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