IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/apechr/v65y2025i1p3-38.html

Rise of the south: How Arab‐led maritime trade transformed China, 671–1371 CE

Author

Listed:
  • Zhiwu Chen
  • Zhan Lin
  • Kaixiang Peng

Abstract

China's center of socioeconomic activities was in the North prior to the Tang dynasty but is in the South today. We demonstrate that Arab and Persian Muslim traders triggered that transition when they came to China in the late seventh century, by lifting maritime trade along the South Coast and re‐creating the South. Between 742 and 1393 CE, prefectures with better access to maritime trade, or higher porcelain trade participation, experienced significantly higher population growth, but the predictive coefficient weakened substantially after the maritime trade ban of 1371 CE. These findings are robust after controlling for many confounding factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhiwu Chen & Zhan Lin & Kaixiang Peng, 2025. "Rise of the south: How Arab‐led maritime trade transformed China, 671–1371 CE," Asia-Pacific Economic History Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 3-38, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:apechr:v:65:y:2025:i:1:p:3-38
    DOI: 10.1111/aehr.70000
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/aehr.70000
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/aehr.70000?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Quamrul Ashraf & Oded Galor, 2011. "Dynamics and Stagnation in the Malthusian Epoch," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2003-2041, August.
    2. Morgan Kelly, 1997. "The Dynamics of Smithian Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 939-964.
    3. Zhiwu Chen & Chicheng Ma & Andrew J Sinclair, 2022. "Banking on the Confucian Clan: Why China Developed Financial Markets so Late," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(644), pages 1378-1413.
    4. Ruixue Jia, 2014. "The Legacies of Forced Freedom: China's Treaty Ports," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(4), pages 596-608, October.
    5. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James Robinson, 2005. "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 546-579, June.
    6. Broadberry, Stephen & Guan, Hanhui & Li, David Daokui, 2018. "China, Europe, and the Great Divergence: A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(4), pages 955-1000, December.
    7. Karl E. Ryavec & Mark Henderson, 2015. "A Core-Periphery GIS Model of the Historical Growth and Spread of Islam in China," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 103-111, June.
    8. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2002. "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1231-1294.
    9. Kelly, M., 1996. "The Dynamics of Smithian growth," Papers 96/9, College Dublin, Department of Political Economy-.
    10. Andrea Matranga, 2024. "The Ant and the Grasshopper: Seasonality and the Invention of Agriculture," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(3), pages 1467-1504.
    11. Chen, Ting & Kung, James Kai-sing, 2022. "War shocks, migration, and historical spatial development in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hanlon, W.Walker & Heblich, Stephan, 2022. "History and urban economics," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    2. Ertan, Arhan & Fiszbein, Martin & Putterman, Louis, 2016. "Who was colonized and when? A cross-country analysis of determinants," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 165-184.
    3. Justin Cook, C., 2014. "Potatoes, milk, and the Old World population boom," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 123-138.
    4. Paul Caruana-Galizia & Ye Ma, 2016. "Chinese Regions in the Great Divergence: Provincial Gross Domestic Product per Capita, 1873–1918," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 56(1), pages 21-45, March.
    5. Philip T. Hoffman, 2020. "The Great Divergence: Why Britain Industrialised First," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(2), pages 126-147, July.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/93apstuvh8ud8mhj9ai14bqrv is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Faria, Hugo J. & Montesinos-Yufa, Hugo M. & Morales, Daniel R. & Navarro, Carlos E., 2016. "Unbundling the roles of human capital and institutions in economic development," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 108-128.
    8. Gregg Huff, 2007. "Globalization, Natural Resources and Foreign Investment: A View from the Resource-Rich Tropics," Working Papers 2007_16, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    9. C. Cook, 2014. "The role of lactase persistence in precolonial development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 369-406, December.
    10. Adams, Jonathan J., 2022. "Urbanization, long-run growth, and the demographic transition," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(1), pages 31-77, March.
    11. Chen, Zhiwu & Lin, Zhan & Zhang, Xiaoming, 2024. "Hedging desperation: How kinship networks reduced cannibalism in historical China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 361-382.
    12. Remi Jedwab & Noel D. Johnson & Mark Koyama, 2022. "The Economic Impact of the Black Death," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 132-178, March.
    13. Maurizion Iacopetta, 2016. "Commercial revolutions, search, and development," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2016-08, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    14. Maurizio Iacopetta, 2016. "Commercial Revolutions, Search, and Development," 2016 Meeting Papers 1394, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    15. Long, Cheryl & Murrell, Peter & Yang, Li, 2019. "Memories of colonial law: The inheritance of human capital and the location of joint ventures in early-reform China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    16. Thomas Barnebeck Andersen & Jeanet Bentzen & Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Pablo Selaya, 2012. "Lightning, IT Diffusion, and Economic Growth Across U.S. States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(4), pages 903-924, November.
    17. Dohmen, Martin, 2022. "Freedom of enterprise and economic development in the German industrial take-off," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    18. Wahl, Fabian, 2016. "Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 50-60.
    19. Maurizio Iacopetta, 2016. "Commercial revolutions, search and development," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-03469973, HAL.
    20. Guinnane, Timothy W., 2023. "We Do Not Know the Population of Every Country in the World for the Past Two Thousand Years," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(3), pages 912-938, September.
    21. Sadik, Jacques, 2008. "Technology adoption, convergence, and divergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 338-355, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:apechr:v:65:y:2025:i:1:p:3-38. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)2832-157X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.