Economic thought in modern China : market and consumption, c.1500-1937

"This book argues that basic notions of free market economy emerged in China a century and half earlier than in Europe in response to the commercial revolution initiated in the late 1500s. At this time Chinese intellectuals and officials called for the end of state intervention in the market, recognizing its power to self-regulate. They also recognized the elasticity of both domestic demand and production and argued in favor of ending long-standing rules against luxury consumption, an idea that emerged in Europe in the early-nineteenth century. This book thus challenges Eurocentric theories of economic modernization and the idea of the unique ability of Enlightenment thought to produce innovative economic ideas. It instead establishes a direct connection between intellectuals' observations of local economic conditions and the formulation of new theories. Refuting common assumption, this book also reveals the flexibility of the Confucian tradition and its ability to accommodate seemingly unorthodox ideas. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Chinese intellectuals and officials began to move away from free-market policies and call for increased state intervention. This reversal was not a "failure to modernize," but a response to an economic crisis that afflicted China through the twentieth century engendering support for a developmental state."