Economic Depression and the Silver Question in Nineteenth-Century China
Economic Depression and the Silver Question in Nineteenth-Century China
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DOI：
10.1007/978-981-10-4053-5_5
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发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
R. Glahn
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
R. Glahn
18世纪的最后十年标志着中国经济命运的关键转折。从17世纪80年代开始，在经历了一个世纪的生产、人口和繁荣的稳定增长之后，18世纪90年代发生了突然的逆转。在有关经济困境和贸易恶化的广泛报道中，价格暴跌。白莲教之乱（1796-1805）摧毁了中国西部的大片地区，迫使清朝政府在昂贵的军事行动中耗尽国库。叛乱的最终镇压带来了一些喘息，但并没有恢复繁荣。1815年，印尼坦博拉火山的爆发——有史以来最大的火山爆发——引发了数年的全球气候紊乱，严重破坏了远至新英格兰和爱尔兰的农业。19世纪10年代引发的通缩螺旋在随后的几十年里愈演愈烈。最糟糕的岁月
The last decade of the eighteenth century marked a crucial transition in China’s economic fortunes. After a century of steady growth in production, population and prosperity that had begun in the 1680s, a sudden reversal occurred in the 1790s. Prices tumbled amid widespread reports of economic distress and deteriorating trade. The White Lotus Rebellion (1796–1805) devastated a large swath of western China, forcing the Qing imperial government to empty its treasuries in costly military campaigns. The final suppression of the rebellion brought some respite, but not a return to prosperity. In 1815, the eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia—the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history—triggered several years of global climatic disturbances, drastically disrupting agriculture as far away as New England and Ireland. Catastrophic flooding in the 1820s—including the devastating Yellow River floods of 1824–1826—precipitated famines in both northern and southern China, fomenting peasant unrest and urban food riots. The deflationary spiral triggered in the 1810s intensified in subsequent decades. The worst years