Course Description

This course deals with the economic history of Asia including Japan form the perspective of its relations to politics and society. At first, we discuss the problems of Asian society and economy in old days. These topics are “centralization and decentralization of power”, bureaucratic system, lineage, guild, village and so forth. These issues are what the studies of Chinese socio-economic history focus upon. As the case of overseas Chinese shows, “interrelations between politics and economy” and “personal relations” are important subjects for the study of Asian economic history. This course also discusses the economic history of Modern Manchuria under Japan’s control. The land issues will be the main topic there.