IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/frochp/978-3-032-26359-9_7.html

Innovation and Industry in China, ca. 1750–1930

Author

Listed:
  • Meimei Wang

    (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xicheng District, Institute of Economics)

  • Xiaojing Li

    (Guangxi Normal University, School of History, Culture and Tourism)

  • Bas van Leeuwen

    (Research Department, International Institute of Social History)

  • Yi Xu

    (Guangxi Normal University, School of History, Culture and Tourism)

  • Ulbe Bosma

    (Research Department, International Institute of Social History)

Abstract

This chapter examines China’s industrialization from 1700 until the early twentieth century, focusing especially on the experience in three key sectors: mining, silk, and cotton. Before 1860, industrialization was inconsistent, but after 1860 China moved from decline toward minor technical and economic development. We identify two distinct technological pathways to industrialization. First, strategic industries such as coal, which were closely tied to national security, were placed under tight bureaucratic control and became capital-intensive. These, often state-led, sectors pursued externally dependent modernization. Second, in labor-intensive, market-oriented, light industries, such as textiles, in which China had a comparative advantage and were led by private entrepreneurs, advancement occurred in the form of localized, bottom-up innovation that resulted in incremental improvements and adaptive innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Meimei Wang & Xiaojing Li & Bas van Leeuwen & Yi Xu & Ulbe Bosma, 2026. "Innovation and Industry in China, ca. 1750–1930," Frontiers in Economic History,, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:frochp:978-3-032-26359-9_7
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-26359-9_7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    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:spr:frochp:978-3-032-26359-9_7. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.