Modern Northwest Hui Economic Research

Since the Hui nationality formed,the Northwest China has been one of its main settlement areas.In the course of its development,the modern times was the important period during which all the factors such as the turbulent social situation,complicated domestic and international political relations,and the historical trends of the modern transformation profoundly impacted on its socio-economic development.And the important historical event which largest influenced its economy was the 12 years' Hui uprising in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces in the reign of Emperor Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty,during which the Hui population in Northwest China dramatically decreased and most of the surviving Hui were forced to migrate to the more impoverished region in northwest.This did not only disrupt the historical distribution pattern and social order for the Hui nationality,but also seriously hindered their economic development.However,Hezhou Hui nationality was excused from the Qing government due to Ma Zhan'ao "hanging out the white flag",so their social structure and intrinsical organizational system were well preserved.This laid a sound military-political foundation and accumulated a solid economic strength for the rise of the warlords among Hezhou Hui nationality in the Northwest.And then all the warlords there quickly rose up to their peaks so that the social-political status of the Hui nationality in Gansu,Ningxia and Qinghai provinces had been gradually improved,and their economy and culture had been greatly developed as well.Especially driven by the wheel of the history of modernization,some attempts by the Northwest warlords had far-reaching impacts on the transformation of socio-economic modernization of the Hui nationality.Today,in the Northwest district,where their economic modernization had been abruptly stopped in the past,the Northwest developers,including the Hui people,are on modernization in full swing.In the view of the historical continuity and inheritance,yesterday's modernization is the early stage of China's modernization today.And judging by the lessons learned from the history,we find it also beneficial for the Hui nationality in the course of the transformation of economic modernization today.This dissertation is mainly on the economic modernization of the Hui nationality in the Northwest,including the comparison,reflection and enlightenment on the changes of their economic structure resulted from the changes of China's economic policies during the different periods in modern times(1840-1949).The main contents covers the following aspects:1)the Hui uprising in the Northwest in the late Qing Dynasty,and the changes of Hui population and inhabited area,the decline of the economy due to the resettlement measures implemented by the Qing Government;2)the rising of the Northwest warlords(Ma Zhan'ao,Ma Qianling,and Ma Haiyan clans)who,in the formation of their bureaucrat monopoly capital,had pushed up the economic modernization of the Hui people in Gansu,Ningxia and Qinghai provinces in one way,and negatively inhibited the modernization in another way because of their feudal factors;and 3)the relationship between the formation of Northwest regional market system and the recovery and expansion of the economic network of the Hui people after the reign of Emperor Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty.It is aimed to construct the theory of economic network analysis for the Northwest Hui people in modern times based on study of a series of the significant economic changes then,and discuss the interaction between the economy of the Northwest Hui people in the process of transition and its embedded macro-social network.The whole body contains two parts:The first part including chapters 1 and 2 mainly discusses the status of economic development of the Hui nationality in the 'Northwest in modern times.The demonstration in the part shows that the status of the Hui people in Qing Dynasty was quite low and their economic life bore the characteristics of self-sufficient feudal economy.In the composite economic structure with the combination of agriculture and commerce,the agriculture was dominated while the business was basically confined to the industries involved with the daily life of the Hui people,such as fur,red meat industry,catering,livestock sale,sale of tea,etc.After the Hui uprising in the years of Emperor Tongzhi,the social and economic foundation for the northwest Hui people was almost exhausted.With the increasing internal social differentiation,the impoverished Hui people suffered not only the oppression and discrimination from the external relations,but also the economic exploitation from the bureaucratic landlords,religious upper classes and loan sharks and various personal bondages in the name of religion.Thus their economic activity was confined to the period of low-level farming production and simple animal husbandry production.Their labor force could not get rid of small-scale peasant economy and their commercial and economic development was very slow.After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895,China's economic policy of commercial development in modern times was gradually transformed into the promotion and encouragement from the suppression before.Additionally,as the crisis in the Northwest Frontier was worsening,the central government attached more importance to the Northwest region.Under such circumstances,there emerged three waves of development in the Northwest in modern times,which actually provided opportunities for the economic recovery and the development of the Hui people there.Especially after the warlord groups gradually gained the control of military and political power in Gan-Ning-Qing region,the social status of the Hui people in the area was enhanced and in the meantime their economy started the transition process of modernization during the stage of accumulation of bureaucrat-monopoly capital.But because of the stifling of feudality and monopoly of bureaucrat capital on the modernization factor and the economic vulnerability of the Hui people,their economy came close to collapse by the end of Republic of China,and their economic modernization also stopped abruptly.The second part,including chapters 3 and 4,was the section of thematic analysis.Based on the construction of modern industrial and commercial network analysis model for the Northwest Hui people,the author carries out case study on the interaction between the modern industry and commerce of the Hui people in the Northwest and the embedded network.The analysis in the second part shows that the regional market system in the Northwest,which was established in 1920 years,provided a good platform for the commercial and industrial development of the Hui nationality.The initial attempt of the economic modernization of the northwest Hui people was reflected in the relationship between their business and market,or rather a closer relationship with the long distant transportation.The long distance transportation and sale engaged by the Hui merchants made the economic ties between the regions and nationalities increasingly close and stable and thus formed a lot of different sizes of macro-level industrial and commercial networks in which there exists the embedded ties with the market systems,such as transport network of raw material for export,distribution network of the consumer goods,industrial and commercial network of Hui nationality,etc.In the macro-social environment of the Northwest Hui people,the political,cultural and economic systems are their instrumental economic networks;the economic networks of the Northwest Hui people is embedded in the instrumental economic networks,and has strong or weak connections with it,and mutually exchanges the resources between them as needed.