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.