A Late Maoist Industrial Revolution? Economic Growth in Jiangsu Province, 1966-1978

According to the conventional wisdom, the promise of the Chinese revolution of 1949 went unfulfilled in the Maoist era. Instead of taking-off, the economy grew slowly and widespread rural poverty persisted. The economic turning point was instead the famous political climacteric of 1976-78. But this metric of aggregates is the wrong criterion by which to judge China’s economic record because industrial revolutions have regional beginnings. They invariably take place against a backcloth of slow aggregate growth and stagnant material living standards. Accordingly, we should dwell neither on China’s slow overall growth nor its widespread poverty before 1978, but look instead for evidence of an emerging regional growth pole. This article argues that Jiangsu was such a growth pole in the late Maoist era, and that its record bears comparison with that of Lancashire and Yorkshire during the early years of Britain's industrial revolution. This holds out the intriguing possibility that a Chinese economic take-off, diffusing out of the Yangzi delta, would have occurred even without post-1978 policy changes

Estándares de vida en el Japón de la preguerra y la China maoísta

Previous comparisons of living standards in Japan (1868-1941) and China (1949-1978) have been hampered by the limited data. New material published over the last decade have now filled many of the gaps on Japanese income distribution and China 's famine. These materials make it clear that the process of the early industrialisation was extremely painful in both countries, and that it is hard to present either as a development model for other nations to emulate.Las comparaciones previas de los estándares de vida en Japón (1868-1941) y de la China (1949-1978) se han visto afectada por la falta de datos. Los nuevos materiales publicados en la última década han llenado muchos de los vacios sobre la distibución del ingreso en el Japón y la hambruna que se presentó en China. Esos materiales muestran que los procesos iniciales de la industialización fueron extremadamente penosos para ambos países y que es dificil promover cualquiera de ellos cómo un modelo de desarrollo que pueda ser imitado por otros países

Living Standards in Prewar Japan and Maoist China

Previous comparisons of living standards in Japan (1868–1941) and China (1949–78) have been hampered by the limited data. New materials published over the last decade have now filled many of the gaps on Japanese income distribution and China's famine. These materials make it clear that the process of early industrialisation was extremely painful in both countries, and that it is hard to present either as a development model for other nations to emulate

Estándares de vida en el japón de la preguerra y la china maoísta

Las comparaciones previas de los estándares de vida en Japón (1868-1941) y de la China (1949-1978) se han visto afectada por la falta de datos. Los nuevos materiales publicados en la última década han llenado muchos de los vacios sobre la distibución del ingreso en el Japón y la hambruna que se presentó en China. Esos materiales muestran que los procesos iniciales de la industialización fueron extremadamente penosos para ambos países y que es dificil promover cualquiera de ellos cómo un modelo de desarrollo que pueda ser imitado por otros países.Previous comparisons of living standards in Japan (1868-1941) and China (1949-1978) have been hampered by the limited data. New material published over the last decade have now filled many of the gaps on Japanese income distribution and China 's famine. These materials make it clear that the process of the early industrialisation was extremely painful in both countries, and that it is hard to present either as a development model for other nations to emulate