明清经济史中的国家:一个对话的尝试

The State in the Economic History of Ming-Qing China:A Conversational Review

本文认为国家能力对经济的作用反映在国家的不同角色里,在比较视野下,国家能力概念为理解明清经济变迁提供了学术可能。明清时期国家的财政有保守的一面,但并非其提供国内公共产品的主要约束;明清中国的经济制度未必是资本主义式的,但在保护产权、促进金融增长等方面也有值得重视的机制;它在政策上的合理性需要具体而论,但很难说是为特定理念所主导;它的向下渗透与社会的组织过程是相互强化的,形成了能与斯密增长相容的社会权力结构。因此,很难说国家能力构成了明清中国未发生现代增长或熊彼特增长的内部原因,但它所依赖的方式很可能对近代中国的发展路径有深远影响。

This paper summarizes the academic possibility that the concept of state capacity provides for the understanding of economic history of Ming-Qing China from a comparative perspective,according to the different roles of state in economy.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the national finance was conservative,but it was not the main constraint for the state to provide domestic public goods.Economic institutions in the Ming-Qing China would not be regarded as capitalism,but it also had mechanisms in protecting property rights and promoting financial growth.Its rationalization in policy making needs to be studied specific,while the role of ideological should not be taken for granted.The state’s downward infiltration and social organization process reinforce each other,forming a social power structure compatible with"Smithian growth".Thus,it is difficult to say that state capacity constituted the internal causation why modern growth or"Schumpeterian growth"did not occur in Ming-Qing China,but the manner in which it relied may well have had a profound impact on the development path of modern China.