Capitalist development in Late Qing China: a reassessment of the 1883 financial crisis
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
- Venue
- SOAS Main Building
- Room
- RB01
- Event type
- Seminar
About this event
In 1883, a financial crisis of unprecedented scale and severity swept across China. Existing scholarship has characterised the crisis as a critical blow to the development of capitalism in China, setting it within the 'failure narrative' of the late Qing dynasty.
This talk reexamines the events of 1883 in a global context. Drawing on contemporaneous sources in Chinese and English, Zhiqing Hu demonstrates that the 1883 crisis shared structural commonalities with synchronous financial shocks in Western Europe and America. 19th century financialisation and globalisation not only connected the Qing to international markets that generated wealth and prosperity, but also exposed it to the dangers of cheap credit and speculative bubbles. Under this new interpretation, the 1883 crisis was not a threat to capitalism, but a manifestation of China’s integration into a global capitalist financial system built on debt and risk.
Registration
This event is open to the public and free to attend; however, registration is required. This seminar is taking place on campus and will not be recorded or live-streamed.
Organiser
This event has been organised by the SOAS China Institute.
About the speaker
Zhiqing Hu recently completed her Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded doctorate at Birkbeck, University of London, under the joint supervision of Professor Julia Lovell and Professor Hans van de Ven. Her dissertation, China’s Banker: Hu Xueyan and Late Qing Financialisation, examines financial development in 19th century China through the life and career of one of its leading financiers. She is currently working on a manuscript based on her thesis and developing a new research project on the finance and logistics of the Western Expedition.
Before returning to academia, Zhiqing practised as a lawyer at leading international law firms in London. She also has a BA in Law from the University of Cambridge and a MSc in China in Comparative Perspective from LSE.
Chair
This event will be chaired by Dr Lars Laamann (Senior Lecturer in the History of China, SOAS University of London).
Contact
Email: sci@soas.ac.uk
Image credit: Eric Prouzet on Unsplash
