Covering the time span from the Shang to the Qing Periods (1520BC - 1911AD), Gang Deng examines important factors in the decline of the Chinese economy from medieval sophistication to modern underdevelopment. These factors include:

* resource endowments
* socio-economic structure
* property rights
* state and bureaucracy
* ideology and values
* geo-political environment
* internal rebellions
* external invasions and conquests

The Premodern Chinese Economy is a comprehensive analysis of China''s economic history and provides essential background to the study of this country''s modern struggle for growth and development. Deng''s emphasis on comparative analysis offers new insights into the concept of underdevelopment and theories of transitional economics. This will become a major reference work in the fields of Chinese studies, economic history and development studies.