The Qing state

From "brian turner" <bkt90@hotmail.com>
Date Fri, 24 Sep 2004 11:25:13 +0000


Hello to all from Hanoi.  I've just got back on the CSG after being 
accidentally off for unknown reasons for 9 months (the same time I've been 
in Hanoi).

I was just debating the following issue on a google group and wanted to 
solicit opinions here.

What is the scholarly consensus (or anyone's personal view) on the nature of 
the Qing state's economic policy?  Was it relatively laissez-faire, was it a 
rapacious taxer and repressor of would be merchants and capitalists?  Or was 
it a Meiji Japan style "developmental state".

Most of what I've read (Kang Chao, Philip Huang, Peter Perdue, Ramon Meyers, 
Thomas Metzger) suggest the former, but apparently the "Oriental Despotism" 
thesis is still widely held, I guess to explain why laissez-faire didn't 
develop China.

-Brian Turner

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