Overview
- Is the first book in the economic history of Asia to focus on the ways in which deterioration of the quality of goods was countered and the quality of the markets maintained
- Provides rich historical case studies of how the asymmetry of product-quality information was reduced, with the help of the literature on the theory of market quality
- Includes studies on intra-Asian production and trade in small sundry copy-goods to aid in understanding and solving similar problems in contemporary developing countries
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Studies in Economic History (SEH)
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Table of contents (13 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Governing the Quality of Goods: Information, Trust-Building and the Self-enforcement Mechanisms of the Market
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Front Matter
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Small Things and Copy Culture in Global Economic History: From the Perspectives of East Asia
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book focuses on the production of low-quality goods, the rise of markets for imitations and shoddy goods, and dishonest trading practices which developed along with the expansion of global trade in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in East Asia. Fake, imitation, counterfeit, and adulterated goods have long plagued domestic and international trade. While we are all familiar with contemporary attempts to control the manufacture and sales of such goods, economic historians have given the subject little attention, despite the fact that the growth of international trade and the lengthening of commodity chains played a major role in the spread of such practices. The problem is approached in several ways. Part I of the book examines the ways in which the asymmetry of product-quality information was reduced and mechanisms were developed to bring greater order in the markets, using case studies on cotton fiber, silk pongee, cotton cloth, fertilizer, and tea. Part II of the book focuses on problems associated with imported everyday-use items—which are referred to here as “small things”—and the role played by imitations of such everyday goods as soap, matches, glass bottles, and toys in the development of the modern economies of Japan, China and Taiwan. The project brings together the work of an international team of scholars who offer important historical perspectives on these issues, exploring the ways in which new institutions were created that continue to play a role in contemporary global economic activities.
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Imitation, Counterfeiting and the Quality of Goods in Modern Asian History
Editors: Kazuko Furuta, Linda Grove
Series Title: Studies in Economic History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3752-8
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-10-3751-1Published: 23 October 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-10-9958-8Published: 25 August 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-981-10-3752-8Published: 12 October 2017
Series ISSN: 2364-1797
Series E-ISSN: 2364-1800
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIII, 286
Number of Illustrations: 24 b/w illustrations, 19 illustrations in colour
Topics: Economic History, Small Business, Asian Economics