Import restrictions and a greater emphasis on expanding exports meant that Europe had adopted a mercantilist way of trade this brought hope to strengthen the external and internal positions of the state. It was focused on having a well establishing a working military and internally it was based on establishing effective laws and standards that should be required of consumer goods. This policy varied between european nations with the restriction strength varying between each economy, particularly Britain and France. The British policy was protectionist whereas the French were more in favour towards setting and maintaining manufacturing standards. One example of British protectionism is the Navigation act of 1651 which stipulated that goods could be imported into English territories only by English ships. The French differed from this and their requirements ensured that their produced goods met stringent standards that the Government issued, “The Government issued decrees stating the specifications of more than a thousand goods in great detail” (E.Damsgaard Hansen 2001: page 64).
The era of the ming voyages mean that during the 15th century China was more open to international trade. In order to allow the Merchant class to become richer and there to be a greater level of private trade, the Chinese allowed the Portuguese to make Macau to become a trading hub. By 1526 the British East India Company was given access to the south China seas, one of main exports that they provided was tea. China in particular began to specialize in the export of luxurious goods such as spices, porcelain and tea. However, the fall of the Ming dynasty around 1644 led to a change in the level of trade, during the era of the Qing dynasty the Canton system was imposed. This was a system whereby all foreign trade coming into China was to be only held in Canton and there were strict regulations that were imposed on foreign traders.
1.4 POLITICAL AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Politics led to very different and perhaps conflicting ideas between china and Europe at this time and as a result played a large role on how the population of both regions were being affected. Between the years 1650-1800 China “under the Qing ruler ship China was a large integrated political society. Europe however was severely fragmented” (Rosenthal Wong 2011: page 208). Europe during the 16th century was a state of political unrest, England had a civil war in 1642 and by 1688 there was the glorious revolution also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III, Prince of Orange, who was James's nephew and son-in-law which led to a weakening of power that the Monarchy had alongside this Denmark after years of poor military power and major financial trouble there were revolutions against the monarchy. The main issue between the monarchy and the society was the right of taxation. The English were different and thanks to the glorious revolution there was now a rise in the dominance of power of the English Parliament.
In china however, there was a reign of strict governance under the qing dynasty, The empire grew to more than double the Ming dynasty which came before it, but it implemented far stricter laws. Laws that all men had to have the same haircut and they had to wear similar colours as if in uniform. There were stricter laws and regulations even on trade the Canton system got even stricter and the trading pattern that developed between Chinese and foreign merchants, especially British was disrupted, in the South China trading city of Guangzhou (Canton) from the 17th to the 19th century. The major characteristics of the system developed between 1760 and 1842, when all foreign trade coming into China was confined to Canton and the foreign traders entering the city were subject to a series of regulations by the Chinese government the regulations were essentially doubled during the qing dynasty when compared to the ming beforehand. The Ming dynasty was an era of expansion and voyages whereas the Qing was more isolated and centralized. This change in the rulership of china and its governing system had definite adverse affects on Chinese society.
1.5 TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES
Innovation in Europe was high many great inventions were created and it ultimately led to Europeans being able to travel the world, these new inventions came in the form of new ship designs and in advancements of how those ships were sailed. The new designs had been inspired by the English voyages across the world, an example of such a design was the Caravel which was inspired by the Arabic ships which were able to maneuver faster and travel for greater distances. Block printing had formed a byproduct of Technological innovation within China, this could be seen with the use of paper money, gold reserves were no longer used to mint for coins. Both economies at this time were being hugely innovative and it ultimately led to their benefit.
SECTION 2:
THE IMPACTS THESE DIFFERENCES HAD ON ECONOMIC WELLBEING
2.1 Economic wellbeing in China
The Chinese political structure was heavily state controlled leading to them playing a large role in factors such as trade a technological innovation. At times the state could be seen as being helping to improve wellbeing whereas at other times it was seen as not.
The West needed products from the East much more than the East needed products from the West, which produced little for export other than woolen cloth and wine. In 1793 a Manchu emperor told a British diplomatic representative: "There is nothing we lack as your principal and others have themselves observed. We have never set much store on strange or indigenous objects, nor do we need any more of your country's manufactures." ("The Discoverers" by Daniel Boorstin)
At the end of the Ming dynasty, just before the Manchus overthrew the Ming and established the Qing dynasty, China's economy was in a period of expansion. New markets were being founded, and merchants were extending their businesses across provincial lines and even into the South China Sea. “The economic growth so evident under the Ming dynasty continued under the Qing dynasty, up until the time of the Opium War in the 1840s. During this time China's domestic economy was a dynamic, commercializing economy, and in some small ways, even an industrializing economy. (Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Madeleine Zelin)
Chinese merchants were already active in Southeast Asia during this time, and, in fact, one of the arguments then made regarding the cessation of China's state-sponsored maritime expeditions to various places in the southern seas (such as the famed "Ming Voyages") was that these expeditions were no longer necessary. Chinese merchants themselves were going out to the South China Sea and were trading with these areas themselves, so there was no longer a need to have a tributary relationship with other states or city-states in this area. In certain instances the Qing state did balk at the movement of people into overseas commerce and tried to limit rice and metallic currency from moving out of the country, but the state simply did not have the capacity to stop trade completely. The circulation of goods went on with or without state approval.
Unlike Europe during this same period, which was composed of many small states, each with its own political system, national boundary, and tax system, Qing China was a vast continental market with no impediments to the movement of goods across provincial boundaries.
2.2 Economic wellbeing in Europe
Mainly occurring in England, Europe however had made efforts to adapt and change its economy and how the way trade and manufacturing was conducted. “By 1700 the seeds of a capital intensive, machine using economy was sprouting in Europe” (Rosenthal Wong 2011: page 129).
One of the main factors that helped to contribute towards European wellbeing was the fact that in Europe there were economic institutions. Such as central banks which had been establishing slowly and bailing out other banks who were on the verge of collapsing. The Swedish Risk bank is regarded as being the first central bank, till 1668 it was a private bank until it was taken over by the state and became centralized (Hansen, 2001: page 71).
Trading can be seen as being a crucial factor in the development and wellbeing of Europe as the trade of goods can allow for a country to gain greater levels of economic growth and power, and the import of goods allows for greater consumer choice. European trade was heavily influenced by the Mercantilist thought which was previously mentioned, this played a large role in the level of wellbeing that was occurring.
As a result of both the British and Dutch East India Companies the voyages of discovery led to a constant inflow of spices. With these two companies essentially controlling the spice trade it meant that the Europeans now had a continuous inflow of spices allowing both nations to flourish. The Dutch Government was able to recognise the potential of this and therefore their East India Company was state controlled. The English was left to private forces and were able to go against Government orders, benefitting them during “glorious revolution” the company was still able to thrive as a private company.
This meant that the English were able to become even more prosperous and also meant that by “1662 they were free to trade precious metals” (Davis 1973: page 309). This further adds to the idea of mercantilism which was being followed in Europe and allowed the English to accumulate large reserves of gold and silver, hence allowing their wellbeing to improve.
CONCLUSION
During this time it is evident that both China and Europe were growing both demographically and economically despite taking very different routes to reach this point. Trade is an example as the Europeans had their own methods such as adopting the notion of mercantilism. Leading to a greater expansion of exports and in some cases a greater level of protectionism. Whereas the Chinese took a more centralis ed and protected view of trade, even though at first they were open to overseas trade. Eventually restricting trade and innovation and adopting the Canton system of trade and following a sense of Taoism. Despite both regions having evident differences I believe they manipulated such differences to their advantage allowing for economic wellbeing to grow, this is shown in today’s society as china and Europe are two of the world’s most successful economies.
References
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• ["The Discoverers" by Daniel Boorstin]
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• The Economist (2013): What is Mercantilism
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• Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Madeleine Zelin, Consultant learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu