从女性婚育角度看近代中国的工业革命——对中国工业革命未能发生之人口因素的质疑

A Question on Whether Population Factors Influenced the Industrial Revolution in Modern China ——From the Perspective of Women's Marriage and Bearing

传统观念认为是人口因素,即中国妇女的早婚和普遍结婚所导致的人口迅速增长阻碍了工业革命在中国的发生。但是,通过比较研究发现,不论是在女性生育率上,还是在人口增长率上,中国与有着妇女晚婚和女子独身这一鲜明特点的同时期的英国相比是相似的甚至更低。这就意味着传统观念,即以人口因素质疑中国工业革命的发生是难以成立的。

It is traditionally accepted that the population factors, namely, the phenomena of Chinese women’s early marriage and common marriage which led to the rapid population increase prevented the development of industrial revolution in China. But through a comparative study of the birth rate and the growth rate of population we found that China had the same or even lower population than Britain in the population rate or birth rate although British female marriage occurred later, and a fair proportion of women remained unmarried through their lives. Therefore, it is difficult to set up the concept that it is the population factors that prevented the development of industrial revolution in China.