Description: The study traces the economic and demographic history of a corner of China's southeast coast from the third to the thirteenth centuries, looking at the relationship between changes in the agrarian and urban economies of the area and their connections to the expanding role of domestic and foreign trade. It provides a previously unexplored perspective on the role of commercialized production and trade in a regional economy in the premodern era and demonstrates that trade was able to drive change in a premodern economy in a way that has not generally been recognized.
Review Quotes: "Hugh R. Clark's intent in this study is to demonstrate the feasibility and the importance of regional and local studies to correct the stereotypes introduced by broad generalizations in time and space. His demonstration is a successful one and this volume joins the increasing number of important regional studies that have begun to appear in recent years....a fine study, painstakingly carried out, with many maps and tables." Albert E. Dien, The Historian