Overseas Chinese business networks: East Asian economic development in historical perspective

This study investigates the formation and transformation of overseas Chinese business networks in the East Asian region from a long historical perspective. It emphasizes the role of the geopolitical context and of the activities of the overseas Chinese in shaping the economy of the region. As such, it departs from studies that trace the success of capitalism in the region to its cultural heritage--Confucianism--as well as from studies that take the nation state as the unit of analysis of social and economic development.; Borrowing from Fernand Braudel's conceptualization of historical capitalism and from Takeshi Hamashita's regional approach, the dissertation argues that the extraordinary economic growth of East Asia over the last 30 years would have not been possible without the existence of a strong and extensive overseas Chinese business network, which began to form as early as the eleventh century. Being a marginal trading minority and sojourners in most parts of East Asia, the overseas Chinese developed into risk-taking entrepreneurs who have aggressively participated in regional trade. The long history of the dominance of the Chinese tributary system over East Asia also facilitated the development of the overseas Chinese businesses, which were the only agents with a strong China-link. Moreover, the early development of these extensive Chinese trading networks have forced both Western powers and Japanese business to rely heavily on the overseas Chinese commercial intermediaries throughout the region. As a result, the transformation of East Asian societies and economies under the impact of European and Japanese colonial rule have strengthened further the position of Chinese business networks. This, in turn, provides a clue for the understanding of the flourishing of the recent overseas Chinese economies.