Adam Frost has done extensive research into the history of illicit entrepreneurship in socialist China, particularly in the Maoist era. Beginning in the 1950’s, with the enactment of systems of rationing and distribution, there emerged in China vast illicit networks operating in circumvention of the planned economy. Within these networks, a broad class of specialists, ranging from petty traders of ration coupons to large-scale arbitragers, sought opportunities to profit from inefficiencies in central planning. Referred to by communist officials as “speculators and profiteers,”  these individuals were branded the economic enemies of socialism and became the targets of recurring anti-capitalist campaigns. Yet, as this research will show, these “speculators” were actually the PRC’s first generation of entrepreneurs who not only facilitated the functioning of the socialist economy but also helped pave the way for China’s marketizing reforms.