BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Markets and Merchants in early China - Professor Roel Sterckx\, Fa
 culty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies\, Clare College 
DTSTART:20121106T174500Z
DTEND:20121106T191500Z
UID:TALK40339@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sheila Betts
DESCRIPTION:Nearly every study of the economic and social history of early
  China\, published in China\, Japan and the West\, emphasizes the primacy 
 of agriculture over trade and crafts as a defining feature of ancient Chin
 ese society. This foundational role of farming and the peasant continues t
 o be evoked as a hallmark of Chinese civilisation up to the present day. S
 ome historians argue that the antagonistic relationship between agricultur
 e and commerce\, that is\, the tension between the peasant and the merchan
 t\, has been the single most important issue to drive economic decision ma
 king in China This lecture will start by questioning this premise and go o
 n to show that writings from China’s classical age of Confucius (551-479
  BC) contain ample evidence of advanced mercantile thought as well as soph
 isticated concepts of justified wealth (and poverty). If indeed Confuciani
 sm is to be singled out for its traditional stance against merchants and c
 ommerce\, how influential has it been in shaping the minds of those in pow
 er in what has been\, and continues to be\, one of the world’s most comm
 erce-oriented societies in history.
LOCATION:Gatsby Room\, Wolfson College
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR