An Economic Cycle in Imperial China? Revisiting Robert Hartwell on Iron and Coal

Author: Wright, Tim

Source: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Volume 50, Number 4, 2007 , pp. 398-423(26)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

Robert Hartwell's article published in 1967 in this journal has had an extensive influence in both Chinese and global history. The present article reviews the reception and use made of Hartwell's arguments by secondary sources over the last forty years. It focuses on three aspects: the Song economic revolution; Hartwell's quantitative estimate for iron production; and Hartwell's proposition that coal and iron production and consumption peaked in the Song dynasty, at least on a per capita basis. It argues that a consistent set of estimates are needed for coal and iron development over the last thousand years of imperial Chinese history.

Keywords: CHINA; IRON INDUSTRY; COAL INDUSTRY; SONG ECONOMIC REVOLUTION

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156852007783244963

Affiliations: 1: Research Director in the National Institute of Chinese Studies, White Rose East Asia Centre, and Professor of Chinese Studies and Head of the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield;, Email: T.Wright@Sheffield.ac.uk

Publication date: 2007-11-01