History 2950 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sun Yat-Sen, Puyi, Foot Binding
Document Summary
Kenneth pomeranz - the great divergence; found that china and england were roughly equal in every measure up to 1800. In the 1800 england becomes the most industrial country at the time while china remains agricultural. Kenneth noted that england had greater access to cole and ability to export to the new world. In 1800 china is going to enter a weak time in which there are internal divisions and outside pressures. China had been expanding internally and became a vast space that had only been encroached upon on the edges. Trade goods - europeans desired silk, porcelain, tea, etc. however, china was not interested. 1759 - the european commercial presence is restricted to guangzhou. Cohongs - firms licensed to trade with europeans. Opium - cultivated by the beic and exchanged for chinese silver coin, the silver would furnish goods. Vast quantities of opium are entering china and large portions of tea are leaving.
