About the Quantitative History Webinar Series
The Quantitative History (QH) Webinar Series aims to provide researchers, teachers, and students with an online intellectual platform to keep up to date with the latest research in the field, promoting the dissemination of research findings and interdisciplinary use of quantitative methods in historical research. The QH Webinar Series, now entering its fifth year, is co-organized by the Centre for Quantitative History at the HKU Business School and the International Society for Quantitative History in partnership with the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Series is now substantially supported by the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. [AoE/B-704/22-R]).
Real and Nominal Belief in God: Evidence from Wills, England: 1300-1850
During this Quantitative History Webinar, Neil J. Cummins will explain how the religious behavior change occurs at the same time as the decline in aristocratic violence (Cummins (2017)), and like violence, precedes the behavior change of the poor by many centuries.
June 5, 2025
16:00 - 17:30 (HKT)
Cowrie Money and the Making of the Modern World: A Global Perspective
During this Quantitative History Webinar, Bin Yang of City University of Hong Kong provides a global examination of cowrie money within and beyond Afro-Eurasia from the archaeological period to the early twentieth century.
New Explorations of the Principle of the Lever in the Pre-Qin Period
Boqun Zhou offers new insights into the mechanics of levers in the Mohist Canon and the scale markings on Chu balance beams. Join us to gain a more precise understanding of how lever mechanics were conceptualized in the Pre-Qin period.
Chinese Ceramics in Archaic Globalisation
Ran Zhang explores the role of Chinese ceramics in the Indian Ocean trade within the broader framework of archaic globalisation, focusing on maritime networks linking China with the Persian Gulf, East Africa, and South Asia (8th–19th centuries).
Rise of the south: How Arab-led maritime trade transformed China, 671–1371 CE
Join as Zhiwu Chen explores the historical shift of China’s socioeconomic core from North to South triggered by Arab and Persian Muslim traders in the late seventh century. Explore how maritime trade transformations reshaped the region, influencing population growth until the maritime trade ban of 1371 CE.
Inheritance and Inequality in a Pre-Modern Economy
Felix Schaff explains how the seemingly egalitarian institution of partible inheritance can counterintuitively increase broader inequality in pre-modern economy by exploiting a sharp border between partible and impartible inheritance areas in southwest Germany, together with household-level data from the registers of the 1545 Turk Tax.