The Laws and Economics of Confucianism
Kinship and Property in Preindustrial China and England

Zhang argues that property institutions in preindustrial China and England were a cause of China's lagging development in preindustrial times.

Taisu Zhang (Author)

9781316506288, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 May 2019

318 pages
23 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

'Taisu Zhang has taken a bold leap into the heart of the Great Divergence debate. Combining the theoretical tools of law and economics, the insights of a comparative legal historian, and the skills of a meticulous archival investigator, Zhang offers a new take on norms governing land alienation in early modern China and England and their impact on economic development.' Madeleine Zelin, Dean Lung Professor of Chinese Studies, Columbia University, New York

Tying together cultural history, legal history, and institutional economics, The Laws and Economics of Confucianism: Kinship and Property in Preindustrial China and England offers a novel argument as to why Chinese and English preindustrial 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.

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.

Subject Areas: Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economic growth [KCG], Economics [KC], Asian history [HBJF]