Mokyr 9
paper topic example:
What does Mokyr believe slowed down Chinese technological
progress after 1400 and is that still true in China today
China until 1400 had at least as rapid technological progress
as Europe
innovations in agriculture, iron making, textile machinery,
widespread use of water power
Chinese were ahead in clocks and navigation
around 1400 the economy continued to grow
- living standards stayed the same
- population growth continued (from 75 million in 1400 to
320 million in 1800)
- agriculture became more intensive (using more labor)
- rice is grown in flooded fields so is difficult to work
by machine
- Chinese tradition was to depend on family labor,
particularly since the need for labor varied depending on
the time of year
but technological progress slowed down after 1400
and some technologies fell out of use
- ships with more than two masts forbidden
- iron and steel were not widely used
- many technologies, such as multi-thread
spinning, had potential but were not developed further
- adopted a few crops from other parts of the
world, but mostly for marginal land
- many technologies continued to be used but
were not further developed
so what is the explanation?
- Health? protein in the diet decreased with
increasing emphasis on rice and parasites were very common
- a philosophy that emphasized harmony, not conquest and
obedience to the oldest male in the family? But that
philosophy was in place when China was technologically
progressive
- government bureaucrats dominated society, not
merchants? but trade was important in China
- the Chinese never developed a system of formal logic
(though they were strong in algebra), which may have hurt
science but not necessarily technology
relative differences:
- Europeans increasingly focused on exploiting nature,
while the Chinese focused more on equilibrium
- China was very centralized and some emperors stopped new
technologies as too disruptive
- exploration was forbidden
after 1430 by imperial decree
- before the 19th century China wanted little from the
west
- China was so diverse that internal trade could provide
anything they wanted, and at a low enough cost to reduce the
incentive for new forms of manufacturing
- the Chinese valued stability more than Europeans did
- the established powerful interests, such as guilds, were
able to block technological change
- the government played a larger role in technological
change before 1400 than was true in Europe, then lost interest
- the focus became stability
- change in attitudes towards what was the role of the
government--the government started doing less for the economy
- what about capitalism
new technology is almost always disruptive;