The Rise and Fall of a Public Debt Market in 16th-Century China

Know about the book -

The Rise and Fall of a Public Debt Market in 16th-Century China is written by Wing-kin Puk and published by BRILL. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 9004306404 (ISBN 10) and 9789004306400 (ISBN 13).

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.