Urbanization in China, ca. 1100¨C1900

Yi Xu (), Bas van Leeuwen and Jan Luiten van Zanden
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Yi Xu: College of Historical Culture and Tourism, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541001, China

Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, 2018, vol. 13, issue 3, 322-368

Abstract: This paper presents new estimates of the development of the urban population and the urbanization ratio for the period spanning the Song and late Qing dynasties. Urbanization is viewed, as in much of the economic historical literature on the topic, as an indirect indicator of economic development and structural change. The development of the urban system can therefore tell us a lot about long-term trends in the Chinese economy between 1100 and 1900. During the Song, the level of urbanization was high, also by international standards¡ªthe capital cities of the Song were probably the largest cities in the world. This remained so until the late Ming, but during the Qing there was a downward trend in the level of urbanization from 11¨C12% to 7% in the late 18th century, a level at which it remained until the early 1900s. In our paper we analyse the role that socio¨Cpolitical and economic causes played in this decline, such as the changing character of the Chinese state, the limited impact of overseas trade on the urban system, and the apparent absence of the dynamic economic effects that were characteristic for the European urban system.

Keywords: China, urbanization; Song dynasty; Ming dynasty; Qing dynasty; cities; commercialization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N15 N95 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fec:journl:v:13:y:2018:i:3:p:322-368

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