The Modernization of the Chinese Salt Administration

In all traditional societies, Adshead says, salt was a key commodity, intimately related to politics, fiscal policy, and economic structure. In The Modernization of the Chinese Salt Administration, Adshead studies the modernization process in China by examining the development of the salt administrationan institution that is not only characteristic of many societies generally but is also peculiarly Chinese in its sophistication and historical antecedents. The author also analyzes the respective roles of Chinese and foreigners as co-modernizers, noting the advantages and difficulties this cooperation involved. The central figure of the era was Sir Richard Dane, founder of the foreign gabelle and chief inspector of the salt administration, 19131918, whose role in the introduction of modern administrative methods to China entitles him to a place among the leading figures of European imperialism in China. Adshead gives equal attention, however, to Dane's Chinese rivals and colleagues as well as to the emergence of modern administrative concepts from Chinese expertise. He shows how a convergence of European and Chinese ideas and close collaboration between European and Chinese administrators produced a thorough reconstruction of a long-established institution.