Abstract: The “California School”has insisted that the great distance between the northwest and Jiangnan was
the key reason of the delayed modernization of Jiangnan，and that the location of coal in England was one
of the important factors leading to the divergence between China and the West． This not only ignores the
development of coal in Jiangnan and its environs，but also attempts to explain this huge proposition purely
from the perspective of geographical environment． Through a comparative study on the coal industries in
early modern China and England，we can see that England and Jiangnan both had abundant coal
resources，but that there was also some important differences in fuel use structure，mining policy and
technology，which resulted in a completely different developmental path in the coal industry in the two
regions． The article provides a new perspective from which to criticize“accidental theory “of“California
School”．

摘要：  "加州学派"将中国西北与江南之间巨大的地理差异,作为江南未能走向近代化的关键原因,并将英国煤炭偶然所处的地理位置,看做是导致中西分流的决定性因素之一。这不但忽略了江南及其临近地区的煤炭储量及开发情况,更试图从纯粹地理环境的角度去看待这一重大命题,简化了近代早期江南与英国在燃料利用方面的深层差别。通过对近代早期英国与江南及其临近地区煤炭业的比较,可发现两地都拥有丰富的煤炭资源,但在燃料利用结构、矿业政策、开采技术方面存在很大差异,致使煤炭业在两地趋向了完全不同的发展道路。这为批判地回应"加州学派"有关中西分流"偶然论"的观点,提供了一个新的视角。 更多还原