ABSTRACT
This book examines aspects of the market economy of the historical Lower Yangzi Delta, or “Jiangnan” as the area is known in traditional Chinese geography, through ten case studies that are organized under a conceptual framework of economic values and social space. Although the regional economy of the Lower Yangzi Delta was built on no more than one-tenth of the total area of China’s coastal landscape, it has been the focal point of scholarly attention regarding China’s economic past and has been the most representative case of a regional market economy in China prior to the nineteenth century. Hence, what the current volume discusses is far from being an isolated case; it does, in fact, inform us of some salient and important features of traditional Chinese market economies.
