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The demise of state-owned enterprises, the
transformation of collectives into shareholding cooperatives,
and the creation of investment opportunities through stock
markets indicate China's movement from a socialist, state-controlled
economy toward a socialist market economy. Yet, contrary
to the high expectations of many that China's new enterprises
will become like corporations in capitalist countries in
terms of transparency, accountability, and profitability,
management often remains under the control of the onetime
bureaucrats who ran the socialist enterprises, and personal
and kinship networks continue to play significant roles.
The concepts, definitions, and interpretations
of property rights, corporate structures, and business practices
in contemporary China have historical, institutional, and
cultural roots. In tracing the development under founder
Zhang Jian (1853-1926) and his successors of the Dasheng
Cotton Mill in Nantong into a business group encompassing,
among other concerns, cotton mills, land development companies,
shipping firms, and flour and oil mills, the author documents
the growth of regional enterprises as local business empires
from the 1890s until the foundation of the People's Republic
in 1949. She focuses on the legal and managerial evolution
of limited-liability firms in China, particularly issues
of control and accountability; the introduction and management
of industrial work in the countryside; and the integration
and interdependency of local, national, and international
markets in Republican China. The business institutions these
factors created continue to influence the shape of the corporation
in present-day China.
Elisabeth Koll is Assistant Professor
of History at Case Western Reserve University.
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