
The Price of Collapse
The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China
Timothy Brook(Author)
Princeton University Press
Will be published approx. on 13. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-691-25369-5 (ISBN)
Description
How climate change ushered in the collapse of one of history's mighty empires
In 1644, after close to three centuries of relative stability and prosperity, the Ming dynasty collapsed. Many historians attribute its demise to the Manchu invasion of China, but the truth is far more profound. The Price of Collapse provides an entirely new approach to the economic and social history of China, exploring how global climate crisis spelled the end of Ming rule.
The mid-seventeenth century witnessed the deadliest phase of the Little Ice Age, when temperatures and rainfall plunged and world economies buckled. Timothy Brook draws on the history of grain prices to paint a gripping portrait of the final tumultuous years of a once-great dynasty. He explores how global trade networks that increasingly moved silver into China may have affected prices and describes the daily struggle to survive amid grain shortages and famine. By the early 1640s, as the subjects of the Ming found themselves caught in a deadly combination of cold and drought that defied all attempts to stave off disaster, the Ming price regime collapsed, and with it the Ming political regime.
A masterful work of scholarship, The Price of Collapse reconstructs the experience of ordinary people under the immense pressure of unaffordable prices as their country slid from prosperity to calamity and shows how the market mediated the relationship between an empire and the climate that turned against it.
In 1644, after close to three centuries of relative stability and prosperity, the Ming dynasty collapsed. Many historians attribute its demise to the Manchu invasion of China, but the truth is far more profound. The Price of Collapse provides an entirely new approach to the economic and social history of China, exploring how global climate crisis spelled the end of Ming rule.
The mid-seventeenth century witnessed the deadliest phase of the Little Ice Age, when temperatures and rainfall plunged and world economies buckled. Timothy Brook draws on the history of grain prices to paint a gripping portrait of the final tumultuous years of a once-great dynasty. He explores how global trade networks that increasingly moved silver into China may have affected prices and describes the daily struggle to survive amid grain shortages and famine. By the early 1640s, as the subjects of the Ming found themselves caught in a deadly combination of cold and drought that defied all attempts to stave off disaster, the Ming price regime collapsed, and with it the Ming political regime.
A masterful work of scholarship, The Price of Collapse reconstructs the experience of ordinary people under the immense pressure of unaffordable prices as their country slid from prosperity to calamity and shows how the market mediated the relationship between an empire and the climate that turned against it.
Reviews / Votes
"The Price of Collapse is a little gem."---Rana Mitter, Literary Review "The subject of Timothy Brook's book, the demise of the Ming dynasty, offers a chilling warning of a cost-of-living crisis driven by climate-induced food precarity."---Peter Coates, Times Literary Supplement "The Price of Collapse is an exemplary work on a well-researched topic-the fall of Ming China-from a set of unique perspectives, such as price history and the history of climate. . . . This is an inspiring extended reading of the author's award-winning book The Confusions of Pleasure, helping readers fully understand the rise and fall of Ming China, once the center of global trade, through a new lens. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice Reviews * "Fascinating."---David Lorimer, Paradigm ExplorerMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
4 b/w illus. 15 tables.
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-25369-5 (9780691253695)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2023
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€22.49
Available for download
Person
Timothy Brook is professor emeritus of history at the University of British Columbia and a fellow of the British Academy. His many books include Great State, Mr. Selden's Map of China, and Vermeer's Hat.