The laws and economics of Confucianism : kinship and property in pre-industrial China and England / Taisu Zhang.
2017
Items
Details
Author
Title
The laws and economics of Confucianism : kinship and property in pre-industrial China and England / Taisu Zhang.
Imprint
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Description
1 online resource (x, 308 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
Series
Cambridge studies in economics, choice, and society.
Formatted Contents Note
Machine generated contents note: 1. 'Dian' sales in Qing and Republican China; 2. Mortgages in early modern England; 3. Kinship, social hierarchy, and institutional divergence (theories); 4. Kinship, social hierarchy, and institutional divergence (empirics); 5. Kinship hierarchies in Late Imperial history; 6. Property institutions and agricultural capitalism; Conclusion; Index.
Summary
Tying together cultural history, legal history, and institutional economics, The Laws and Economics of Confucianism: Kinship and Property in Pre-Industrial China and England offers a novel argument as to why Chinese and English pre-industrial economic development went down different paths. The dominance of Neo-Confucian social hierarchies in Late Imperial and Republican China, under which advanced age and generational seniority were the primary determinants of sociopolitical status, allowed many poor but senior individuals to possess status and political authority highly disproportionate to their wealth. In comparison, landed wealth was a fairly strict prerequisite for high status and authority in the far more 'individualist' society of early modern England, essentially excluding low-income individuals from secular positions of prestige and leadership. Zhang argues that this social difference had major consequences for property institutions and agricultural production.
Note
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 Sep 2017).
Location
WWW
Available in Other Form
Print version:
Linked Resources
Alternate Title
Cambridge Books Online.
Language
English
ISBN
9781316493328 ebook
9781107141117 (hardback)
9781316506288 (paperback)
9781107141117 (hardback)
9781316506288 (paperback)
Record Appears in