Events

Rise of the south: How Arab-led maritime trade transformed China, 671–1371 CE

China’s center of socioeconomic activities was in the North prior to the Tang dynasty but is in the South today. Zhiwu Chen of HKU Business School and his co-authors demonstrate that Arab and Persian Muslim traders triggered that transition when they came to China in the late seventh century, by lifting maritime trade along the South Coast and re-creating the South. Between 742 and 1393 CE, prefectures with better access to maritime trade, or higher porcelain trade participation, experienced significantly higher population growth, but the predictive coefficient weakened substantially after the maritime trade ban of 1371 CE. In this Quantitative History Webinar, Zhiwu Chen will explain how their findings are robust after controlling for many confounding factors.

Zhiwu Chen’s co-authors: Zhan Lin (Renmin University of China) and Kaixiang Peng (Wuhan University)

Discussant: Billy K. L. So, Professor Emeritus, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Fellow, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Date: March 6, 2025

Time: 21:00 – 22:30
21:00 (Hong Kong/Beijing/Singapore)
08:00 (New York)|05:00 (Los Angeles)|13:00 (London)|22:00 (Tokyo)|00:00 (+1, Sydney)

Venue: Zoom Webinar

Language: English

The Quantitative History (QH) Webinar Series aims to provide researchers, teachers, and students with an online intellectual platform to keep up to date with the latest research in the field, promoting the dissemination of research findings and interdisciplinary use of quantitative methods in historical research. The QH Webinar Series, now entering its fifth year, is co-organized by the Centre for Quantitative History at the HKU Business School and the International Society for Quantitative History in partnership with the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Series is now substantially supported by the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. [AoE/B-704/22-R]).

量化歷史網上講座系列由香港大學陳志武和馬馳騁教授聯合發起，旨在介紹前沿量化歷史研究成果、促進同仁交流，推廣量化方法在歷史研究中的應用。本系列講座由香港大學經管學院量化歷史研究中心和國際量化歷史學會承辦，及香港人文社會研究所全力支持。從2023年開始，系列得到中國香港特別行政區研究資助局卓越學科領域計劃的重要資助 (項目編號[AoE/B-704/22-R])。

Conveners:
Zhiwu Chen
Chicheng Ma