Description
Focusing on the operating modes of three major regional trading networks active in Fujian, Huizhou, and Shanxi from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, Francois Gipouloux assesses the driving forces behind their dynamism, the role they played in Chinese economic development, and the constraints in which they were embedded. Examining merchants' business practices, partnerships,and investment strategies, chapters portray the three central figures of China's economy - the financier, the middleman, and the business entrepreneur - and their complex relationships with the imperial bureaucracy. By analysing the divergent trajectory of seemingly identical institutions in China and Europe, Elusive Capital takes a comparative approach to shed light on the factors that inhibited the transformation of commercial development into an industrial revolution, ultimately discovering why capital accumulation proved so elusive in late imperial China.
Revealing novel insights from primary documentation including trial accounts, Elusive Capital will prove an invigorating read for students and scholars of economic history, business studies, and Asian urban and regional studies
About the Author
Francois Gipouloux, Emeritus Research Director, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France
Reviews
'The intrinsic value of Gipouloux's Elusive Capital lies in an in-depth understanding of traditional China as a unique economic universe parallel to Western Europe. Apart from historians and economic historians, scholars from many other disciplines may also benefit from it, including economics, management, sociology, politics and international relations.' -- Kent Deng, The China Quarterly
'Examining the details of three major Chinese merchant groups between the 14th and 19th centuries, Professor Gipouloux compares and contrasts the Chinese model of wealth accumulation with the European model of capital concentration. The insightful archival analysis and references provide us with historical clues to discuss the contemporary world economy.' -- Hamashita Takeshi, University of Tokyo, Japan
'Few historical topics are as timely as late imperial China's commercial economy, and few Western scholars have penetrated its mysteries as successfully as Francois Gipouloux. Read with pleasure his disclosures on such vital topics as brokers, maritime trade, Shanxi merchant operations, and capital movement, and feel grateful for his generous erudition.' -- Joseph P. McDermott, University of Cambridge, UK
'This book will not only be applauded as an expert's contribution to the economic history of imperial China but will appear on the bibliographies of a growing community of global historians who wish to include Chinese commercial history as highly significant for our understanding of mercantile agency, institutions and developments for transitions to modern economic growth.' -- Patrick Karl O'Brien, University of London and London School of Economics, UK
Book Information
ISBN 9781800889897
Author Francois Gipouloux
Format Hardback
Page Count 328
Imprint Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Publisher Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
