This article surveys major themes on the latest revisionist thesis of economic growth in China during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With an emphasis on the role of informal and formal institutions to economic growth, this article reviews the traditional legal system and its impact on the organizational evolution of major Chinese merchant groups. It argues that, to understand the distinctive path of long-term economic growth or stagnation in China, we need to go beyond the study of resource endowments or technologies, to also incorporate an economic analysis of China's traditional social and political institutions and their associated ideologies. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd and the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand 2004.
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Article provided by Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd and the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand in its journal Australian Economic History Review.
Volume (Year): 44 (2004) Issue (Month): 3 (November) Pages: 259-277 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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