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oapen-20.500.12657-418452020-09-24T00:43:58Z Salt and State Lee-fang Chien, Cecilia Sociology and anthropology bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JH Sociology & anthropology Salt and State is an annotated translation of a treatise on salt from Song China. From its inception in the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.), the salt monopoly was a key component in the Chinese government's financial toolkit. Salt, with its highly localized and large-scale production, was an ideal target for bureaucratic management. In the Song dynasty (960–1279), fiscal pressures on the government had intensified with increased centralization and bureaucratization. A bloated administration and an enormous standing army maintained against incursions by aggressive steppe neighbors placed tremendous strain on Song finances. Developing the salt monopoly seemed a logical and indeed urgent strategy, but each actor in this plan—the emperor, local officials, monopoly administrators, producers, merchants, and consumers—had his own interests to protect and advance. Thus attempts to maximize the effectiveness of the monopoly meant frequent policy swings and led to levels of corruption that would ultimately undo the Song. Unlike other contemporary sources, the Songshi treatise organizes its subject into an intelligible and detailed narrative, elucidating special terminology, the bureaucracy and its processes, and debates relating to Chinese finance and politics, as well as the salt industry itself. Professor Chien's extensive annotation relies on parallel histories that corroborate and supplement the Songshi account, together providing a comprehensive study of this important institution in China's premodern political economy. 2020-09-23T15:17:42Z 2020-09-23T15:17:42Z 2020 book ONIX_20200923_9780472901456_41 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/41845 eng Michigan Monographs In Chinese Studies application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International 9780472901456.pdf University of Michigan Press U OF M CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES 10.3998/mpub.19833 10.3998/mpub.19833 e07ce9b5-7a46-4096-8f0c-bc1920e3d889 0314e571-4102-4526-b014-3ed8f2d6750a 0cdc3d7c-5c59-49ed-9dba-ad641acd8fd1 U OF M CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES 99 411 Ann Arbor [grantnumber unknown] [grantnumber unknown] National Endowment for the Humanities NEH Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation open access
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Salt and State is an annotated translation of a treatise on salt from Song China. From its inception in the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.), the salt monopoly was a key component in the Chinese government's financial toolkit. Salt, with its highly localized and large-scale production, was an ideal target for bureaucratic management. In the Song dynasty (960–1279), fiscal pressures on the government had intensified with increased centralization and bureaucratization. A bloated administration and an enormous standing army maintained against incursions by aggressive steppe neighbors placed tremendous strain on Song finances. Developing the salt monopoly seemed a logical and indeed urgent strategy, but each actor in this plan—the emperor, local officials, monopoly administrators, producers, merchants, and consumers—had his own interests to protect and advance. Thus attempts to maximize the effectiveness of the monopoly meant frequent policy swings and led to levels of corruption that would ultimately undo the Song. Unlike other contemporary sources, the Songshi treatise organizes its subject into an intelligible and detailed narrative, elucidating special terminology, the bureaucracy and its processes, and debates relating to Chinese finance and politics, as well as the salt industry itself. Professor Chien's extensive annotation relies on parallel histories that corroborate and supplement the Songshi account, together providing a comprehensive study of this important institution in China's premodern political economy.
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University of Michigan Press
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2020
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