China inside out: explaining silver flows in the triangular trade, c.1820s-1870s

Irigoin, Alejandra ORCID: 0000-0001-5395-1537, Kobayashi, Atsushi and Chilosi, David ORCID: 0000-0002-2251-0381 (2025) China inside out: explaining silver flows in the triangular trade, c.1820s-1870s. Economic History Review. ISSN 1468-0289

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Abstract

This paper analyses a new large dataset of silver prices, as well as silver and merchandise trade flows in and out of China in the crucial decades of the mid-nineteenth century when the Empire was opened to world trade. Silver flows were associated with the interaction between heterogeneous monetary preferences and availability of specific coins. Before the 1850s, money markets became increasingly efficient, as reliance on bills of exchange allowed exports to grow in times when sound money was in short supply. When a new standard for silver eventually emerged, there was a new peak in China's silver imports.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Authors
Divisions:	Economic History
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions D History General and Old World > DS Asia
JEL classification:	E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates > E42 - Monetary Systems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System F - International Economics > F3 - International Finance > F33 - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions N - Economic History > N1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations > N10 - General, International, or Comparative
Date Deposited:	28 Apr 2025 11:00
Last Modified:	24 Jun 2025 17:03
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/127999

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