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Korean expansion and decline from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century: a view suggested by Adam Smith

Abstract:
The first price runs for Korean rice help us develop a Smithian physiocratic model to explain the low, stable prices of the eighteenth century and the rising, volatile prices of the nineteenth. Ownership rights provided incentives, and productivity after 1600 exceeded subsistence to achieve rural commercialization. Infrastructure investment from the late seventeenth century promoted development and prosperity, but declining investment, dysfunctional institutions, bad weather, and a population crash pushed the economy towards subsistence in the nineteenth. Decline saw rice monoculture, inflation, and price volatility even before imperialism's impact. Parallels with China suggest an "East Asian" premodern agricultural model.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1017/S0022050708000089

Authors


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Institution:
Academy of Korean Studies, Kyŏnggi-do, Korea
Role:
Author
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
HUMS
Department:
Oriental Studies Faculty
Role:
Author
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
HUMS
Department:
Oriental Studies Faculty
Oxford college:
Wolfson College
Role:
Author


Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Journal:
Journal of Economic History More from this journal
Volume:
68
Issue:
1
Pages:
244-282
Publication date:
2008-01-01
DOI:
EISSN:
1471-6372
ISSN:
0022-0507


Language:
English
Keywords:
Subjects:
UUID:
uuid:383093e0-555f-4af9-b9a0-729e7d2830c4
Local pid:
ora:4278
Deposit date:
2010-10-18

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