The historical dynamics of industrialization in Northwestern Europe and China ca. 1800-2010: A regional interpretation

Project Information

HInDI

Grant agreement ID: 637695

DOI

10.3030/637695

Project closed

EC signature date 21 May 2015

Start date 1 September 2015

End date 28 February 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 452 309,01

EU contribution

€ 1 452 309,01

Coordinated by

KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN - KNAW
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - HInDI (The historical dynamics of industrialization in Northwestern Europe and China ca. 1800-2010: A regional interpretation)

Reporting period: 2020-03-01 to 2021-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The research project ‘The Historical Dynamics of Industrialization in North-Western Europe and China, 1800-2010' aims to examine which factors determined how, and at what pace, industries developed in the different European and Chinese regions. The underlying question is whether the Industrial Revolution in Northwest Europe has indeed been decisive for the way in which other regions of the world developed.

The point of departure of the project is that amazingly little is known about the 19th century Industrial Revolution due to a lack of systematically collected historical data and because of the fact that until now largely developments on national level were studied. This research project follows a different route –based on the use of datasets- by looking more accurately at the developments in European and Chinese regions. The aim is to obtain an understanding of the spread and development of industries and how societies develop economically. The project does not only look at the factors that affect these developments, but also at the effects of the pace at which the industrialization process comes about.

For today's developing economies, these are practical questions they have to deal with. In addition, the research project touches upon the so-called Great Divergence debate in which the central question is how it is that prosperity in Europe from the end of the eighteenth century grew much faster than in China. Expectations are that the results of this study will also help us understand the current spectacular economic growth in China (and the stagnation in Europe) and its impact on global patterns of social inequality

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project aimed at understanding the spread of industrialization in regions below the national level. In order to do so, we had to 1) create new datasets, 2) test existing theories on trade, market potential, and institutions, and 3) add dynamic interaction between various theories.

The data on regional development is less straightforward as might be expected since data are often either inconsistent or entirely absent. Besides systematic datesets on industrialization in Belgium and the Netherlands for 1820, 1850, 1896, 1930, 1950, 1970, 2000, and 2010, and China 1933-2000, we had to create two entirely new census type datasets.
a) 1896 data on industrial employment in the Netherlands on the municipal level.
b) A sample of the 1939 industrial occupations by region created from the 1939 population Register for England and Wales.
Besides, above-mentioned data, we constructed a national overview of industrial output in China in 1933 based on a great number of historical sources and we created a sample individual level dataset on metal smelting factories ca. 1720-1910 for China based on data contained in Memorials to the throne.

A second aim of the project was to test and analyze existing theories on regional industrialization. This included various publications on, for example, Marshallian externalities, trade theory, and market potential.

A third aim of the project was to include a dynamic system to test the existing theories. This is done by using interaction effects, creating GIS maps and spatial correlation, and adding long term effects inter alia by creating an automatic self-selecting model.

Besides various workshops, data creation, contributions to handbooks, and a report to the Chinese government, various publications emerged from this project, including for example:
*R. Philips (2019). “Construction of a Census of Companies for the Netherlands in 1896.” Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History 16(1), 87-108.
*Bas van Leeuwen, Robin Philips, Erik Buyst (eds.) (2020). An Economic History of Regional Industrialization. Oxon and New York, Routledge.
*Wang, M., van Leeuwen, B., & Li, J. (2020). Education in China, ca. 1840-present. (The Quantitative Economic History of China; Vol. 17/4). Brill Academic Publishers.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This project tries to generate an impact in the following ways:

a) generate large consistent datasets. Even though some exist, this is still quite unique and can be used for many purposes both academic and non-academic.
b) We have tried to expand our data beyond what was promised at the start of the project by not just giving provincial data, but also (for benchmarks) municipal data. In the case of China we also have county data, including provinces not part of the original proposal. This is unique because such data do not exist yet for Republican, let alone New China.
c) We expanded the theoretical model to include more detailed features such as spatial lags and a self-selecting model.
d) Compare China with Europe: 1) macro comparisons, 2) study the micro interactions in technology and production transfer, e.g. Dutch businessmen traveling to China to set up a factories. What was their motive? What about technology transfer?

Some examples:
*Robin Philips, Zipeng Zhang, and Bas van Leeuwen (2021). "Foreign Direct Investment in Late Qing China: Experiences of the Dutch Entrepreneur Pieter Bakels."
*Bas van Leeuwen, Peter Foldvari, Robin Philips, Meimei Wang (2020). “Regional industrialization: evidence on industry agglomeration.” In Bas van Leeuwen, Robin Philips, Erik Buyst (eds.). An Economic History of Regional Industrialization. Oxon and New York, Routledge, pp. 228-259.
*Peter Foldvari, Bas van Leeuwen, and Robin Philips (2021). “Regional adjustment after a shock in unemployment: the case of Belgium.”

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