National Industrial Capitalists And Modern China's Agricultural Development (1895-1937)

The core of the rural and peasants issue in modem China is an agricultural economic issue, whose core is how to march into modernization through the coodination and interaction with industri all zation.From a genaal perspective, most of the evaluations of the current historical circles on modem Cluna's agricultural conditions are based on die study of agricultural production department itself. In their respective woiks Imperialist Industrial Capital and Chinese Peasants, and Agricultural Economy of Old china, Chen Hansheng ana Xue Muqiao expressed their descriptive evaluation and statistical analysis of the agricultural recession determined by the modem agricultural production relations Their evaluations and analysis are based on internal and external industrial Capital's exploitation of the rural areas. They didnt mention industrial capitalists' agriculture梚nvolving activities. American scholors Huang, Philip C.C and Dwight Perkins did their recearch by blending modem agriculture with the traditional Chinese agriculture after the 14th century. The former, in his work, The Peasant Families and Rural Development in the Yangtz Delta, laid stress on the fact tiiat the commercialization of the modem agriculture which was pushed forward by population pressure and industrial Capital involvement, caused the further intensification of the Chinese small-scale peasant economy. The latter, in his work, Agricultural Development in China, also believed that the rise of the modern agricultural yield was the Jesuit of the increase of labor force under the condition of tedmological stagnation. Neither of them dwelled upon the industrial capital's effort in the process and the reason of the imperfect results. Contrary to the above viewpoints, English scholar lore Brandt (Commercialization and Agricultural Development in Bast China) believed that china's agriculture before 1949 not only didn't decline. Specialization of (he agriculture before 1949 led by the market-onented economy was a symbol of its progress and development, judging from the pay rise of the ago cultural workeis and lural non-agricultural workers and the nse of the internal cotton cloth consumption amount He objectively affinned flic industrial capitalists' actions to push forward the commercialization of agriculture.The Cliinese scholar, Zhang Li, in her work. Research onModem China's Rural Area, pointed out it was the best period of the development of modem Cluna's agriculture from the later period of the IP* century to 1920s. She emphasized the development of the industrial capital's active role in breaking flic traditional rural economic structure. But she didnt dwell on the interactive relationship between the industrial capital and agricultural economy. The two works, Agricultural and Industrialization by Zhang Peigang and The Early Stage of Industrialization of Japan and China and Their Domestic Markets by Yan Lixian have made up for the imperfect condition. But owing to the limitation of the topic, they overlooked the interactive relationship with epochal characteristics between the industrial capitalists and the rural economy. Although there have been a lot of works on the relationship between Zhang Jian and agricultural economy in Nan-tong, yet (hey are all case studies, and they havent concentrated on the agriculture-involving activities of the national industrial capitalists as a whole from the later period of the 19th century to the eve of the Anti-Japanese war.Being QIC materialized embodimait of the industrialization, process, the national industrial capitalists' understanding and management of the worker-peasant relationship concentratedly embodied the fact that as an agricultural society, China's restraint to the industrial development and its influence on their industrialized flunking and activities of the industrial capitalists.In the view of traditional economics, the key to economic expansion and improvement was supply. As long as you increase investment and expand production, if s sure to gain profit But they overlooked the s...