Land markets in late imperial and republican China

Bibliographic Data

ID11494531
AuthorsKenneth Pomeranz (0000-0002-0711-5180, Department of History, University of California, Irvine., corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume23
Issue1
Pages101-150
Publication date2008-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueContinuity and Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-4160 • E-ISSN: 1469-218X
PublisherLiverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1017/s0268416007006625
OpenAlexW2005047749
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited27

China has had very active markets for both the sale and the rental of land since Song times (960–1279), if not longer. By the sixteenth century, most of the institutional arrangements that would characterize these markets until 1949 were in place. These institutions differed sharply from those of emerging land markets in early modern Western Europe: in particular, government played a lesser role in adjudicating disputes over land contracts, and customary arrangements included features that (a) gave some sellers of land claims on purchasers that could last for many years and (b) gave some tenants, especially in South and East China, very strong usufruct rights, which themselves became a form of tradable property. However, despite these and other differences from Western models, Chinese land markets were quite efficient, and provided the incentives needed for a very productive agriculture; secure tenants, for instance, responded to their strong position by behaving like owners and investing heavily in improving the land

Agriculture · Business · China · Common ownership · Economics · Economy · Geography · Government (linguistics · Incentive · Land tenure · Market economy · Political science · Position (finance · Property rights · Renting · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Finance

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