Besides grain transportation through the Grand Canal, the transportation of mint metals—copper, zinc, and lead—from the southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou to Beijing in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries was arguably the most impressive logistical operation organized by the Qing state. Kim’s new study examines the development and maintenance of the transportation infrastructure—mountain roads in Yunnan and waterways in the upper reaches of the Yangzi River—that made the long-distance transportation of minerals and commodities possible. Kim’s central argument is that the strength of the transportation industry as a business (the “transport trade,” to use the author’s term) embedded in the highly commercialized economy of China was largely responsible for the success of this long-distance transportation.

Key factors that contributed to the high efficiency of the transportation industry included its superb organization—its “professionalization,” its adequate living standard for the workers, and its organization of the work process—and technological innovations...

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