从经济学视角重解李约瑟之谜

人口-资源禀赋的差异是中国和西欧在18世纪后文明分岔,即李约瑟之谜产生的原因。人口-资源禀赋的差异促进农业和手工业结合,阻碍市场扩大,限制技术创新。在这样的稳态的小农经济下,即使产生了一定程度的商品化生产和商品经济,但由于其运行规律和资本主义完全相悖,不可能导致工业革命的发生,这正是中国技术创新由领先变为落后的主要原因。当前,中国依然面临资源短缺的威胁,节约资源消耗、实现资源合理利用对于中国实行可持续发展依然具有现实意义。

Review on Needham Paradox in Terms of Economics

This paper studies the Needham Paradox in the economic way.It shows that the differences between the endowment of population-resources of China and that of Western Europe are the key factor that drives the civilization diversification between these two regions after 18th century.The differences of the endowment of population-resources encourage the combination of agriculture and handicraft,blocked the expansion of market and restricted technical innovation.In the stable small-scale peasant economy,some comm...