| The railway entered modern China,becoming both an important tool for the Western powers to invade the Chinese interior and,to a considerable extent,a catalyst for the transformation of China’s modern economy.The modern Shandong transport system,represented by the Jiaoji Railway,and the trade network it created,led to a fundamental change in the economic landscape of modern Shandong.After the signing of the Treaty of Settlement of Outstanding Cases in Shandong in 1922,the Japanese side took advantage of the treaty’s favourable provisions and continued to implement preferential policies for Japanese businessmen.In the 1920 s and 1930 s,Japanese textile capital expanded in Qingdao,taking advantage of the superior geographical and spatial situation of the Jiaoji Railway and the favourable transport prices to transport raw materials and labour from the hinterland to Qingdao to develop production and form a cotton textile industry cluster along the railway line.The modern machine spinning industry in Qingdao developed monstrously fast,selling cotton textile products to cities and towns along the line and to other provinces via the Jiaoji Railway,leading to a change in the market structure,with varying degrees of waxing and waning in both the import and export trade structure and the sales radius: two different forms of cotton textile production,old and new,competed and became compatible under the new transport system,with the rapid rise of the machine textile industry monopolising the market and the decline and commercialisation of rural clothiers.The market for cotton textiles expanded and the flow of goods from neighbouring towns to the whole country expanded with the Jiaoji and Jinpu railways;the international trade structure of the port changed and the volume of imports and exports of cotton yarn and textile machinery continued to change.The Jiaoji Railway created a chain of cotton textile industries between Qingdao and its hinterland,and the industrialisation and specialisation of the Japanese cotton textile industry in Qingdao continued to rise grotesquely,driven by this chain underpinned by the resources of Japanese invasion.The Jiaoji Railway and the Japanese cotton textile industry in Qingdao complemented each other,fuelling the development of subsidiary industries such as flower shops,Japanese foreign companies,textile machinery manufacturing and railway forwarding,pulling the regional economy of modern Shandong increasingly towards commercialisation and internationalisation under the new transport system. |