"Population never pushed the economy to subsistence levels." What does "subsistence" mean in this context? Is the sentence trying to say that economy was not constrained by population increase? (This sentence's about the Chinese demographic system in the 18th century.)

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"Subsistence levels" means producing only what you can consume and no more.

A subsistence farmer only grows enough food to feed himself, with none left to sell.

It's saying that population levels never reached a point where the economy could only produce enough to sustain people's basic needs and nothing more.