So this touches on several things I don't know much about. The generally taught version* is that in the early Ming China general got kind of insular and didn't participate much in the global trade scene. This was if anything intensified under the Qing** as they tried to cut off the financial support for some of their political dissidents. Anyhow, as the story goes, early to mid 1800s the great diaspora started (along with the century of humiliation).
However... that's got to be pretty incomplete. There may have been a lot of Confucian contempt for trade, and some official policies against it (other than the oft-discussed tribute trade), but it was still happening - and there was a lot of money in it, to make sure it kept happening. And the trade and business networks that exist now among overseas Chinese families probably aren't altogether a recent invention. I know that among the various shipping communities, there were definitely people of Chinese decent, not to mention a lot of people of Indian subcontinental decent who spoke Chinese and the like. (These people were invaluable to Europeans when they were first trying to get access to Chinese markets.) I know that there were a lot of ethnic Chinese who were spreading into other parts of Asia and often assuming a pretty economically dominant role, especially in trade, through the Qing dynasty.
(And I have Uighur friends whose families were involved with trade along the silk road for centuries. Which is kind of making a resurgence as China become economically dominant in Central Asia, but that's another story.)
I haven't seen much written about the trading families prior to the last 150 years. Though this:
Seems to address one region and one time period, and probably at least gives a feel for the possibilities. Oh, and here's another one that looks interesting:
Not of direct relevance, but just because it's a favorite book, Abu Lughod's "Before European Hegemony" talks a lot about the emerging world economy prior to the black plague... which discusses some similar regional dynamics.
* I did my undergrad in Chinese language and literature - yeah, before Microsoft, or biochem, or neurobio. My education is kind of weird. ** Are you familiar with the systems of transliteration? Ch'ing (in Wade-Giles) is the same as Qing (in pinyin). I tend to use pinyin when writing, but you can't study guwen in an English context without learning both.
no subject
However... that's got to be pretty incomplete. There may have been a lot of Confucian contempt for trade, and some official policies against it (other than the oft-discussed tribute trade), but it was still happening - and there was a lot of money in it, to make sure it kept happening. And the trade and business networks that exist now among overseas Chinese families probably aren't altogether a recent invention. I know that among the various shipping communities, there were definitely people of Chinese decent, not to mention a lot of people of Indian subcontinental decent who spoke Chinese and the like. (These people were invaluable to Europeans when they were first trying to get access to Chinese markets.) I know that there were a lot of ethnic Chinese who were spreading into other parts of Asia and often assuming a pretty economically dominant role, especially in trade, through the Qing dynasty.
(And I have Uighur friends whose families were involved with trade along the silk road for centuries. Which is kind of making a resurgence as China become economically dominant in Central Asia, but that's another story.)
I haven't seen much written about the trading families prior to the last 150 years. Though this:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=A04Y6rYnlikC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=Chinese+trade+families&ots=95Rk5oQi0Q&sig=MTDALg9Y07a49Ff7ZK_5XBx40Fc#v=onepage&q=Chinese%20trade%20families&f=false
Seems to address one region and one time period, and probably at least gives a feel for the possibilities. Oh, and here's another one that looks interesting:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=t3x-HixYwa0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Chinese+trade+families&ots=FHdnuGcNsO&sig=1k4upc5s-dMm0Zy5aqxJPzve94w#v=onepage&q=Chinese%20trade%20families&f=false
Not of direct relevance, but just because it's a favorite book, Abu Lughod's "Before European Hegemony" talks a lot about the emerging world economy prior to the black plague... which discusses some similar regional dynamics.
* I did my undergrad in Chinese language and literature - yeah, before Microsoft, or biochem, or neurobio. My education is kind of weird.
** Are you familiar with the systems of transliteration? Ch'ing (in Wade-Giles) is the same as Qing (in pinyin). I tend to use pinyin when writing, but you can't study guwen in an English context without learning both.