The Laws and Economics of Confucianism (Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society) - Softcover

Zhang, Taisu

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1316506282 ISBN 13: 9781316506288

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2019

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Taisu Zhang is an Associate Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Connecticut and works on comparative legal history - specifically, economic institutions in modern China and early modern Western Europe - comparative law, property law, and contemporary Chinese Law. This is his first book. In dissertation form, it was the recipient of Yale University's Arthur and Mary Wright Dissertation Prize and the American Society for Legal History's Kathryn T. Preyer Award. Zhang is a founding board member of the International Society for Chinese Law and History.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1316506282
• ISBN 13: 9781316506288
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320