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LEADER: 02785namaa2200277uu 450
001 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/41845
005 20200923
020 $ampub.19833
024 7 $a10.3998/mpub.19833$cdoi
041 0 $aEnglish
042 $adc
072 7 $aJH$2bicssc
100 1 $aLee-fang Chien, Cecilia$4auth
245 10 $aSalt and State : An Annotated Translation of the Songshi Salt Monopoly Treatise
260 $aAnn Arbor$bUniversity of Michigan Press$c2020
300 $a1 electronic resource (411 p.)
506 0 $aOpen Access$2star$fUnrestricted online access
520 $aSalt 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.
536 $aNational Endowment for the Humanities
536 $aAndrew W. Mellon Foundation
540 $aCreative Commons$fhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/$2cc$4https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
546 $aEnglish
650 7 $aSociology & anthropology$2bicssc
653 $aSociology and anthropology
856 40 $awww.oapen.org$uhttps://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/f67b2eec-ae55-406d-85c4-4abf319ef018/9780472901456.pdf$70$zOAPEN Library: download the publication
856 40 $awww.oapen.org$uhttps://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/41845$70$zOAPEN Library: description of the publication