2023-24 Academic Catalog

How did China become a global player in the market economy? This course surveys Chinese business history in the recent past focusing on the origins of industrial development in China, agrarian “involution” and famine, vernacular commercialism, and arguments about China’s economic divergence from and convergence with the rest of the world. Historical examples are drawn from enterprises that produced salt, medicine, cotton textile, machine tools, electricity, automobiles, and the iPhone. Students will pick one of them and write a historical biography of a businessperson, an economic thinker, a company, or an entrepreneurial activity (e.g., operating department stores or advertising companies).