Searching for Trust. Indigenous People in the Jade Business
Tatiana Safonova, István Sántha, and Pavel Sulyandziga
Humphrey, Caroline (ed.), Trust and Mistrust in the Economies of the China-Russia Borderlands. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018, doi: 10.5117/9789089649829/safo
Abstract
The jade mining business is based on a gap in values between Russian producers and Chinese buyers. While in China jade is considered the essence of Chinese culture and a personal obsession, historically it has had no special value in Russia, and few people recognize it as a possible source of profit. But as an illegal trade developed, people began to change their perspective – creating the need for an indigenous company to find trust inside Russia to maintain its business. This chapter first looks at a business strategy that exploits the paradox of the gap in the valuation of jade and works by creating a kind of deliberate absence of trust. We then consider how the search for trust is projected outside of this business strategy, as a hierarchical relationship with possible patrons. We suggest that these manipulations of trust lead to a ‘relocation’ of the Russia-China border to Moscow, where the decisions about who can cross and exploit the border for profit are ultimately made.