The Process of Forced Learning --A New Stage of Chinese Market Economy in Early Modern Period (1842-1937)

• Main Authors: Chen, Shan-yu, 陳善瑜
• Other Authors: Chia-chu Hou
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1997
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/73540997988424953187

博士 === 東吳大學 === 經濟學系 === 85 === This paper is to study the transformation of the Chinese economic system from the standpoint of Sino-foreign contact from 1842 to 1937. The essence of the Chinese economic transformation in early modern period is considered to be the process of learning the West and turning the peasant economy to market economy (or capitalistic economy) through "free" trade and "free" undertaking of manufacturing under the force of gunboat and the constraint of unequal treaties. The "free" trade between China and foreign countries from 1842 to 1895 formed the colonial type of trade that exported primary products to finance the import of manufactured consumer goods, and expanded "the Coastal China," the region producing the exports and selling the imports. In addition to cheap labor and materials, the brisk market of manufactured consumer goods, the infrastructure centered in the treaty ports, and the business operating environment protected by unequal treaties all led to the demand for "free" undertaking of manufacturing in the open ports. The foreign direct investment supplied the package of capital, technical know-how, managerial ability, and marketing ability. Under the demonstration and oppression of foreign- owned enterprises, both Chinese-owned and foreign- owned enterprises contributed to the industrialization of China. Meanwhile, the foreign exchange obtained from the export of primary products was allocated to the import of capital goods instead of manufactured consumer goods so as to build the import-substitution industry which produced consumer goods to replace the imported consumer goods in the domestic commodity market. Take the most important imports-cotton pieces-for example. They accomplished the most important industry- textile industry. On the other hand, in the process of establishing the domestic industrial sector, the domestic labor market and financial market were established concurrently. In the process of economic transformation and learning, the step of learning was from selling to manufacturing; the dimension of learning consisted of participating in market, expanding market, and setting up the market system; the subjects of learning were the consumers, producers, workers, and savers/ investors of private sectors and the officials of public sectors; and the contents of learning were refining the kinship, localism, and political- economic relationship of Chinese peasant economy and nourishing the market culture of free competition and self-responsibility. In fact, the contents of learning are also an endless task of all the Chinese people.