Chinese History in Economy
The Chinese history dates back to thousands of years ago with the earliest human civilization in history which originated from agricultural practices. Qin was the first unified empire formed in the 221 B.C(Lin). As by the 300 B.C the Chinese civilization had developed into a characteristically market economy with good functioning product and factor markets, highly differentiated social division of labor, privately owned land and fairly free labor mobility in the country. In short, the Chinese civilization had every element of leading to an Industrial Revolution as early as the fourteenth century which by the standard of many economists and historian is what England had by the eighteen-century.
Though why did the Industrial Revolution not occur in China during this time despite all the advancement in technology and socio-economic settings?
As it is well understood within scholarly circles, the Industrial Revolution did not begin in China but rather in Europe in the later centuries to come. In this context, this paper will be reviewing all the factors that smothered the Genesis of Industrial revolution amongst the Chinese people during the middle ages.During the middle ages, the Chinese civilization was characterized by more advanced agricultural practices such as the use of a better variety of rice which was drought resistant, and innovation in agriculture such as share plow which required less draft power. More so, China's pre-modern advancement in technology provided essential technological tools to the West which modernized them. Furthermore, the Chinese people had advanced industries and high agricultural productivity to support their cities which by any standards were urbanized with well-structured businesses and commerce.Despite all this advancement in science and technology, China underwent stagnation in exploiting its potential and capabilities to push for an Industrialization revolution due its social-cultural practices and lack of incentive in optimizing its available resources.
For example, in a culture that embraced male heirs, there was high man-to-land ratio which changed the focus in using technology because demand for labor-technology reduced as human labor became cheap. Conclusively, the Chinese civilization lost focus due to various reasons in utilizing the potential of their technology and innovation but in one way or the other, they provided the West with the right ingredient to frontier a world changing Industrial Revolution(Lin).
WORK CITED
Lin, Justin Yifu. "The Needham Puzzle: Why The Industrial Revolution Did Not Originate In China". Economic Development and Cultural Change 43.2 (1995): 269-292. …