"Interests" in economic organization: The shaping of the Yunnan copper market in Eighteenth-Century China

By focusing on the production and circulation of Yunnan copper in the eight eenth century, this article investigates the important facets of economic d evelopment in Late Imperial China. The growth of long-distance trade in Chi na is tremendous from the sixteenth to eighteenth century, as some new rese arch have proved. "Traditional" Chinese trade expansion do not necessarily lead to "modern" economic development; for example, some scholars diagnose its nature as extensive but not intensive growth. What does "traditional" C hinese trade expansion experience really mean? I will scrutinize two aspect s of this experience: 1.) the relation of government and market, 2.) the ch anges in the understanding of "interest."