Modern System Of Economic Interaction In Tianjin And North China (1880s -1930 Years),

The economy of China got into a new historical period after the First Opium War in 1840, especially after 1870s. The economy of China in modern times came into being mainly due to the foreign intervention, so the level of economic development in China greatly varied from area to area. Thus the development of regional economy in pre-modern China is very noticeable. As the political center of China in modern times, North China made rapid progress in the development of industry and agriculture, in the modernization of cities and towns and in the expansion of business and foreign trade. After it opened to the world, Tianjin took the place of Beijing and became the economic center of North China. As an economic center, Tianjin had a direct influence on the economic development in North China and as direct economic hinterland, North China also had an important effect on the development of Tianjin. The dissertation studies the relationship between Tianjin and North China, and makes a thorough inquiry into the influence of the economic center on regional economy. The purpose of this study is to determine the economic relationship between Tianjin and North China and to promote the development of Tianjin and North China side by side. The dissertation consists of 6 chapters (about 180 thousand words). There are mainly three new ideas in the dissertation. Firstly, the dissertation applies the theories of modern regional economy in the study of the economic development in pre-modern China. Secondly, the dissertation tries to study the economic development in pre-modern North China by using the methods of studying regional economy. Thirdly, the dissertation attaches importance to the model functions of Key City through the interaction of Core and Periphery. In Chapter One, three theories on regional development----Growing pole Theory, Core-periphery Theory, Key city Theory----are first introduced. Then, the dissertation introduces some methods of dividing economic regions in pre-modern China. On the bases of these methods and some other factors, the dissertation explains the dividing method used in this paper. The natural conditions and the economic differences among regions in North China are also introduced in this part. In Chapter Two, in the first half, the dissertation discusses the development of the cities and towns from two sides and introduces their types, characteristics and functions in the development of regional economy. Then, the dissertation makes comparison between the cities and towns in North China and those in South China and analyzes the main reasons of the difference between the two regions. In the second half, the dissertation discusses the reasons of Tianjin becoming the economic center of North China in six respects. The main subject studied in Chapter Three is the commodity economy of the countryside in pre-modern North China. First, the dissertation discusses the level of commercialization and the circulation scale of commodity through the study of several agriculture products such as cotton, peanut, wheat and tobacco, and draws a conclusion that the commercialization of agriculture products was faster and the circulation scale of agriculture products was larger than before. In the following, the dissertation studies the handicraft industry and reveals the laws of handicraft industry in the countryside of pre-modern North China. Finally, Chapter Three discusses the factors hindering the development of commodity economy in the countryside of North China in pre-modern times, including chaos caused by war and natural calamity, the heavy economic burden in the countryside and the poverty of the peasants. The dissertation also explains that most of these factors are caused by lacking of a capitalistic revolution to break the natural economy in pre-modern North China. In chapter four, the dissertation discusses the development and the characteristics of industry in pre-modern North China. The main purpose of this chapter is to study Tianjin's impact on the industrial development of pre-modern North China and to give readers an explicit knowledge that Tianjin played a very important role in the pre-modern North China industrial development. Chapter Five is a study of commodity market in pre-modern North China. In this part, the dissertation introduces the characteristics of commodity market in five fields,and divides the commodity market in the cities and villages of North China. The standard of dividing the types of commodity market is a new standard, which is different from other standards. Tianjin was the biggest port and trade center in pre-modern North China. It embodies a lot of economic relations, so the study of its trade is very important to the study of the economic interactions between Tianjin and North China. Chapter Six studies the development of foreign trade in North China after Tianjin opened to the world, and the commodity structure of imports and exports, the main countries and regions with which North China trade, and the changes of commercial status in the whole country. In the following, the dissertation sums up the characteristics of foreign trade in pre-modern North China and draws a conclusion that the foreign trade in pre-modern North China was backward. The last part of the dissertation discusses the economic interactions between Tianjin and North China in modern times so as to put forward some inspirations, which may be helpful to the study of economic development in modern North China.