Canadian Social Science
The Impact of Wealth Polarization on the Evolution of Property-Rights Institutions Between the Tang and Song Dynasty
Abstract
Wealth polarization emerged as a key driver of institutional change in property rights during the Tang–Song period. As the commodity economy expanded and social wealth gaps widened, demands for clearer delineation of rights intensified. This process was characterized primarily by the spontaneous formation of order from below rather than by explicit state bestowal of legal entitlements. In land rights, although formal law did not fully recognize private ownership, customary practice generated derivative arrangements such as dian (典) and perpetual tenancy (永佃制). In labor rights, the dissolution of the ranked noble (良贱制) and the rise of tenancy and wage employment gradually freed labor from property-like status and raised productive efficiency. In the realm of operating privileges, institutions such as mai pu system (买扑制), jiaoyin (交引), and paper currency policies developed as the state farmed out the operation of monopolized goods like salt and alcohol in exchange for stable fiscal revenues, thereby fostering a nascent market for transactions in rights. Yet the evolution of these regimes remained circumscribed by the state’s predominance and fell short of establishing a universal, equal, and stable system for protecting private property—underscoring the fundamental limitations of premodern property-rights institutions.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13955
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