Research On Mercantilism In Late Qing Dynasty:from The Perspective Of Rent-seeking Theory

In the long Chinese history of nearly two thousand years from the Qin and Han dynasties to the late Qing Dynasty,agriculture has always been the "base" in the eyes of the governments of all dynasties,while commerce is in a subordinate position,or it is regarded as the "end." However,in the late Qing Dynasty,the economic policy of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business" or "emphasizing capital and restraining the bottom" in China for nearly two thousand years had undergone a very great change.Merchants and business began to receive the attention of the entire society and the government.Mercantilist ideas were all the rage,and the late Qing government also implemented a series of mercantilist economic policies.Why did China,which had long practiced the policy of "emphasizing agriculture and restraining business",turned to mercantilism during the historical period of the late Qing Dynasty?In this regard,scholars at home and abroad have done some research.Their main point is that in the face of military and economic invasion by Western powers,the late Qing government needs to encourage the development of commerce,especially the development of national industries,to increase fiscal revenue,The purpose of resisting the economic invasion of Western powers was the reason for the rise of mercantilism in China during the late Qing Dynasty.However,this explanation has its shortcomings,especially because it does not explain the deeper economic and institutional reasons for the rise of mercantilism in China.This article starts from the perspective of rent-seeking theory proposed by the public choice school,and attempts to explain the reasons for the rise of mercantilism in the late Qing Dynasty from different angles.Mercantilism is far from being so simple as "valuing business" in its literal meaning.The attacks on mercantilism by Adam Smith and others are also biased and misleading.It can be said that the essence of mercantilism is the belief that the economic interests of a nation-state can only be realized by the control and protection of a nationalist government.Especially for late-developing countries,government control and protection are essential if they want to quickly industrialize and catch up with the first-developing countries.Mercantilism,in a sense,can be seen as a concept that supports government economic intervention and planned economy,corresponding to economic liberalism that believes in the "invisible hand" of the market.Overseas,Robert Eklund Jr.and Robert Tollison have used rent-seeking theory to explain the rise and fall of mercantilism in Western Europe.After introducing the concept of rent-seeking costs and benefits using the method of the public choice school,the two scholars believe that the reason why mercantilism has a shorter duration in the United Kingdom and has less impact is because British political power is more decentralized,resulting in Businessmen who want to gain market monopoly need to bribe most members of the British Parliament.The cost of rent-seeking activities in the UK is much higher than in countries with more powerful monarchies such as France and Spain.In France and Spain,because of the strong monarchy,merchants often only need to bribe the royal family or even the king to obtain a monopoly position and the monopoly rent it brings.Market regulation is one of the representative policies of mercantilism.Therefore,the decentralization and concentration of political power determines the differences in the influence and duration of mercantilism in Britain,France,and the West.So far,no scholar in China has used the rent-seeking theory to explain the rise and decline of mercantilism in the late Qing Dynasty,which left a gap for the study of this article,and the author is trying to fill this gap.This article will use the methods adopted by Robert Eklund Jr.and Robert Tollison Jr.,but will shift the focus of the analysis from Western Europe to the late Qing Dynasty.After analyzing the rise and decline of mercantilism in the late Qing Dynasty from the perspective of rent-seeking theory,this article concludes that the rise and decline of mercantilism in the late Qing Dynasty has an inseparable relationship with the political system of the late Qing Dynasty:the monarchy system As a result,the power of the late Qing Dynasty was more concentrated,which led to lower rent-seeking costs in the late Qing period,and mercantilism also emerged;and when political power became dispersed due to external factors,rent-seeking costs increased to higher than the rent-seeking benefits Mercantilism began to decline.Finally,this article attempts to give some enlightenment to the Chinese economy in the transition period from the perspective of rent-seeking theory and mercantilism.The main contribution and innovation of this article is to explain the rise and decline of mercantilism in the late Qing Dynasty from a new perspective of rent-seeking theory,and fill the gap in this field in China.At the same time,due to its own level and ability,this article also has the following two shortcomings:The first is the relative lack of mastery of first-hand historical data,which makes this article mainly cite other scholars' historical historical data on mercantilism in the late Qing The second is that the author was not deeply involved in the political and legal systems of the late Qing Dynasty,so he did not fully discuss this aspect,which may lead to insufficient research on the institutional reasons for the rise of mercantilism in the late Qing Dynasty.This article is divided into five chapters.The first chapter gives an overview of rent-seeking theory and domestic and foreign research on mercantilism in the late Qing Dynasty;the second chapter introduces the theoretical basis adopted in this article,and also defines the concept of mercantilism in detail;the third chapter Analyzes the system and the costs and benefits of rent-seeking and rent-seeking activities determined by the system in the late Qing dynasty,and discusses the specific content of rent-seeking and rent-seeking activities in the late Qing;The impact of renting activities and the relative decline of mercantilism.The last chapter explores the enlightenment of mercantilism and rent-seeking theory on China's economy in the transition period.