My talk, based on my 2016 book, provides my original 1981 (J. of Legal Studies) Empirically based theory of the economic success of Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia: The ethnically homogeneous group of Chinese middlemen is an informal, low Cost organization for the provision of club goods, e.g. contract enforcement, that are essential to Chinese merchants’ success. I will discuss various extensions of my 1981 theory, drawing on economics and the other social sciences, and beyond to Evolutionary biology.