EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 1

Asia before modern industrialisation

Topics:

• China

• India

• Ottoman Empire

• Comparisons and contrasts within Asia

• The Needham Question

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 2

China: overview and themes

a) Environment and resources: territorial integrity

b) Culture: sophisticated civilisation; Confucian philosophy

c) Political institutions: effective centralised administration

d) Markets – flourishing ocean-borne trade

e) Technology: early abundance of creativity in many sectors

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 3

China: outcomes• 1400, or earlier, China more developed than

Europe and rest of Asia• Notable technical achievements including

intensive agriculture• Effective, centralised bureaucratic administration• From mid-15th century political control appeared

to turn inwards on itself

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 4

India: overview and themes

a) Environment: varied, vulnerable to natural disasters

b) Culture: multiple co-existing and conflicting religions

c) Politics: result of successive invasions from North West

d) Markets: overseas networks; restricted internal trade

e) Technology and Industry: esp. textiles, handicrafts

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 5

India: outcomes• Overlapping linguistic, racial and cultural

divisions– Diverse, unstable

• Society was held together by the caste system– Highly stratified, rigid social control

• Mughal (Mongol) invasions (1505 onwards)

• European colonial domination esp. British from 18C

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 6

Ottoman Empire: overview and themes

a) Environment: diverse but Arabia mainly arid

b) Culture: Islamic domination

c) Political institutions: Ottoman Turks; military control

d) Markets: at the cross-roads of Europe and Asia

e) Technology & industry: early success, then stagnates

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 7

Ottoman Empire: origins and expansion• Islam spreads rapidly after death of Mohammed in

632 AD

• Caliphate became divided into separate states

• Ottoman Empire, founded on military conquests grew from c1300

• Absorbed much of Middle-East, North Africa, Caucasus, Balkans at its zenith c1683

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 8

Comparisons and contrasts within Asia

Compare China, Indian sub-continent & Ottoman empire:

• Notable periods of technological advance in all

– But these were neither sustained nor developed

• Dominated by elites that prized stability and political control

• China most secure, Indian sub-continent less so

• Ottoman empire: militaristic, durable

The Needham Question“What exactly did the Chinese contribute in the

various historical periods to the development of Science, Scientific Thought, and Technology?” (J. Needham)

• In what sense, in what ways and when did China become `backward’ relative to Europe?

• What were the economic implications?

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 9

Landmarks in Chinese Inventiveness• Early: Iron/steel manufacture; Paper, wood

engraved printing; horse harness, collar, stirrup; wheelbarrow; movable rudder

• During European middle-ages:

– Gunpowder; compass; printing press; lock gates

– Porcelain manufacture

– Tea, consumed and perfected over many centuries

– Paper currency

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 10

Addressing the Needham Question (1)

• The historical pattern:– Early inventions, stagnation later– Social/economic impact in China less than in

Europe

• China did not experience the `Scientific Revolution’:– Baconian method: theory->experiment-

>empirical test->revise theory

– Perhaps the Scientific Revolution was a European peculiarity

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 11

EC120 week 03, topic 2, slide 12

Addressing the Needham Question (2)

Tentative answers to the Needham Question:• Chinese unity, self-sufficiency, complacency• Hostility to (potentially disruptive) innovation• State inference and control stifled individual

initiative

By implication, industrialisation/development were hindered:

• Suppression of innovation and foreign trade• High “taxation” blunted incentives• Labour abundance -> little incentive for labour-

saving innovation