1. Introduction -- 2. Between Mountain and River: The Formation of a Socio-economic Network in Guizhou -- 3. The Salt Monopoly, Changing Business Networks, and the State’s Remodeling of the Salt Trade -- 4. The Early Tobacco Industry in Guiding: Prosperity and Decline -- 5. Merchant on the Salt-Tobacco Road: Liu Xiyi’s Business Strategy and Business Network -- 6. From Salt to Tobacco: Reforms of the Salt Tax and Tobacco Tax in Guizhou’s Fiscal Revenue -- 7. Making Cooperatives on the Salt-Tobacco Road: State Organizational Embeddedness in the Distribution and Production of Salt and Tobacco (1937-1949) -- 8. Conclusion.

Through a meticulous analysis of various historical sources, the authors of this book have uncovered a wealth of information on the trade of salt and tobacco in Guizhou province, southwest of China, in the 1930s and 1940s. Their findings not only shed light on how commercial networks and the flow of these commodities formed and transformed with the development of wartime state monopoly, but also offer a more comprehensive perspective on the role of merchants and entrepreneurs in regulated commodity chains to go beyond the dichotomous state-market perspective of socioeconomic analysis. Benmo Jiang is a historian of modern Chinese history and historian of law and society. Her research interests mainly lie in the interplay between judicial reform and the changing socio-economic situation. Zhao Zhou is an associate professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China. His research interests focus on business network, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Yujing Tan is a junior lecturer in International Studies at Leiden University. Focusing on transformation of the Leninist state, her research includes Chinese local governance, industrial upgrading and innovation in China, and more recently China-driven internationalization. Haoqi Meng is a researcher of the Insurance Institute of Guizhou. His research interests are the history of finance, insurance, and salt affairs, and he has long been engaged in the compilation of insurance and financial archives of the Republic of China.