Confucian Constraints on Property Rights

Bibliographic Data

ID23169366
AuthorsDaniel A Bell (0000-0002-5521-3383, City University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2003
Pages218-235
Publication date2003-09-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueConfucianism for the Modern World (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511509964.011
OpenAlexW65483307
ISBN9780511509964
LanguageEN
Citations received8

Confucius, as we know, stressed rule by moral example and opposed heavyhanded governmental control. Mencius extended this bias against state intervention to the economic realm. He suggested that anything beyond a taxation level of "one in ten" is "morally wrong" (III.B.8, Lau).1 Minimal taxation would also have desirable economic consequences: "Tend the fields of grain and flax well, tax their yield lightly, and the people will be prosperous" (7A.3, Dobson). The government, he added, should refrain from fixing the prices of goods under exchange. Since people understand that different things have different value, the prices of goods should be primarily determined by means of people's judgment of the worth of goods

Economic interventionism · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Intervention (counseling) · Law and economics · Microeconomics · Political science · Politics · Property (philosophy) · Property rights · Public economics · Realm · State (computer science) · Value (mathematics) · Yield (engineering) · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Philosophy