Empire of Silver: A New Monetary History of China

A thousand-year history of how China’s obsession with silver influenced the country’s financial well-being, global standing, and political stability"A wonderful book for understanding one thousand years of Chinese monetary history."—Debin Ma, Hitotsubashi University This revelatory account of the ways in which silver shaped Chinese history shows how an obsession with “white metal” held China back from financial modernization. First used as currency during the Song dynasty in around 900 CE, ...