'This is the first book in English to offer a comprehensive account of economic history in China. It takes a step further towards freeing the field from the shackles of Western economic perspective by producing a refreshingly unapologetic narrative … This book avoids economic jargon and keeps the use of Chinese terms to a necessary minimum, thus also making it a suitable resource for historians of other disciplines and world regions … readers are left to make their own conclusions and will undoubtedly find this book a rich platform for future discussion and debate.' Christopher Rea, Ming Studies
Introduction; 1. The Bronze Age economy (1045 to 707 BCE); 2. From city-state to autocratic monarchy (707 to 250 BCE); 3. Economic foundations of the universal empire (250 to 81 BCE); 4. Magnate society and the estate economy (81 BCE to 485 CE); 5. The Chinese-nomad synthesis and the reunification of the empire (485 to 755); 6. Economic transformation in the Tang-Song transition (755 to 1127); 7. The heyday of the Jiangnan economy (1127 to 1550); 8. The maturation of the market economy (1550 to 1800); 9. Domestic crises and global challenges: restructuring the imperial economy (1800 to 1900); Bibliography; Index.