Adam Smith 300 is a timely opportunity to renew the global interest in Adam Smith and to bring his ideas and legacy into contemporary debates around the world. HKU Business School is pleased to collaborate with the University of Glasgow to jointly organise the Smith Around the World Lecture Series, presenting a lecture titled “Triumph of the Market: What China’s past and present tell us” by Professor Zhiwu Chen to mark Adam Smith’s Tercentenary.

From the Neolithic to the Han dynasty, the southern coastal regions remained as China’s backwaters and did not experience much development. However, from the early Tang dynasty onward, maritime trade launched the South onto a Smithian growth path, transforming China’s economic landscape. By the end of the Yuan dynasty, the coastal economies became the country’s economic powerhouse. Over the subsequent centuries, the South stagnated as the emperors wavered between sea bans and limited maritime trade. Ultimately, though, the country had to open itself for foreign trade as a result of the Opium War, unleashing the forces of unfettered Smithian growth.

In this lecture, Professor Chen will argue that the rise to prominence of the southern coastal regions – especially Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hangzhou – showcases the power of Smithian growth drivers. Uncompromised freedom to exchange encourages division of labour, which raises productivity and lifts wealth creation; and, as the extent of the market determines the extent of this division effect, globalization deepens specialization and lengthens the supply chain, pushing growth to unprecedented levels. It is the Smithian growth experience that gave the South its distinctive pro-business culture, as opposed to North China’s pro-power culture.