Editors:
Elisa Levi Sabattini & Christian Schwermann
Publisher:
Brill
Brill
Publication date:
2021
2021
Abstract:
Ancient Chinese economic thought has never been related to the evidence of economic practice. We know how state economies were supposed to be run in theory, but not the degree to which economic thought reflected everyday economic activity. Moreover, it is still not clear to what extent economic thought constituted a separate field of inquiry and was independent of fundamental cultural notions or political considerations. Finally, why was there so much more sustained interest in political economy in China than anywhere else? This book sets out to consider such questions through contextualized analyses of both received and newly excavated sources on economic thought and practice.
Ancient Chinese economic thought has never been related to the evidence of economic practice. We know how state economies were supposed to be run in theory, but not the degree to which economic thought reflected everyday economic activity. Moreover, it is still not clear to what extent economic thought constituted a separate field of inquiry and was independent of fundamental cultural notions or political considerations. Finally, why was there so much more sustained interest in political economy in China than anywhere else? This book sets out to consider such questions through contextualized analyses of both received and newly excavated sources on economic thought and practice.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Authors: Elisa Levi Sabattini and Christian Schwermann
Chapter 1 Economic Cycles and Price Theory in Early Chinese Texts
Paul R. Goldin
Chapter 2 Agriculturalism and Beyond: Economic Thought of The Book of Lord Shang
Yuri Pines
Chapter 3 Situating the “Qingzhong” 輕重 Chapters of the Guanzi管子
Hans van Ess
Chapter 4 Feng Xuan Buys Rightness, Gongyi Xiu Expels His Wife: Economic Exemplars in the Warring States and Early Han
Andrew Meyer
Chapter 5 Between Command and Market: Credit, Labour, and Accounting in the Qin Empire (221–207 BCE)
Maxim Korolkov
Chapter 6 The Economic Activities of a Qin Local Administration: Qianling County, Modern Liye, Hunan Province, 222–209 BCE
Robin D.S. Yates
Chapter 7 To Ban or Not to Ban: Jia Yi on Copper Distribution and Minting Coins
Elisa Levi Sabattini
Chapter 8 The First Chinese Economic Impact on Asia: Distribution and Usage of Monies in Early China in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective
Yohei Kakinuma
