ABSTRACT
Historically, the Lower Yangzi Delta (or Jiangnan), has played a key role in China’s economic development. Indeed, as the prime example of a traditional Chinese market economy, the region serves as the core case study when making comparisons between the Chinese and Western economies in the early modern period.
This book explores aspects of this vibrant market economy in late imperial China, and by presenting a reconstructed narrative of economic development in the early modern Jiangnan, provides new perspectives on established theories of Chinese economic development. Further, by examining economic values alongside social structures, this book produces a historically comprehensive account of the contemporary Chinese economy which engenders a deeper and broader understanding of China’s current economic success.
With a broad range of empirical case studies which incorporate a range of social science and cultural theories, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese history, as well as Chinese economics and business.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter 1|13 pages
Economic values and social space in the historical Lower Yangzi Delta market economy
part I|131 pages
Money, productivity, and price
chapter 5|15 pages
Copper, silver, and tea
chapter 6|13 pages
An early modern economy in China
part II|153 pages
Urbanization, institutions, and networks