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International Conferences in East Asia
Impressions of the Seventeenth World Economic History
Congress in Kyoto
MA Min*From August 3 to 7, 2015, the seventeenth World Economic History
Congress took place in Kyoto under the auspices of the International
Economic History Association. Preliminary figures indicate that nearly athousand scholars from fifty-eight countries and regions participated. In 2012
I succeeded Prof. Li Bozhong as the Chinese member of the executive
committee for the congress, and in preparing for and carrying out the seventeenth congress, I participated in the activities of the executive committee.
Here I would like to mention a few impressions gathered from my participation, to encourage my colleagues in the field of Chinese economic history toengage more with international scholars in order to accomplish greaterresults.
One of the most authoritative international scholarly organizations in the* Ma Min 馬敏 is President of Huazhong Normal University and President (2011 2012)of the Society.

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 7 2016humanities and social sciences, the International Economic History
Association, founded in 1960, is a large international scholarly organization
covering economic history and other fields at the national, regional, andinternational levels. The association presently comprises forty-five member
societies in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Africa, with theChinese Economic History Society having joined the association in 2002.
Since at least the fifteenth World Economic History Congress, held in 2009 in
Utrecht, the Netherlands, under the guidance of the Chinese EconomicHistory Society, such institutions as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,
Nankai University, Yunnan University, and Central China Normal University
have organized sessions in the congress. In the sixteenth congress, held in2012 in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and in the present congress, Chinese
scholars have continued to achieve new highs in rates of participation,
whether it be in terms of the number of scholars, the number of session
topics, or the extent of international participation.
In terms of number of participants, according to the report of the congress’sexecutive committee issued at the opening of the congress, nearly a hundred
Chinese scholars (including those from the Mainland, Hong Kong, andTaiwan) participated in the congress—the fourth highest number of participants after the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
In terms of session topics, the first call for and review of session topics
yielded only one session from Mainland China: “Changes in the Market
Economy in China: Mechanisms, Structure, and Integration, 17th–20th
Centuries,” moderated by Prof. Wang Yuru of Nankai University and Prof.
Kent G. Deng of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
After participating in the first session review, I wrote up the situation
regarding sessions and the procedure for organizing a session, and informed
colleagues in China. With help from the Chinese Economic History Society,in the second call for session topics, we smoothly approved session topics
proposed by such Mainland institutions as the Institute of Economics of theChinese Academy of Social Sciences, Central China Normal University,Fudan University, Shandong University, Peking University, Sun Yat-sen
University, East China Normal University, and Guangxi Normal University. Inaddition, we received and approved four session topics from Professors Li
Zhongqing, Su Jilang, and He Wenkai of Hong Kong University of Scienceand Technology and two session topics from Prof. Roy Bin Wong of theUniversity of California at Los Angeles.
A broad range of topics interested scholars from Mainland China, HongKong, and Taiwan, as well as Chinese scholars residing abroad. In preliminary materials, their topics and the organizers are given as follows:International Conferences in East Asia

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• “The Modernization of China in the Early Twentieth Century: Institutional
Change and Economic Development,” Yan Se of Peking University, Zhao
Xuejun of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Noam Yuchtman of theUniversity of California at Berkeley• “Opening of Treaty Ports Reconsidered: The Chinese Maritime Customs
and Modern Chinese Economy,” Wu Songdi of Fudan University• “Political Economy of China’s Modern Transition, 1840–1930,” MaChicheng of Shandong University• “Contact, Conflicts, and Cooperation between Business and Businessmen inthe Pacific Rim since 18th Century,” Fu Haiyan of Central China Normal
University, Ma Min of Central China Normal University, Xiong Yuanbao ofWaseda University• “Demographic Differentials by Wealth and Status,” Dong Hao of Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology, Tommy Bengtsson of Lund
University• “Wealth Inequality in East Asia from the Eighteenth to the TwentiethCentury,” Chen Shuang of the University of Iowa, Matthew Noellert ofHong Kong University of Science and Technology• “Law and Custom for the Globalizing Maritime Business World in ModernChina,” Billy K. L. So of Hong Kong University of Science andTechnology• “The State and Economic Development in Early Modern Japan and China:
Continuity and Discontinuity from the 17th Century to the 20th Century,”He Wenkai of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Chiu
Peng-sheng of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Mark Metzler of theUniversity of Texas at Austin• “Chinese Public Finance: From Military-Fiscal State through the Issues ofCommon Pool Resources and Foreign Trade Taxation to the Emergence ofPublic Debt,” Roy Bin Wong of the University of California at LosAngeles• “Changes and Continuities in a Bustling Time: Chinese Long-DistanceMerchants and Their Business World, 1700–1900,” Zhang Meng of theUniversity of California at Los Angeles, Wang Luman of Virginia Military
InstituteAn indication of the extent of international participation in the present
congress is that in the sessions organized by Chinese scholars, nearly all
papers were read in English, and discussions were for the most part
conducted in English, thus giving the gatherings an international flavor. To
attract scholars of other nations to participate, sessions organized by Chinese
scholars invariably had foreign organizers as well, and they used multiple

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channels to call for papers, meeting with considerable success. Chinesescholars, including those from Hong Kong, not only organized and participated in Mainland sessions, but also participated in sessions organized byscholars of other countries, whether as co-organizers, paper presenters, orcommenters. For instance, Prof. Xu Yi of Guangxi Normal University
presented a paper in the session “The Maddison Project: Measuring
Economic Performance across Time and Space,” organized by Jutta Bolt of
the University of Groningen and Ma Debin of the London School ofEconomics, and also co-organized and presented a paper in the session “TheQuantitative History of China, ca. 1368–1949,” organized by Bas VanLeeuwen of the Utrecht University. And Prof. Lee Pui-Tak of the Chinese
University of Hong Kong presented a paper in the presidential session “TheState and Enterprise: Legacy and Future Strategy” and also presented a paper
in a regular session and commented on a paper in another regular session.
Another important feature of this congress was that research on China
garnered considerable attention from around the world. According to incomplete figures, nearly thirty sessions, including those organized by Chinese
scholars, covered topics concerning China. In addition to the Chinese scholars
mentioned above, scholars from the United States, Britain, Japan, and othercountries organized sessions on topics concerning China. For example,
Thomas G. Rawski of the University of Pittsburgh organized the session“Long-Term Trends in China’s Economy.” Bas Van Leeuwen organized two
sessions directly related to China: “The Quantitative History of China, ca.
1368–1949” and “Government Finance and State Spending in China inComparative Perspective, ca. 1500–1900.” And the well-known scholar Linda
Grove of Sophia University organized the session “Discovering North China:
Regional Diversity and Development from the 18th Century to the 20thCentury.”
One noticeable characteristic of this congress was that many sessions
covering topics with a global perspective or carrying out international
comparisons featured papers covering China. For instance, papers in thesession “Accounting for the Great Divergence,” organized by Stephen
Broadberry of the University of Warwick, covered China, Europe, and Japan.
Kajima Jun of Yokohama National University organized the session “ChineseEnterprises under the Socialist Economic System in Comparative
Perspective.” Papers in the session “Revisiting the Role of Foreign Trade inSocialist Economies,” organized by Valeria Zanier of the London School ofEconomics, covered the Soviet Union, Italy, China, the United States,Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The session “Environmental Foundations of Asian
Capitalism,” organized by Sugihara Kaoru of the University of Tokyo,
Kenneth Pomeranz of the University of Chicago, and Tirthankar Roy of theInternational Conferences in East Asia

223London School of Economics and Political Science, covered China, India, andJapan. The session “The Development of Nuclear Energy: Economics,Financial and Business Origins,” organized by Maria del Mar Rubio of thePublic University of Navarre, Duncan Connors of Durham University, andJoseba De la Torre of the Public University of Navarre, dealt with issues
surrounding nuclear energy in the United States, Spain, Japan, China, Britain,
Brazil, and Mexico. In one of the final sessions, the vice-presidential session“Historical and Comparative Institutional Analysis of East AsianDevelopment,” organized by Okazaki Tetsuji of the University of Tokyo, Ma
Debin of the London School of Economics and Political Science read thepaper “Political Institution and Long-Run Economic Growth: The Case ofChina.” As in previous congresses, there was a plenary session in which twowell-known scholars discussed a particular topic. This year Prof. Pranab
Bardhan of the University of California at Berkeley and Prof. Roy Bin Wong,
Director of the UCLA Asia Institute, contrasted two of the world’s largest
economies, China and India, from the perspectives of economic history andeconomic development, with Linda Grove of Sophia University serving asmoderator. The two speakers compared the two nations in terms of theirdifferent histories, industries, and models of the relation between state andcapital, analyzing the problems and challenges that they face.
In addition to the sessions, two other segments of the congress that
attracted attention were the doctoral-dissertation competition and the postersession. In the dissertation competition, eight dissertations were selected as
finalists. These were then grouped by period, with three dissertations in theearly-modern group, three dissertations in the nineteenth-century group, andtwo dissertations in the twentieth-century group. Selected as outstanding
dissertations were four dissertations, including one from the nineteenthcentury group, in which I served as judge. This was “Globalisation and theOttoman Empire: A Study of Integration between Ottoman and World CottonMarkets,” by Laura Panza of the University of Melbourne. For the poster
session, the congress set aside thirty-three spaces in the middle of the main
thoroughfare and refreshment stands of the Kyoto International Convention
Center for doctoral students and young scholars to advertise their dissertations. During breaks, young authors stood by their posters, ready to explain
their theses or answer questions for all who showed interest.
The congress also provided booths for publishers to display journals andbooks in the field of economic history, accept subscriptions, and give out
complementary copies of journals or books.
One special accommodation of the present congress is that it arranged fora lecture open to the public. To encourage interaction between scholarly
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five Japanese scholars from Doshisha University to engage in a discussion on
the development of industry in Kyoto over the past 300 years and the futureof industry in Kyoto.
As a member of the congress’s executive committee, I participated in its
meetings before and after the congress. In addition to selecting outstanding
doctoral dissertations, the executive committee listened to reports by the local
Kyoto organizing committee and by the executive committee of the previous
World Economic History Congress. After the selection of the new executive
committee, on which I continued to serve, we discussed how to proceed withthe eighteenth World Economic History Congress, to be held in 2018, and we
confirmed that English would be the only official language of the congress.
We also decided that the next congress would be held from late July to earlyAugust in Boston at the two well-known schools Harvard University and theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. We hope that more scholars from Asia,and China in particular, will participate in this great gathering, and that wewill achieve even greater success.

More Information“XVIIth World Economic History Congress, 3–7 August 2015, Kyoto,Japan.” http://www.wehc2015.org/programme_overview.html.
“XVIIth World Economic History Congress, 3–7 August 2015, Kyoto, Japan:Second Call.” http://www.wehc2015.org/second_call.html.