Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Economic Wealth

Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by boomboomsubban on Friday March 01, 2019 @08:38PM (#19286921)

>Hong Kong was not the logistics hub of an empire after WWII. It was the remnant of one, a place that had never been important before and wasn’t a priority to anyone in the metropole.

Hong Kong is situated at the mouth of the Pearl River Valley, one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Important enough that the UK fought two wars to maintain the territory, and it benefited tremendously from being a border city during the Cold War.

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Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by barry-cotter on Friday March 01, 2019 @09:54PM (#19287179)

And after WWII it was cut off from its economic hinterland until Deng Xiaoping opened China up in the 1980s. It had been occupied by the Japanese for years and they had taken it violently. During the more than 30 years it was cut off from the Pearl River Delta it took in over a million refugees. Hong Kong went from a trade entrepôt for China to growing wealthy by manufacturing and then services. Then China opened up.

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Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by boomboomsubban on Saturday March 02, 2019 @10:14AM (#19289533)

>During the more than 30 years it was cut off from the Pearl River Delta it took in over a million refugees.

Many of those refugees came from the area, and chose to leave because they had wealth or experience. Meanwhile, US allied powers embargoed China while still providing assistance to Hong Kong. These things had far too great of an impact to really credit the trade policy.

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