Empire of Silver

“Makes a good case for how monetary choices can have wider political implications...Its message that China's development has been hampered by weak rule of law and a lack of accountability could not be timelier.”—Matthew Partridge, Money Week

"Empire of Silver is superbly written and a great joy to read. Ingeniously blending literary evidence from materials as diverse as Chinese classical novels with serious academic research, the book gives extraordinary theoretical and historical insights on big questions about politics, money, finance, and the Great Divergence. It is a wonderful book for understanding one thousand years of Chinese monetary history."--Debin Ma, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan
 

"Empire of Silver is a fascinating, in-depth and scholarly work. It traces China's obsession with the precious metal for better and for worse over the centuries. Particularly interesting is the relationship between silver and the decline of the Qing dynasty in the 19th century - a passage of history that maintains crucial relevance to the China of today."--James Kynge, author of China Shakes the World