Behind the Counter: Networks of Visibility in the Shenbao

Introduction Network analysis as employed in this study is not intended to reconstruct a social network of shopkeepers in Shanghai, nor to infer stable interpersonal or organizational ties among historical actors. Instead, it is used deliberately as a heuristic device to detect structured patterns of interaction and institutional encounter as they emerge from the reporting practices of the Shenbao. The analytical object is therefore not the social organization of shopkeepers, but the institu...