Use of capital in sea-faring activities in the 16th-18th century China

Invité par l’EFEO (Paola Calanca), le Professeur Chen Kuo-tung 陳國棟 (Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taïwan) donnera une conférence dans le cadre du séminaire de François Gipouloux et Aleksandra Kobiljski, Aux origines de la mondialisation et de la divergence Europe-Asie. Sa conférence est intitulée : “Use of capital in sea-faring activities in the 16th-18th century China”.

Date

• Mercredi 2 mai 2018, de 11h à 13h

Lieu

• EHESS (salle 07-51)
  54 bd Raspail – 75006 Paris

Abstract

Sea-faring activities are full of risks and uncertainty.  Building and operating a Chinese ship (junk) also cost a lot of money.  In order to raise large amount of capital or to reduce their own risk, several methods were adopted by the people working in the line of sea-faring business.  I mean to talk about the cost of ship-building, investment of cargoes, partnership for overseas adventure, and bottomry (a special maritime insurance design), etc. of the 16-18th century.