This talk builds a new analytical framework linking ideology with economic changes, highlighting the critical role of ideology and ideological change induced as a response to Western impact following Qing China’s forced opening during the mid-19th century. It delineates three phases of economic changes in light of the specific timing of intellectual and ideological transformation during this period. It further sheds light on how Imperial Qing’s highly centralized and absolutist political regimes in a China-centred world order have led to a closure of mind to new intellectual resources and accounted for the early modern divergence.