What Happened in China in the Eighteenth Century

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In mediaeval europe, the catholic church was very discriminatory against merchants and bankers. If you are a merchant family in china, so it is a typical pattern that if you get wealthy enough, then you will start to invest your resources into the education of your offspring. And they would shift their reproduction of the elite status by shifting to a political, belocratic career and become a political family. Did happen in china. It happened in the islamic word. It also happened in south asia. Ind what happened in europe is, as i said, that this a kind of a chronic war situation,. create a abnormal situation in which a state has to rely on the

Part one of a two-part interview with sociologist Ho-fung Hung on Chinese political economic history from the 18th century to 2008: why capitalism took off in England and then elsewhere but not in China; and then, how Maoist policy laid the groundwork for China’s ultimate capitalist takeoff and boom. Episode two will focus on the 2008 financial crisis, the deepening imbalances and heightened geopolitical conflict that resulted, and the current situation—including the impact of the crises surrounding Russia’s invasion. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig