Capitalist Development in Late Qing China
Schedule
Mon Mar 09 2026 at 05:00 pm to 06:30 pm
UTC+00:00Location
SOAS University of London | London, EN
About this Event
Registration
This event is open to the public and free to attend, however registration is required.
About the event
Abstract
In 1883, a financial crisis of unprecedented scale and severity swept across China. Existing scholarship has characterised the crisis as a critical blow to the development of capitalism in China, setting it within the 'failure narrative' of the late Qing dynasty.
This talk reexamines the events of 1883 in a global context. Drawing on contemporaneous sources in Chinese and English, Zhiqing Hu demonstrates that the 1883 crisis shared structural commonalities with synchronous financial shocks in Western Europe and America. 19th century financialisation and globalisation not only connected the Qing to international markets that generated wealth and prosperity, but also exposed it to the dangers of cheap credit and speculative bubbles. Under this new interpretation, the 1883 crisis was not a threat to capitalism, but a manifestation of China’s integration into a global capitalist financial system built on debt and risk.
About the speaker
Zhiqing Hu recently completed her Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded doctorate at Birkbeck, University of London, under the joint supervision of Professor Julia Lovell and Professor Hans van de Ven. Her dissertation, China’s Banker: Hu Xueyan and Late Qing Financialisation, examines financial development in 19th century China through the life and career of one of its leading financiers. She is currently working on a manuscript based on her thesis and developing a new research project on the finance and logistics of the Western Expedition.
Before returning to academia, Zhiqing practised as a lawyer at leading international law firms in London. She also has a BA in Law from the University of Cambridge and a MSc in China in Comparative Perspective from LSE.
Room location: Room RB01, Lower Ground Floor, SOAS main building, SOAS University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG.
Event webpage: Capitalist development in Late Qing China: a reassessment of the 1883 financial crisis | SOAS
Contact
- Email: [email protected]
- https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/institutes-and-regional-centres/soas-china-institute
Where is it happening?
SOAS University of London, 10 Thornhaugh Street, London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
