The state apparatus of the last Chinese dynasty generated the greatest bureaucratisation and formalization in Chinese history to that point. From the beginning of the Qianlong period, communication between superstructures was carried out based more on regulations and precedents (zeli) than on general long-term law. Zeli contain legally binding prescriptions for the administrative units, mainly at the capital. Wuliao jiazhi zeli were intended to control the prices to be paid for materials and labour in the field and were also an important means of the central government to force the subordinate administration to make housewifely use of the state income. Wuliao jiazhi zeli display lists with prices for certain amounts of building materials, labour costs for skilled and unskilled workers, and transport costs. For every district, a fairly standard data set is given, comprising different kinds of woods in different lengths, stones, bricks, tiles in different characteristic forms, glazed and unglazed, basic materials for the fabrication of painting colours, together with the exact quantities of silver and cash. For Zhili province alone more than ten thousand items are listed. Through persistent work we have slowly gained and provided access to these valuable materials, but until now no statistical editing, processing or mapping of the contents has been made.

State of the field. Publications on the source type of zeli in general have been made by Wang Zhonghan (1987), Wang Shixiang (1963, 1995), Song Jianze (2002, 2005), Christine Moll-Murata (2001), Song Jianze and Moll-Murata (2002), Su Rongyu and Hua Jueming (2000) and Su Rongyu (2005). More specialised are the contributions of Amelung (2005a) in the field of zeli on river hydraulics, Ruitenbeek (2005) on building zeli and their context and Chen Chaoyong (2005) on zeli containing prices and wages. The earliest study on Wuliao jiazhi zeli was by Sheng Jun (1940). Recent studies on rice prices in China have been made by Lillian Li (2000) and on market integration in early eighteenth-century China by Carol Shiue (2003). Currently most prominent in the field of comparative studies of living standards, prices and wages are Lindert et al. (2004).

Relevance of the topic and research questions. The fields of study of comparative living standards in historical and international perspective, as well as questions of market integration in the Qing period, are currently developing fast and have attracted the attention of top scholars in the fields of economic history and Chinese history. Compared to European data on prices and wages, data in China are still inaccessible and statistically under-explored. Therefore much work needs to be done in order to be able to display and use the wealth of information contained in the Wuliao jiazhi zeli, which are at the moment the type of source with the biggest geographical scope, diversity and sheer number of items, prices, wages and transport costs.

Sources. The main source for this project will be the available provincial editions of Wuliao jiazhi zeli "Regulations and precedents on prices of materials" (Chen Hongmou et al. (eds.), Qianlong 33 (1768), containing 220 chapters). Special attention will be paid to the data on Zhili Province. Other regulations and precedents will also be taken into account, such as the Gongcheng zuofa (Technical instructions for the building crafts), that specify the materials, their quantity, and the working time required for official buildings, and the zeli on shipbuilding, e.g. Qinding Fujian sheng waihai zhanchuan zeli (Imperially endorsed regulations and precedents on war vessels of Fujian province), which gives the prices for the ships with specification of the prices for materials and labour costs. There are also other regulations and monographs on government manufactories that include price and wage information, and similar works existed in the Ming dynasty, for example the Gongbu changku xuzhi (What should be known about the storehouses of the Ministry of Public Works) from 1615, which contains price and wage data. Archival materials on wage accounts at the China Number One Historical Archives in Peking for the great part still await exploration.

Methods. A preliminary analysis of the data contained in the Wuliao jiazhi zeli will be undertaken; the data will then be plotted on maps, so that its geographical distribution is made visible. As a next step, in order to highlight the official intention of this compilation of data, I will present an exact translation of the prefaces of existing editions and publish them on the website, which already contains several built-in databases on the topic. Furthermore, the data will be tested, using statistical software (SPSS), with regard to possible variables influencing market integration, such as access to waterway transport and other regional features, comparatively cheap transport costs, centres of material production, but also population density, distances between locations and centres with especially high market and building activities.

Expected results. It is expected that by explaining price differences via statistical means and testing for possibly influential variables we will gain more insight into the functioning of markets in the Qing period. The results will add to Carol Shiue's study on rice markets in China and show the degree of market integration for building materials, provided that the data are at least market oriented. Furthermore, a full analysis of the data will furnish valuable information on the production and distribution centres of raw materials. In addition, we will obtain interesting clues to the functioning of the Qing administration, to building material provisioning and architecture, and to changes in the adoption of building methods because of the influence of cheaper prices (as also happened in the field of river conservancy). The study will also shed new light on how and to what degree Chen Hongmou's own political ideals of a liberal and market-oriented economic policy (as described by William T. Rowe 2001, 2005) were actually realised.

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[Uni Tübingen | Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik]