"Shows convincingly that state and society should not be viewed as mutually exclusive but as interlocking domains in constant negotiation. Highly recommended." --Choice, September 2001

"Stimulating and important" --T'oung Pao LXXXVII (2001)

"Offers valuable insights into family life, urban culture and above all, the intricacies of doing business with the state during the Qing" --Pacific Affairs 75 (Winter 2002-2003)

"This work is important for scholars in the field of Chinese social, urban, and business history, and it should be of interest to urban historians and social historians of the modern period in general" --Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 63 (2003)

For nearly four hundred years the Changlu salt merchants played a leading role in the urbanization, commercial development, and social change of the city of Tianjin. As early as the fifteenth century, this small yet important group of citizens negotiated with the state as revenue-farmers, developing and defending their businesses and customs while evolving their own urban culture. In this the first detailed study in English of the mercantile activities and social role of Tianjin's salt merchants, Kwan Man Bun reveals how they helped stabilize the city and assumed many civic responsibilities, providing relief, charities, and other services to their fellow citizenry.

Although these developments resemble the emergence of an idealized "public sphere" as in Europe, Kwan makes clear that Tianjin's social changes were not grounded on "rational discourse" but rather drew their strength and continuity from merchant networks based on exclusivity, wealth, education, and kinship.

Kwan Man Bun teaches in the Department of History at the University of Cincinnati.