Advanced Technology the Key to the Chinese Economy Development Essay

Advanced Technology the Key to the Chinese Economy Development - Essay Example China failed to take the next step and the topic of discussion of the articles revolves around the cause of failure taking the Needham under consideration. The high-level equilibrium trap The above concept was first proposed by Mark Elvin and later supported by some eminent historians. Elvin analysed the economy and the surprising technological advancements and came out with the hypothesis of inadequate capital, constraints in the market, lack of entrepreneurship to be the major causes of failure. He supported his view with examples and evidence. The incentives behind technological innovations were led by family farming, the market system and the fee-simple ownership. So the advancement took the rising curve initially (Maluste, 2011, p.22). The population expanded rapidly and the amount of land got limited. The required amount of food to feed the entire population got limited leading to cheap labour and cost of capital increased. So the country lacked the required surplus necessary f or sustained industrialization. Although China reached the threshold level at the fourteenth century the population grew to such a level where there was no requirement for the labour saving devices (Lin, 1995, p.272). The potential of agriculture is correlated with agriculture. If there is inhibition of technology the equilibrium trap is absent. Therefore, the focus should be towards the rising cause of land ratio and the reason which can be stated is the lack of inventive creativity. According to Chao, the worsening of man to land ratio was not due to the orientation of inventions. If the man to land ratio of the twelfth century is taken into account the claim of no need for technological advancements appears tenuous. The surveys proved that in those periods there was not a single day where the farm households were not occupied in the farmlands. Therefore the claim of no need of labour saving devices is not valid (Bloom, et al, 2006, p.1). The other reason stated by the above-discu ssed hypothesis is inadequate surplus from agriculture rising from weak man to land ratio. This reason has some flaws as well. The surplus of per capita should have been higher in the fourteenth and fifteenth century than that achieved in the twelfth century. Again there is no empirical support to claim the statement that high man to land ratio depleted from the agricultural surplus. Therefore the concept of high-level equilibrium trap stands invalid in analysing the reasons of absence of industrial revolution in China (Kuijs, 2012, p.15). Population, Science and innovations China failed to reap the benefits of technological advancements as it did not transform the experience based procedure of discovery to experiment cum science-based improvement. The Needham’s model assumes the source of the invention to be trial and error. One type of trial and error is based on experience while the other is based on experiment. The former refers to the activities of peasants on the farmla nd while the later trial and error refer to the activities of the investor to innovate new technologies. The technology can be freely obtained from the former while that from later trial and error is costly. The implications drawn from the Needham’s model are discussed below (Swamy, 2010, p.12). The probability of invention or innovation of new technology is dependent upon the positive function of the number of trials.