Overview

"At the turn of the twentieth century, American and Chinese millers were locked in a fiercely contested battle for control of China's urban flour market that both sides considered crucial to their nation's future. For Americans, Chinese markets were vital to continued commercial expansion and ultimately, the power, prestige and security of the United States. For Chinese, defending their markets against foreign imports, influence and intervention was essential to preserving their commercial integrity and China's national sovereignty. This study analyzes the dynamics of this commercial conflict from a perspective essential to the advancement of Chinese business studies, redirecting research in the field from the current China-centered approach to a China-global context. It contextualizes the flour trade through analysis of global factors - political as well as economic - influencing the competitive marketing of domestic and imported commodities. This broader view provides a more balanced, comprehensive examination of late Qing business history and the role played by international trade in the development of import-substitution industrialization.Countering previous failure-based studies of Chinese industrialization, this study highlights the complex relationship between Chinese capitalists and the government, which stimulated successful private industrial development in late imperial China. Analysis of China's flour milling industry also provides insight into the contemporary capitalist-state alliance that has spurred the nation's dynamic commercial growth since the 1980s. ""should be read by business historians, historians of modern China, and anyone interested in Chinese-American economic relations in the twenty-first century."""

Full Product Details

9780773460409

Table of Contents

Reviews

It is plain that understanding how Chinese business works, including both how it is similar to and different from Western and other Asian business styles, is an important task. Increasing Chinese energy demand portents a continuing long-term rise in petroleum, natural gas and coal prices. Chinese suppliers are a principal source of goods for sale at Wal-Mart. The computer giant IBM found a Chinese buyer for its personal computer business, while small factories across the United States find they cannot compete with Chinese manufacturers.... It seems that China business is no longer an obtuse topic, but rather a force swirling through the world economy and threatening to take away your job - on the assembly line, the tool and die shop, the engineering laboratory and on and on. In this atmosphere, the history of Chinese modern business obviously is relevant: Books about Chinese attempts at industrialization appear with increasing frequency.... Meissner's project is part of this renewed interest in Chinese modern industrial enterprises. In this monograph, attention centers on the understudied flour milling industry, particularly in Shanghai. As in so many other aspects of twentieth-century Chinese life - including architecture, entertainment, public information, and social organization - the examples of business in Shanghai set trends for all of China. Meissner's selection of the Fu Feng mills is an apt choice because mechanized wheat milling became a flourishing industry in Shanghai and elsewhere. Chinese consumers, especially in the northern wheat-growing portions of China, used enormous amounts of noodles and steamed breads made from wheat flour. What separates this project from most other recent accounts in Chinese business history is the context of the international trade in flour and wheat into which Meissner has placed his research... In too many studies of Chinese business, the international context of business innovation is left in the background. Here, Meissner's extensive research fully explores that topic... Meissner provides a well-researched account of how American and other flour millers employed new milling technology to serve the Chinese market in the nineteenth century... Along with the other works on early modern Chinese business mentioned here, Meissner's monograph should establish for us all that - as in so many other aspects of current affairs - the early history of modern business in China will reveal so much about both the present and the future of China's rapidly developing economy. - (from the Commendatory Preface) David D. Buck, Professor Emeritus of Asian History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

It is plain that understanding how Chinese business works, including both how it is similar to and different from Western and other Asian business styles, is an important task. Increasing Chinese energy demand portents a continuing long-term rise in petroleum, natural gas and coal prices. Chinese suppliers are a principal source of goods for sale at Wal-Mart. The computer giant IBM found a Chinese buyer for its personal computer business, while small factories across the United States find they cannot compete with Chinese manufacturers... It seems that China business is no longer an obtuse topic, but rather a force swirling through the world economy and threatening to take away your job - on the assembly line, the tool and die shop, the engineering laboratory and on and on. In this atmosphere, the history of Chinese modern business obviously is relevant: Books about Chinese attempts at industrialization appear with increasing frequency... Meissner's project is part of this renewed interest in Chinese modern industrial enterprises. In this monograph, attention centers on the understudied flour milling industry, particularly in Shanghai. As in so many other aspects of twentieth-century Chinese life - including architecture, entertainment, public information, and social organization - the examples of business in Shanghai set trends for all of China. Meissner's selection of the Fu Feng mills is an apt choice because mechanized wheat milling became a flourishing industry in Shanghai and elsewhere. Chinese consumers, especially in the northern wheat-growing portions of China, used enormous amounts of noodles and steamed breads made from wheat flour. What separates this project from most other recent accounts in Chinese business history is the context of the international trade in flour and wheat into which Meissner has placed his research... In too many studies of Chinese business, the international context of business innovation is left in the background. Here, Meissner's extensive research fully explores that topic... Meissner provides a well-researched account of how American and other flour millers employed new milling technology to serve the Chinese market in the nineteenth century... Along with the other works on early modern Chinese business mentioned here, Meissner's monograph should establish for us all that - as in so many other aspects of current affairs - the early history of modern business in China will reveal so much about both the present and the future of China's rapidly developing economy. - (from the Commendatory Preface) David D. Buck, Professor Emeritus of Asian History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Author Information

"David Buck is Professor Emeritus of Asian History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he also served as director of UWM's Institute of World Affairs and editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. His most recent publications include: ""Two Faces of the Modern in Changchun"" in Joseph Esherick, ed., Remaking the Chinese City: Modernity and National Identity, 1900-1950. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000): 65-89; ""Was It Pluck or Luck that Made the West Grow Rich?"" Journal of World History 10.2 (Fall 1999): 413-30; and The Declining Role of China in the International Tea Trade, 1880-1910. (Center for International Studies, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and Madison, 1997)."

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available