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Some Reflections on the Economic History of Modern China (1840–1949)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Chi-Ming Hou
Chi-Ming Hou
Affiliation:
Colgate University
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Extract

The study of the economic history of modern China is underdeveloped. There is urgent need for original work both in ascertaining facts and in interpretations. Though investigations into the various phases of the Chinese economy had been made by the Chinese Maritime Customs since the 1860's, and by interested contemporary observers such as Morse and Wagel, statistical surveys on a large scale were not systematically conducted with any degree of reliability until the 1930's. They represented the efforts of the government, academic institutions, and individual scholars. A comprehensive survey on agriculture was made by John L. Buck and the National Agricultural Research Bureau of the National Government. An industrial census of Chinese-owned factories was planned and carried out by D. K. Lieu for the National Resources Commission of the National Government. Mining statistics were collected by government agencies under the direction of Ting Weng-chiang and Weng Wen-hao. Railway statistics have been published (since 1915) and a monumental collection of some 37 huge volumes on transportation and communications was compiled by the Ministry of Communications. The Nankai Institute of Economics—with which professors Franklin Ho, Fang Hsien-ting (H. D. Fong), C. M. Li and many others were associated—made significant contributions in the study of prices, terms of trade, modern industries, and handicrafts. Banking statistics were collected by various institutions, especially the Bank of China. The most comprehensive work on foreign investment was done by C. F. Remer and later by the Japanese East Asian Research Institute. The Japanese Manchuria Railway provided a great deal of economic information on Manchuria after the latter was taken by Japan in 1931. A few sample studies were made both by research institutions and by the government on the characteristics of the Chinese population.

Type
Problems in the Economic History of Asia (Panel Discussion)
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 1963 , pp. 595 - 605
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1963

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References

1 For a very useful discussion and a list of the important works on the Chinese economy before 1949, see Feuerwerker, Albert, “Materials for the Study of the Economic History of Modem China,” The Journal of Economic History, XXI, No. 1 (Mar. 1961), pp. 41–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Other recent attempts to explain the Chinese economy include: Ssu-yü, Teng and Fairbank, John K., China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey 1839–1923 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954);Google ScholarLevy, Marion J., “Contrasting Factors in the Modernization of China and Japan,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, II, No. 3 (Oct. 1953), 161–97;Google ScholarLevy, , “Some Aspects of ‘Individualism’ and the Problem of Modernization in China and Japan,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, X, No. 3 (Apr. 1962), 225–40;CrossRefGoogle ScholarWright, Mary C., The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957);Google ScholarFairbank, John K., Eckstein, Alexander, and Yang, L. S., “Economic Change in Early Modem China: An Analytic Framework,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, IX, No. 1 (Oct. 1960), 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 For these statistics, see my “External Trade, Foreign Investment and Domestic Development: The Chinese Experience, 1840–1837,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, X, No. 1 (Oct. 1961), 21–41.Google Scholar

4 Ta-chung Liu and Kung-chia Yeh, assisted by Twanmo, Chong, The Economy of the Chinese Mainland: National Income and Economic Development, 1933–1959 (2 volumes; Santa Monica: the RAND Corporation, 1963).Google Scholar

5 For the statistics on the traditional fields, see my “Economic Dualism: The Case of China, 1840–1937,” The Journal of Economic History, XXIII, No. 3 (Sept. 1963), 277–97.Google Scholar

6 There were of course other factors favorable to traditional technology, such as the high costs of transporting modern goods to the interior and the centuries-old consumption habits of the public which could be satisfied only by traditional products.

7 Feuerwerker, Albert, China's Early Industrialization (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958);CrossRefGoogle ScholarLiu, Kwang-ching, “Steamship Enterprise in Nineteenth-Century China,” Journal of Asian Studies, XVIII, No. 4 (Aug. 1959), 435–54. Liu is now doing a monographic study on the China Merchants’ Company.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 On all these points, see my forthcoming volume on Foreign Investment and Economic Development of China 1840–1937.

9 Ho, Ping-ti, Studies on the Population of China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), ch. x.Google Scholar

10 See n.l. Also, Feuerwerker, Albert and Cheng, S., Chinese Communist Studies of Modern Chinese History (Cambridge: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1961).CrossRefGoogle Scholar