The wartime and post-war years formed the golden age of the Chinese bourgeoisie. However, the return in force of the Chinese bureaucracy, first under the Kuomintang, then under the communist regime, could not obliterate the bourgeoisie's contribution to the modern, democratic and internationalist tradition that emanated from the May Fourth movement, any more than it could prevent the eventual resurrection of this tradition. The Revolution of 1911 was not a bourgeois revolution. Among the non-official local elites who would be the first to benefit from the movement, the merchant class, as we have seen, played an increasing role. The National Bankers' Association, Chinese Cotton Millowners' Association and new business associations adopted the viewpoint of an international capitalism dominated by the themes of growth, progress and competition. Compared with this permanent phenomenon of dependence vis-a-vis the world market, the return in force of the bureaucracy and the decline of the entrepreneurial bourgeoisie assumed only secondary importance.