This book is the first to use local primary sources to explore the interaction between foreign and native merchants in Asian countries. Contributors discuss the different economic, political and cultural conditions that gave rise to a variety of merchant communities in Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and India.

This book is the first to use local primary sources to explore the interaction between foreign and native merchants in Asian countries. Contributors discuss the different economic, political and cultural conditions that gave rise to a variety of merchant communities in Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and India.

This book is the first to use local primary sources to explore the interaction between foreign and native merchants in Asian countries. Contributors discuss the different economic, political and cultural conditions that gave rise to a variety of merchant communities in Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and India.

Merchant communities have come increasingly into focus as a dynamic area of academic study. This book is the first to use local primary sources to explore the interaction between foreign and native merchants in Asian countries. Contributors discuss the different economic, political and cultural conditions that gave rise to a variety of merchant communities in Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and India. The book complements existing research on merchant communities in Europe and shows the importance of Asian mercantile communities to the growth of a global economic system. It will be of interest to economic and business historians, as well as those researching Asian and world history.

From its dramatic expansion in the early nineteenth century to its decline in the late 1930s, salt production in Zigong was one of the largest and only indigenous large-scale industries in China. Madeleine Zelin's history details the novel ways in which Zigong merchants mobilized capital through financial-industrial networks and spurred growth by developing new technologies, capturing markets, and building integrated business organizations. She provides new insight into the forces and institutions that shaped Chinese economic and social development (independent of Western or Japanese influence) and challenges long-held beliefs that social structure, state extraction, the absence of modern banking, and cultural bias against business precluded industrial development in China.

Co-published with UNESCO A product of the UNESCO-IHP project on Water and Cultural Diversity, this book represents an effort to examine the complex role water plays as a force in sustaining, maintaining, and threatening the viability of culturally diverse peoples. It is argued that water is a fundamental human need, a human right, and a core sustaining element in biodiversity and cultural diversity. The core concepts utilized in this book draw upon a larger trend in sustainability science, a recognition of the synergism and analytical potential in utilizing a coupled biological and social systems analysis, as the functioning viability of nature is both sustained and threatened by humans.

Providing a new perspective on economic and legal institutions, particularly on contract and property, in Qing and Republican history, this volume provides case studies to explicate how these institutions worked, while situating them firmly in their broader social context.