The State and the Iron Industry in Han China Book

1	Introduction	1
2	Outline history of the monopoly	4
	Background	4
	The establishment of the monopoly	8
	Criticism and disputation	13
	The reforms of Wang Mang	15
	The Eastern Han period	16
3	Discourses on salt and iron	18
	The State and the forces of Nature	20
	The scale of industrial production	25
	The blessings of wealth	27
	The body politic	27
	Calculation	29
4	The administration of the iron monopoly	33
	The Iron Offices	33
	The archaeology of the Iron Offices	36
	Management	38
	Labour	47
5	Reasons for the monopoly, reasons for opposition	53
	State finance	53
	Contraband trade	54
	Control of the wealthy	55
	Product quality	56
	Environmental issues	62
	The trade cycle	63
6	The technology of the Iron Offices	64
	Blast furnaces	66
	Cupola furnaces	75
	The bellows	77
	Fining hearths	80
7	Concluding remarks	85
Table 1	Locations of Iron Offices	89
Table 2	Archaeological evidence of Han and pre-Han ironworks	100
	References	113
	Index	143