Manslaughter, Markets, and Moral Economy: Violent Disputes over Property Rights in Eighteenth-Century China

by Thomas M. Buoye

Overview

Thomas Buoye examines the impact of large-scale economic change on social conflict in eighteenth-century China. He draws on a large number of documented cases of violent property disputes to recreate the social tensions fostered by the development of property rights, an unprecedented growing population, and the increasing strain on land and resources. This book challenges the "markets" and "moral economy" theories of economic behavior. Applying the theories of Douglass North for the first time to this subject, Buoye uses an institutional framework to understand seemingly irrational economic choices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521640459
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/31/2000
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

List of maps, figures, and tables; List of Qing dynasty emperors' reign dates; List of weights and measures; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Economic change, social conflict, and property rights; 2. 'Population increases daily': economic change during the eighteenth century; 3. 'As before each manage their own property': boundary and water-rights disputes; 4. 'Crafty and obdurate tenants': redemption, rent defaults, and evictions; 5. Temporal and geographic distributions of property-rights disputes in Guangdong; 6. Violence north, west, and south: property-rights disputes in Shandong, Sichuan, and Guangdong; 7. 'You will be rich but not benevolent': changing concepts of legitimacy and violent disputes; 8. Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'This carefully researched and well-crafted book illuminates struggles over land and water in eighteenth-century Guangdong, as well as the nature of the legal process in the high Qing period.' Journal of Asian Studies

From the Publisher