Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T10:16:03.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Capitalism without Capital: Capital Conversion and Market Making in Rural China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2014

Xueguang Zhou  and
Yun Ai
Xueguang Zhou*
Affiliation:
Stanford University.
Yun Ai
Affiliation:
National Institute of Social Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
*
Email: xgzhou@stanford.edu (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Situated in an agricultural township in northern China, this study examines the rise of produce markets in rural China in the face of a chronic shortage of financial capital. Drawing on theoretical ideas in economic sociology, we explicate the mechanisms of gift exchange and credit taking and the conditions under which these mechanisms are used to mobilize financial capital and to facilitate market transactions in the absence of financial capital. We illustrate these issues and ideas using our fieldwork research on different produce markets and entrepreneurial activities.

摘要

本文分析讨论了在金融资本短缺条件下中国农产品市场的兴起。我们从经济社会学的理论思路出发, 提出了动员金融资本和促就市场交易的两个机制 — “礼物互惠”和 “强征性信用”, 以及这些机制发生作用的条件。文章报告了中国北方一个农业镇上不同农产品市场及其企业家活动的田野研究, 用以阐述本文提出的分析概念和理论思路。

Keywords

capitalrural marketgift exchangecredit takingrural China资本农产品市场礼物交换强征性信用中国农村
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 219 , September 2014 , pp. 693 - 714
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Research for this article was funded by Hewlett Faculty Fund and UPS fund at Stanford University; Yun Ai was partly supported by funds from the National Social Science Foundation of China (13CHS084). These funding agencies are not responsible for the views expressed in this article.

References

Akerlof, George. 1982. “Labor contracts as partial gift exchange.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 97, 543–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bian, Yanjie. 2006. “Born out of networks: a sociological analysis of the emergence of firms.” Journal of Sociological Research 6, 41–52.Google Scholar
Binswanger, Hans P., and Rosenzweig, Mark R.. 1986. “Behavioural and material determinants of production relations in agriculture.” Journal of Development Studies 22, 503–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 2010 [1986]. “The forms of capital.” In Szeman, Imre and Kaposy, Timoth (eds.), Cultural Theory: An Anthology. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 81–93.Google Scholar
Ellickson, Robert C. 1986. “Of coase and cattle: dispute resolution among neighbors in Shasta County.” Stanford Law Review 38, 623–687.Google Scholar
Emerson, Richard M. 1962. “Power-dependence relations.” American Sociological Review 27, 31–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. 1978. “The bazaar economy: information and search in peasant marketing.” American Economic Review 68, 28–32.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark. 1985. “Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness.” American Journal of Sociology 91, 481–510.Google Scholar
Greif, Avner. 1994. “Cultural beliefs and the organization of society: a historical and theoretical reflection on collectivist and individualist societies.” Journal of Political Economy 102, 912–950.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Gary G., and Biggart, Nicole Woolsey. 1988. “Market, culture, and authority: a comparative analysis of management and organization in the Far East.” American Journal of Sociology 94, S52–S94.Google Scholar
Han, Jun. 2007. Investigation of Rural Finance in China. Shanghai: Yuandong chubanshe.Google Scholar
Huang, Jikun, and Rozelle, Scott. 2006. “The emergence of agricultural commodity market in China.” China Economic Review 17, 266–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauss, Marcel. 1954. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Primitive Societies. London: Cohen and West.Google Scholar
Park, Albert, Rozelle, Scott, Wong, Christine and Ren, Changqing. 1996. “Distributional consequences of reforming local public finance in China.” The China Quarterly 147, 751–778.Google Scholar
Peng, Yusheng. 2004. “Kinship networks and entrepreneurs in China's transitional economy.” American Journal of Sociology 109, 1045–74.Google Scholar
Platteau, Philippe. 2000. Institutions, Social Norms and Economic Development. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Redding, Gordon. 1991. Book review: Reform Policy and the Chinese Enterprise. Edited by John Child and Martin Lockett. Joint Ventures and Industrial Change in China. Edited by Nigel Campbell and John S. Henley. The China Quarterly 126, 376–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rozelle, Scott, Huang, Jikun and Benziger, Vincent. 2003. “Continuity and change in China's rural periodic markets.” The China Journal 49, 89–115.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1976. The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Siu, Helen F. 1989. “Socialist peddlers and princes in a Chinese market town.” American Ethnologist 16, 195–212.Google Scholar
Skinner, G. William. 1964. “Marketing and social structure in rural China: part I.” The Journal of Asian Studies 24, 3–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, G. William. 1965. “Marketing and social structure in rural China: part II.” The Journal of Asian Studies 24(2), 195–228.Google Scholar
Stears, Linda. 1986. “Capital market effects on external control of corporations.” Theory and Society 15, 47–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarn, On-Kit. 1988. “Rural finance in China.” The China Quarterly 113, 60–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1990. Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1990. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wank, David L. 1999. Commodifying Communism: Business, Trust, and Politics in a Chinese City. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yan, Yunxiang. 1996. The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Mayfair Mei-hui. 1994. Gifts, Favors, and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Zelizer, Viviana A. 1994. The Social Meaning of Money. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Zhou, Xueguang. 2011. “The autumn harvest: peasants and markets in post-collectivist rural China.” The China Quarterly 208, 911–929.Google Scholar