Some doubts about the economic analysis of the flow of silver to China in 1550-1820

Jacques Melitz

No 2017-16, Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics

Abstract: The paper takes issue with the mainstream economic analysis of the enormous flow of silver into China in 1550-1820. First, I challenge the view that arbitrage between gold and silver in European trade with China was important except for one twenty-year spell. Next, I argue that had China imported gold, its history would have been much the same. I also dispute the idea that the persistence of the silver inflows from 1550 to 1820 implies any persistent disequilibrium, and I maintain that economic theory can easily accommodate the view that the inflow of silver into China sponsored growth in China.

Keywords: silver flows into China 1550-1820; silver/gold exchange rates; transaction costs in international trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F36 F60 N1 N15 N25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2017-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://crest.science/RePEc/wpstorage/2017-16.pdf CREST working paper version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Some Doubts about the Economic Analysis of the Flow of Silver to China in 1550–1820 (2019)
Working Paper: Some Doubts about the Economic Analysis of the Flow of Silver to China in 1550-1820 (2017)
Working Paper: Some doubts about the economic analysis of the flow of silver to China in 1550-1820 (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:crs:wpaper:2017-16

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Secretariat General () and Murielle Jules Maintainer-Email : murielle.jules@ensae.Fr.