"The demise of state-owned enterprises, the transformation of collectives into shareholding cooperatives, and the creation of investment opportunities through stock markets indicate China’s movement from a socialist, state-controlled economy toward a socialist market economy. Yet, contrary to high expectations that China’s new enterprises will become like corporations in capitalist countries, management often remains under the control of the onetime bureaucrats who ran the socialist enterprises.The concepts, definitions, and interpretations of property rights, corporate structures, and business practices in contemporary China have historical, institutional, and cultural roots. In tracing the development under founder Zhang Jian (1853–1926) and his successors of the Dasheng Cotton Mill in Nantong into a business group encompassing, among other concerns, cotton, flour, and oil mills, land development companies, and shipping firms, the author documents the growth of regional enterprises as local business empires from the 1890s until the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949. She focuses on the legal and managerial evolution of limited-liability firms in China, particularly issues of control and accountability; the introduction and management of industrial work in the countryside; and the integration and interdependency of local, national, and international markets in Republican China."

"The epic story of the rise and fall of the empire of cotton, its centrality in the world economy, and its making and remaking of global capitalism, [in which the author explores] how, in a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful statesmen recast the world's most significant manufacturing industry, combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to change the world"--

This book examines the relationship between business expansion and the structure of business in pre-war China through a careful and pioneering study of the enterprises of Liu Hongsheng during the 1920s and 1930s. Unlike previous studies that have concentrated on such conceptual discussions as ‘networks’ and the role of the state in Chinese economic and business history, this present work focuses on the institutional changes within Chinese business to critically delineate the major institutions in the working of Chinese-owned enterprises. Not only does it explore those institutions of Western origin, such as the company and modern banking, but also those of native tradition. Liu Hongsheng was one of the leaders of the Chinese business community in Shanghai from the 1910s to the early 1950s. Through the examination, utilizing a large number of previous unused archival materials, of the major lines of his businesses including coal-distribution, wharf operations, cement making, match-manufacturing, banking, and real estate, this study identifies the major institutional changes involved in the course of the expansion of the whole business before the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. In particular, the author argues that the ‘accounts office’ or ‘zhangfang’ was the core of the organization. This book will be of great interest to specialists and students of Chinese business and economic history. It also provides a base for comparative business and economic history, especially for those who are interested in comparing European and American businesses with the Chinese ones. Lastly, this book serves the interest of scholars and students of East Asian history, who will find in Liu’s story a substantial example of the creative institutional dimension of business in the Chinese diaspora. “Professor Chan has richly documented the fascinating business practices used by the Chinese capitalist Liu Hongsheng: his devious maneuvers as a comprador taking actions contrary to the wishes of his foreign employer; his jousting as chairman of the board with unruly Chinese shareholders in a limited liability company; his inventive accounting as a venture capitalist financing industrial enterprises. With a firm command of archival materials, Chan is able to reveal seldom seen inner workings of Chinese business.” —Sherman Cochran, Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History, Cornell University

In recent years the phenomenal rise of the economies of China and India has led to a proliferation of academic studies. Much of the focus has been on economic performance, development strategies and the comparative advantage of the two economies. A comparative study of business as an agent of change has been lacking This volume brings together articles by leading scholars in the field of Chinese and Indian business who offer fresh perspectives on the historical antecedents of business in the two economies.

"China’s status in the world of expanding European empires of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has long been under dispute. Its unequal relations with multiple powers, secured through a system of treaties rather than through colonization, has invited debate over the degree and significance of outside control and local sovereignty. Navigating Semi-Colonialism examines steam navigation—introduced by foreign powers to Chinese waters in the mid-nineteenth century—as a constitutive element of the treaty system to illuminate both conceptual and concrete aspects of this regime, arguing for the specificity of China’s experience, its continuities with colonialism in other contexts, and its links to global processes.Focusing on the shipping network of open treaty ports, the book examines the expansion of steam navigation, the growth of shipping enterprise, and the social climate of the steamship in the late nineteenth century as arenas of contestation and collaboration that highlight the significance of partial Chinese sovereignty and the limitations imposed upon it. It further analyzes the transformation of this regime under the nationalism of the Republican period, and pursues a comparison of shipping regimes in China and India to provide a novel perspective on China under the treaty system."

In 2009 the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies convened a major conference to discuss the health and longevity of China’s ruling system and to consider a fundamental question: After three decades of internal strife and turmoil, followed by an era of reform, entrepreneurialism, and internationalization, is the PRC here for the dynastic long haul? Bringing together scholars and students of China from around the world, the gathering witnessed an energetic exchange of views on four interrelated themes: polities, social transformations, wealth and well-being, and culture, belief, and practice. Edited and expanded from the original conference papers, the wide-ranging essays in this bilingual volume remain true to the conference’s aim: to promote open discussion of the past, present, and future of the People’s Republic of China.

As editor Kenneth E. Hendrickson, III, notes in his introduction: “Since the end of the nineteenth-century, industrialization has become a global phenomenon. After the relative completion of the advanced industrial economies of the West after 1945, patterns of rapid economic change invaded societies beyond western Europe, North America, the Commonwealth, and Japan.” In The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History contributors survey the Industrial Revolution as a world historical phenomenon rather than through the traditional lens of a development largely restricted to Western society. The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History is a three-volume work of over 1,000 entries on the rise and spread of the Industrial Revolution across the world. Entries comprise accessible but scholarly explorations of topics from the “aerospace industry” to “zaibatsu.” Contributor articles not only address topics of technology and technical innovation but emphasize the individual human and social experience of industrialization. Entries include generous selections of biographical figures and human communities, with articles on entrepreneurs, working men and women, families, and organizations. They also cover legal developments, disasters, and the environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution. Each entry also includes cross-references and a brief list of suggested readings to alert readers to more detailed information. The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History includes over 300 illustrations, as well as artfully selected, extended quotations from key primary sources, from Thomas Malthus’ “Essay on the Principal of Population” to Arthur Young’s look at Birmingham, England in 1791. This work is the perfect reference work for anyone conducting research in the areas of technology, business, economics, and history on a world historical scale.

WINNER OF THE 2015 BANCROFT PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2015 PHILIP TAFT PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORY SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 CUNDHILL PRIZE IN HISTORICAL LITERATURE Economist BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 'A masterpiece of the historian's craft' The Nation For about 900 years, from 1000 to 1900, cotton was the world's most important manufacturing industry. It remains a vast business - if all the cotton bales produced in 2013 had been stacked on top of each other they would have made a somewhat unstable tower 40,000 miles high. Sven Beckert's superb new book is a history of the overwhelming role played by cotton in dictating the shape of our world. It is both a gripping narrative and a brilliant case history of how the world works.