Preface -- List of figures -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Modes of market creation and price regulation -- China's tradition of bureaucratic market participation : guanzi and the salt and iron debate -- From market to war economy and back : American price control during world war II and its aftermath -- Re-creating the economy through state commerce : price stabilization and the communist revolution -- China's market reform debate -- The starting point : price control in the maoist economy and the urge for reform -- Rehabilitating the market in theory and practice : Chinese economists, the world bank, and eastern European emigrés -- Market creation versus price liberalisation : rural reform, young intellectuals and the dual-track price system -- Debunking shock therapy : the clash of two market reform paradigms -- Escaping shock therapy : causes and consequences of the 1988 inflation -- Conclusion -- Biographies of selected Chinese reform economists -- List of interviews.