Trading, institutions, product innovation and entrepreneurship

鸦片战争后，中国被迫接受了一个新的重要的西方存在。以前关闭的贸易口岸被推开，关税被降低，以前的中国海关征收贸易机构被废除，并在英国和西方的管理做法下进行重组。此外，治外法权在1858年的《中美天津条约》中被合法化。外国人有权根据自己国家的法律而不是中国法律拥有财产、进行贸易和从事制造业。中国的许多条约中的最惠国条款，自动赋予所有条约国中国被迫允许任何一个国家的权利，扩大了条约国作为一个集团的影响力。为了执行这些权利，西方国家很快在中国建立了法院，以审理与民事、刑事和物权法有关的纠纷。因此，英国为中国设立了英国最高法院，美国为中国设立了美国法院，其他条约国也设立了领事法院。本项目研究了1842年至1948年这段有争议的历史时期，当时英国和其他条约国参与了中国境内和国际贸易领域的经济政策决定。调查人员关注的是19世纪外国势力强加给中国的两种最重要的制度变革：拆除贸易壁垒和商业财产法。中国海关虽然名义上是中国的，但主要是在英国的指导下建立的，并在1859年至1948年期间继续运作，评估关税，记录国内外运输货物的数量和价值。1928年，中央军委实际上成为了中国最大的单一政府收入来源的国际托管人。尽管这些收入的很大一部分用于支付赔偿金，但中央军委在建立中国公共财政的国际公信力方面发挥了重要作用。为了检验贸易开放对世界价格有重大影响的假设，研究人员利用中央军委关于中国的部分完成的数据库，评估贸易对中国国内福利的影响。该项目的一个重要部分是利用到目前为止在很大程度上被忽视的令人惊讶的丰富的量化信息，以评估这个时代的遗产。他们估计，该项目一旦完成，将记录下750万次贸易流动观测。这种详细程度是非常不寻常的，事实上，任何当代国家都没有收集到可比的港口级别的信息。因此，在这个项目中，研究人员扩展了一套新的经验方法，发现历史数据是可行的，他们预计这些数据将在经济史和国际贸易中有许多其他研究应用。此外，由于生活水平的提高是贸易最终为社会提供的最重要的结果，该项目强调了福利和贸易开放之间的关系。作者分析了新商品品种带来的额外福利收益，这是贸易开放的一个重要后果，在过去的分析中通常被忽视，但更重要的是，他们表明，使用中国历史数据直接计算决定贸易品种收益大小的因素是可行的。这是历史上第一次提出这样的估计。最后，由于条约口岸财产安全的改善，更多的贸易和投资也可以带来福利的增加。零星的轶事报道表明，外国机构的存在很重要，甚至可能产生了积极的溢出效应。资本市场的改善可能会对吸引外国公司来到中国产生广泛的影响，这反过来可能会带来额外的资本积累和收入收益。在这个项目中，研究人员还调查了英国和其他条约大国接管条约口岸组织后发生的制度变化对整个经济产生影响的可能性。这项研究考察了中国在当今亚洲和世界上的角色在多大程度上一方面受到当地民众的组织、创业和社交技能的影响，另一方面受到外国干预的影响。这部作品突出表明，19世纪外国帝国主义的影响可能超出了中国19世纪人均对外贸易或整体经济增长率的简单衡量标准。该项目的结果旨在为理解中国的贸易史提供重要的参考点，并提供一个更明确的过去和现在的业绩之间的经验联系。更广泛地说，它将使人们看到在外国诱导的改革方面，是否有更多的一般性经验可以从中国那里学到。随着世界迈入21世纪，这些问题的答案可能会暗示出各国社会和经济史交织在一起的新方式。

In the aftermath of the Opium Wars, China was forced to accept a new and significant Western presence. Previously closed ports of trade were pushed open, tariffs were reduced, and former Chinese trade institutions of customs collection were abolished and re-organized under British and Western management practices. In addition, extraterritoriality was legitimized in the Sino-American Treaty of Tientsin of 1858. Foreigners had the right to own property, trade and carry on manufacturing according to the laws of their own state rather than Chinese law. The Most Favored Nation clause, present in many of China's treaties, automatically granted to all Treaty Powers the rights which China was compelled to allow to any one nation, expanding the influence of the Treaty Powers as a block. To enforce these rights, Western nations soon established courts in China in order to adjudicate disputes related to civil, criminal, and property law. Thus, the British had the British Supreme Court for China, the U.S. set up the U.S. Court for China, and consular courts from each of the other Treaty Powers were also established.This project examines this controversial period of history from 1842-1948 when Britain and other Treaty Powers had a hand in determining economic policy both inside the borders of China and in the international trading arena. The investigators focus on two of the most significant types of institutional change that were imposed by foreign powers on China in the 19th century: the dismantling of trade barriers and commercial property law. The Chinese Maritime Customs Service (CMC), although Chinese in name, was mainly built up under British direction, and operated continuously between 1859 and 1948 to assess tariffs and record the quantity and value of shipped goods of both foreign and domestic origin. In 1928, the CMC effectively became the international custodian of China's single largest source of government revenue. Even though much of this revenue was used to pay indemnities, the CMC was instrumental in establishing the international credibility of public finance in China.To test the hypothesis that the opening of trade had significant effects on world prices, the researchers exploit a partially completed database on China from the CMC in order to assess the impact of trade on domestic welfare in China. A significant part of the project is to draw on the amazingly rich quantitative information that has so far been largely neglected in order to evaluate the legacy of this era. They estimate that the project, once completed, will record 7.5 million observations on trade flows. This level of detail is highly unusual, and comparable port-level information is in fact not collected in any contemporary country. In this project, the investigators thus extend the set of new empirical approaches found to be feasible with historical data, and they expect this data will have many other research applications in economic history and international trade.In addition, since gains in living standards are the most important consequence that trade ultimately provides to society, this project emphasizes the relationship between welfare and trade opening. The authors analyze the additional welfare gains arising from new goods variety, an important consequence of the opening of trade that has been generally overlooked in past analyses, but more importantly, they show that a direct calculation of the factors determining the size of variety gains from trade is feasible using historical Chinese data. This is the first time an estimate of this sort has been presented for a historical period.Finally, the gains in welfare can also come about because more trade and investment takes place due to improved security of property in the treaty port. Scattered anecdotal reports suggest the presence of foreign institutions mattered, and may even have had positive spillover effects. Capital market improvements could have broad implications for attracting foreign firms to China, which in turn can lead to additional capital accumulation and income gains. In this project, the researchers also investigate the possibility that institutional changes by the British and other treaty powers' take-over of treaty port organization had an economy-wide impact.This research examines the extent to which China's role in Asia and the world today is shaped by the organizational, entrepreneurial, and social skills of its population on the one hand, and by foreign intervention on the other hand. The work highlights the possibility that the impact of foreign imperialism in the 19th century goes beyond simple measures of China's foreign trade-per-capita in the 19th century or overall economic growth rates. The results from the project aim to provide important reference points in understanding the trade history of China, and to give a more definite empirical link between performance in the past and the present.More broadly, it will allow one to see if there are more general lessons on foreign-induced reform that can be learned from China. As the world moves forward into the 21st century, the answer to these questions could suggest new ways in which the social and economic history of nations are intertwined.