The Colonization of Hong Kong: Establishing the Pearl of Britain-China Trade

Palivos, Theodore and Wang, Ping and Yip, Chong (2011): The Colonization of Hong Kong: Establishing the Pearl of Britain-China Trade.

Abstract

We construct a staged development framework with multi-period discrete choices to study the colonization of Hong Kong, which facilitated the trade of several agricultural and manufactured products, including opium, between Britain and China. The model is particularly designed based on historical data and documentation collected from various sources. We show theoretically how institutions changed in response to the underlying key primitives and lead to the transition from the pre-Opium War era, to the post-Opium War era and then to the post-opium trade era, which span the period 1773-1933. Finally, we support our theoretical findings with historical evidence.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Colonial Economy, Opium Trade, Endogenous Policy and Institutions, Staged Development.
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O53 - Asia including Middle East; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E6 - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook > E65 - Studies of Particular Policy Episodes; D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D78 - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation; N - Economic History > N4 - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation > N40 - General, International, or Comparative

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