China’s Road in the Great Divergence: Qing’s Model of Economic Development in the 1644-1911 Era

This dissertation includes 4 chapters and examines the question whether the Chinese economic developments of the late 18th and early 19th century can be considered unique or were similar to the West.The dissertation states that late Imperial China was a special country with strong traditions and a unique inherited culture. However this “quality” was not so distinctive to divert the country’s economic and political development trajectory. In a way China was a common country that still in the 19th century followed the “universal agrarian” path, as some Western nations did and other countries also did until recently.