I just recently learned about the Song Dynasty in China around the 13th century AD. They were quite an advanced economy with much industrial technology. It is a peculiarity of history that they did not succeed in industrializing in the same way Western Europe did.
Does anyone here have any good sources on this topic? I’m interested in getting a wide range of perspectives.
One huge problem is the Song Dynasty is so little studied outside of China. Chinese historians, philosophers, economists etc have written a truly enormous amount of literature, little of which has been translated in any foreign language.
Western students tend to concentrate on specific topics, with history of arts being the only sector which saw a sizeable amount of work. I am also aware of a good book about what the Song civilization contributed to medical sciences and a number of works dealing with philosophy and religion.
Nevertheless, some good Chinese works have been translated (Ji Xialin’s work on industrial sugar cane production for example) and there are a number of generic history books having a good section on the Song economy ( China’s Golden Age by Charles Benn for example).
One characteristic of the Song dynasty is a seeming neurosis on how government run the economy. For example silk production and trade could be completely unregulated in one region but tightly regulated in another. There was also a continuous cycle of nationalization and privatization in some strategic industries (namely tea, wine and salt), which seemed to hint more at the Emperor’s or some powerful minister’s ideas than to a leading ideology.