Fig 1.
Economic growth and decline in China, 1600–1911.
Total GDP in 10,000s of 2011 USD (orange) and GDP per capita in 100s of 2011 USD (blue). Our proposed dates of SDT phases for Qing rule marked as well. Source: Clio-Infra [56].
Table 1.
Population growth and declining per capita Arable Land in China.
Fig 2.
Availability of agricultural land per capita (orange) and inverse estimated real wages (blue), 1644–1912.
Sources: Population estimates from the ClioInfra project; estimates of available arable land from [58,62]; real wage estimates after [63].
Table 2.
Increasing competition among gongshi to pass metropolitan examinations, 1691–1890.
Table 3.
Percentage of Qing officials gaining degrees through civil examination (all levels), Yin privilege, and purchase.
‘Yin Privilege’ refers to the hereditary privilege enjoyed by the sons of higher officials who could inherit the title without standing for examinations. Sources [82,84,86].
Fig 3.
Fiscal balance under the Qing, 1652–1911, showing fiscal balance (black) calculated as estimated total revenue (blue) minus estimated total expenditures (orange).
Fig 4.
Political instability index PSI for the Qing dynasty showing the main components MMP, EMP, and SFD discussed in the text.
Sources as detailed above.
Fig 5.
PSI compared with the relative number of internal wars during the Qing.
For data sources and methodology, see SM.
Fig 6.
Major ecological shocks experienced under the Qing, 1644–1911.
Source: REACHES climate database [45,121]. For data sources and methodology, see SM. Internal wars and our PSI measure shown for comparison.
Fig 7.
Relative number of external wars during the Qing Dynasty, 1644–1912.
Sources: [95,96] Internal wars and our PSI measure shown for comparison.