{"product_id":"the-tin-centuries-yijun-wang-9780295755090","title":"The Tin Centuries: Technology and Statecraft in Qing China","description":"\u003cp\u003eTin was everywhere in early modern China--lining tea chests, shaping religious vessels, alloyed into coins. Yet beneath this ordinary metal lies a story of migration, technology, and governance that paved the way for China's entry into global capitalism. \u003ci\u003eThe Tin Centuries\u003c\/i\u003e uncovers how tin connected miners in Yunnan and Southeast Asia, entrepreneurs and traders across oceans, and Qing officials confronting unprecedented demands on natural resources.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYijun Wang traces how Chinese migrant miners established large-scale operations in mining frontiers like Gejiu, in the mountains of Southwest China, and on Bangka, an island off the coast of Sumatra, carrying with them not just techniques but what she calls a \"social technology\" organizations of labor, capital, and fraternity culture that allowed them to dominate extraction in new environments. These enterprises fueled both European colonial expansion and the broader circuits of Asian commerce.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the same time, Qing bureaucrats turned mining administration into a crucible for technocratic statecraft. Influenced by the technocratic culture fostered by bannermen experts in the early Qing, bureaucrats at different administrative levels, especially those in Yunnan, codified technical knowledge, experimented with alloys, and integrated empirical expertise into governance. This incremental transformation culminated in Wu Qijun's mid-nineteenth-century \u003ci\u003eIllustrated Strategy of Mines and Smelters in Yunnan\u003c\/i\u003e. Mining and the management of mineral resources became a proving ground for a new political culture in which practical skill stood alongside Confucian learning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy following tin's movement from mountains and islands to imperial mintage and treasuries, \u003ci\u003eThe Tin Centuries\u003c\/i\u003e reframes the history of technology, migration, and empire. It reveals how a seemingly humble metal reflected the changing trajectory of Qing statecraft and foreshadowed China's path toward modernity within an expanding global economy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Yijun Wang\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0295755091\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780295755090\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Washington Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/30\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Yijun Wang","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47637481750783,"sku":"9780295755090","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b2344899-0fd3-44fc-81d4-dc1e30f79fea.jpg?v=1765116470","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-tin-centuries-yijun-wang-9780295755090","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}