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Elisabeth Kaske illuminates changes in relations between the center and the provinces after the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) by analyzing the transprovincial fund-raising campaigns that sold offices to supply provincial war chests. After rebellion nearly destroyed the Qing empire, the throne appointed military leaders to positions of power in the provinces. Scholars have long been discussing the consequences: did state power devolve into the hands of regional leaders, or did the central government reassert its authority? By taking interprovincial relations into account, Kaske shows that the provinces neither became fiscally autonomous from the center nor could ignore the interests of other provinces. Rather, provincial leaders, the Board of Revenue, and the throne renegotiated the rules of revenue sharing. As some provinces gained fiscal strength, they became increasingly responsible for matters of empire, such as the recovery of war-torn border regions.

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