Project Details
Projekt
Issues in the History of Transport Systems, the Environment and Mint Metal Shipments in Quing China
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Barbara Mittler
Subject Area
Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies
Term
from 2005 to 2013
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 13020509
The transport of mint metals constituted one of the major organizational challenges to Qing-period money minting. While almost all mint metal mines where located in southwestern China, the metropolitan mint in Beijing remained by far the most important. Although the origin of the mint metals was dictated by natural conditions and shifts in the patterns of international trade, the location of the mints was upheld on political grounds. As a result, transports over huge distances and difficult routes had to be dealt with. Metals from the most productive mines were shipped over a distance of over 6,000 km and took two years to reach the capital. This project makes use of the outstandingly dense archival materials on mint metal transports, together with a wide range of other sources, from local gazetteers to literary writings, to explore the transports with regard to the technologies and organizational structures involved and to the perceptions of transportation and how these fed into practices of the period or into historical interpretations. Combining approaches of technological, social and economic history with analytical methods of literary analysis, this project addresses major issues in transport history, such as the question of cost and efficacy, technologies for dangerous waterways and mountain trails and the question of technological standstill from the Song period onwards, and the question on state leadership and efficacy in infrastructure projects and maintenance. Last but not least, the project will probe stereotypical images of transporters, attempting to gain a clearer picture of concrete practices and social roles.
DFG Programme
Research Units
