本书为现任美国国家科学院院士、戴维斯加州大学人类学系教授G. William Skinner(施坚雅)在50多年前出版的东南亚华侨华人史研究的经典之作。本书以历史分析法为研究手段，对华侨华人在泰国历史发展的各个阶段的社会地位，以及其在泰国社会经济发展进程中的作用，进行了全面系统的考察和分析。全书除前言、参考文献及索引之外，共分九章。各章标题如下：第一章古代的暹罗华侨；第二章门户开放和地域开放：1917年以前暹罗的中国移民及其人口增长；第三章异乡谋生：一直到拉玛五世统治时期华人在泰国经济中所占的地位；第四章不稳定的类型：第三世到第五世王统治时期的暹罗华人社会；第五章进入新时代：向民族主义和团结的过渡；第六章移入和移出：人口增长趋势，1918～1955年；第七章利益冲突：至1938年为止泰国社会的华人生活；第八章危机、战争和休整：第二次世界大战及其余殃；第九章镇压和重新考虑：1948～1956年銮披汶第二次执政下的泰国华人。

In 1949, Cornell University graduate student G. William Skinner set off for southwest China to conduct field research on rural social structure. He settled near the market town of Gaodianzi, Sichuan, where he lived for two and a half months until the newly arrived Communists asked him to leave. During his time in Sichuan, Skinner kept detailed field notes and took scores of photos of rural life and unfolding events. Skinner went on to become a giant in his field-his obituary in American Anthropologist called him "the world's most influential anthropologist of China." A key portion of his legacy arose from his Sichuan fieldwork, contained in his classic monograph Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China. Although the People's Liberation Army confiscated Skinner's research materials, some had been sent out in advance and were discovered among the files donated to the University of Washington Libraries after his death. Skinner's notes and photos bring to life this rare glimpse of rural China on the brink of momentous change.

本书重点论述了本世纪初至60年代的中国农村集市、乡镇和中心城市三级市场的发展、变迁和现代化的过程；分析了市场与社会结构、市场与社会习俗、市场与交通、市场与地理扎状况的内在联系；揭示了一些市场理论的原理，对我国的市场经济建设和农村经济的改革具有一定的参考作用。