The rise and fall of a public debt market in 16th-century China : : the story of the Ming salt certificate / / by Wing-kin Puk.

• Superior document: Monies, Markets, and Finance in East Asia, 1600-1900, Volume 8
• VerfasserIn: Puk, Wing Kin, 1968-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands ;, Boston, [Massachusetts] : : Brill,, 2016.; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Monies, markets, and finance in East Asia, 1600-1900 ; Volume 8.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (210 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the government invited merchants to deliver grain in return for salt certificates with which merchants drew salt as reward. The salt certificate therefore represented a national debt, denominated in salt, the government thereby owed merchants. A speculative market of salt certificates was created in Yangzhou and brought into being powerful financiers in the early 17th century. The government, financially hard pressed, abolished the speculative market of salt certificates by franchising these financiers in return for their hereditary obligation to pay salt certificate surcharge. China was therefore deprived of a possibility to develop a public debt market. This story is a testimony to Fernand Braudel’s argument of the \'nondevelopment\' of Capitalism in China.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1 The Early Ming -- 2 Grain, Salt, and Silver -- 3 The Lianghuai Salt Syndicate -- 4 Salt Merchants in Yangzhou: Migration and Social Mobility -- 5 Salt Syndicate and Salt Merchants -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Glossary and Index.