The Price of Collapse: The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China
By Timothy Brook
Princeton University Press
ISBN: 978-0-691-25040-3
Why did the Ming Dynasty collapse in the 17th century? This book offers an answer by looking at grain prices and how they were affected by climate change.
Excerpt:
My foÂcus on the culÂture of conÂsumpÂtion and soÂcial inÂvestÂment in Ming China was what led me to prices. Once I beÂgan to find them, I looked up from the texts I was readÂing and reÂalÂized that the hisÂtory of conÂsumpÂtion was pointÂing me not just to price hisÂtory but to cliÂmate hisÂtory as well, for it was in peÂriÂods of cliÂmate disÂturÂbance that prices rose and chronÂiÂclers thought to write them down. This book presents a synÂtheÂsis of what I have found. It is not so much a hisÂtory of Ming prices as an acÂcount of the role that prices played in meÂdiÂatÂing the reÂlaÂtionÂship beÂtween the peoÂple of the Ming and the cliÂmate that turned against them. While most of the docÂuÂments were penned and pubÂlished by the Ming elite, my goal has been to catch sight of orÂdiÂnary peoÂple so as to betÂter unÂderÂstand the deÂciÂsions they made as they bought and sold their goods and serÂvices, esÂpeÂcially in peÂriÂods when China slid from prosÂperÂity to calamity.
Who is this book for?
Three groups of historians will find this to be an interesting read: economic historians, those interested in historical climate change, and those interested in the collapse of states throughout history. In particular, it offers a good case example of the Little Ice Age led to a agricultural decline.
Reviews:
“Brook has, it would seem, blazed a trail; this short book of only some 170 pages powerfully persuasive.” ~ review by Peter Gordon in Asian Review of Books
“The Price of Collapse would be a useful book if it provided nothing beyond a compilation of price data and disaster narratives, but it does far more. In his well-established style, Brook uses seemingly banal data points to reveal the inner and outer worlds of Ming subjects and their global points of contact. On the question of climate, however, this book leaves more to be explored. While Brook shows that the crisis of the 1630s and 1640s must be understood in light of the Maunder Minimum, an unprecedented period of global cooling and regional drought, he does not fully demonstrate how or to what degree climate precipitated this episode, let alone the relationship between climate and grain prices in earlier periods.” ~ review by Ian Miller in H-Environment
The author:
Tim Brook is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, where he specializes in the history of China, in particular the Ming Dynasty period. Click here to view his Wikipedia page.
The Price of Collapse: The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China
By Timothy Brook
Princeton University Press
ISBN: 978-0-691-25040-3
Why did the Ming Dynasty collapse in the 17th century? This book offers an answer by looking at grain prices and how they were affected by climate change.
Excerpt:
My foÂcus on the culÂture of conÂsumpÂtion and soÂcial inÂvestÂment in Ming China was what led me to prices. Once I beÂgan to find them, I looked up from the texts I was readÂing and reÂalÂized that the hisÂtory of conÂsumpÂtion was pointÂing me not just to price hisÂtory but to cliÂmate hisÂtory as well, for it was in peÂriÂods of cliÂmate disÂturÂbance that prices rose and chronÂiÂclers thought to write them down. This book presents a synÂtheÂsis of what I have found. It is not so much a hisÂtory of Ming prices as an acÂcount of the role that prices played in meÂdiÂatÂing the reÂlaÂtionÂship beÂtween the peoÂple of the Ming and the cliÂmate that turned against them. While most of the docÂuÂments were penned and pubÂlished by the Ming elite, my goal has been to catch sight of orÂdiÂnary peoÂple so as to betÂter unÂderÂstand the deÂciÂsions they made as they bought and sold their goods and serÂvices, esÂpeÂcially in peÂriÂods when China slid from prosÂperÂity to calamity.
Who is this book for?
Three groups of historians will find this to be an interesting read: economic historians, those interested in historical climate change, and those interested in the collapse of states throughout history. In particular, it offers a good case example of the Little Ice Age led to a agricultural decline.
Reviews:
“Brook has, it would seem, blazed a trail; this short book of only some 170 pages powerfully persuasive.” ~ review by Peter Gordon in Asian Review of Books
“The Price of Collapse would be a useful book if it provided nothing beyond a compilation of price data and disaster narratives, but it does far more. In his well-established style, Brook uses seemingly banal data points to reveal the inner and outer worlds of Ming subjects and their global points of contact. On the question of climate, however, this book leaves more to be explored. While Brook shows that the crisis of the 1630s and 1640s must be understood in light of the Maunder Minimum, an unprecedented period of global cooling and regional drought, he does not fully demonstrate how or to what degree climate precipitated this episode, let alone the relationship between climate and grain prices in earlier periods.” ~ review by Ian Miller in H-Environment
The author:
Tim Brook is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, where he specializes in the history of China, in particular the Ming Dynasty period. Click here to view his Wikipedia page.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website
You can also buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
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