April 1-3, 2022

“Making Economy: Production and Distribution of Goods in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1045-771 BCE)” will be held from April 1 to April 3, 2022 online. The workshop is sponsored by the Tang Center for Early China Studies at Columbia University. It will bring together a group of international scholars in different disciplines to discuss the Western Zhou economy. Archaeological studies have considered economy a critical factor in the emergence and development of ancient complex societies. This was the case of the Western Zhou state (1045-771 BCE) whose political structure was sustained with a well-organized economic system, and whose vast territory was integrated through constant economic interactions. Focusing on the production and distribution of goods in the Western Zhou period, this workshop will enrich current studies of the Western Zhou economy by exploring how various goods were produced, transported, exchanged, and distributed before eventually being consumed in different social contexts. This approach, rather than solely focusing on prestige goods and the ruling class, will provide an opportunity to study the Western Zhou economy from a more balanced perspective by examining the differences in economic organization between different materials, and the processes of how different groups of people involved in different stages of economic activity. This workshop has two main goals. First, it will present current evidence of economic activities in the Western Zhou and assess the significance of the evidence of different natures in constructing the economic picture of the Western Zhou state. Second, it will re-examine the competing models for the early Chinese economy from a more holistic perspective and evaluate whether current evidence adequately supports these models. Discussion of all these topics from the methodological and theoretical perspective will encourage the construction of appropriate frameworks for future research on the Western Zhou economy.