- Language: English
- Via Zoom
- May 23, 2024 16:00 Hong Kong/Beijing/Singapore | 09:00 London | 17:00 Tokyo | 18:00 Sydney
ABSTRACT
Scholars have long debated whether the Chinese economy has been in a secular decline since the nineteenth century. During this Quantitative History Webinar, Ziang Liu of the Centre for Quantitative History, HKU Business School, will present wage evidence from local hydraulic construction projects in Suzhou, Shanghai, and other Lower Yangzi cores that challenges this thesis within the region. Throughout the nineteenth century, the conscription system used to mobilise labours irreversibly shifted towards market hiring. While the administrative system still functioned as a labour pool, the market dynamics determined worker wages. Although wages saw a mild decline from the 1820s to the 1860s, a substantial improvement followed. The most significant change took place in the early twentieth century when wage trends broke through the typical decline-rebound cycle and moved towards intensive growth. Moreover, wage differentials between unskilled and semi-skilled labours, as well as between casual and stable employment, indicate a growing integration of the labour market across rural and urban sectors and industries in the Lower Yangzi Delta.
Discussant: Kaixiang Peng, Professor of Economics, Wuhan University
(The discussion will be conducted in Mandarin, accompanied by English presentation)
ABOUT THE QUANTITATIVE HISTORY WEBINAR SERIES
The Quantitative History (QH) Webinar Series aims to provide researchers, teachers, and students with an online intellectual platform to keep up to date with the latest research in the field, promoting the dissemination of research findings and interdisciplinary use of quantitative methods in historical research. The QH Webinar Series, now entering its fifth year, is co-organized by the Centre for Quantitative History at the HKU Business School and the International Society for Quantitative History in partnership with the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Series is now substantially supported by the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. [AoE/B-704/22-R])
