The Modern Weihsien Agricultural And Sideline Products Commercialization (1906-1937)

Wei County, known as "Peninsula Corridor " is located in the eastern part of Shandong Peninsula geographically, connects Yantai, Jiaozhou, Jinan and the three city's traffic must go through it. Therefore its location is very important. Since ancient times, Wei County is the strategic hub of the inland transport and its economy has appeared relatively prosperous scene, so it is commonly known as "the golden Jiaozhou, the silver Wei County" and "South Suzhou, North Wei County". Since entering the modern era, the rural economy of Wei County began to change under the impact of modern western capitalist aggression, the commercialization of agricultural products has increased. But before the 20th century natural self-sufficiency economy was still dominated the rural areas of Wei County.Beginning of the 20th century, the late Qing Dynasty government announced that Wei County opened the port to trade with other places, this gave it a good opportunity to rely on the Geographical advantages, traditional commercial status as well as the advanced modern means of transportation to accelerate the agricultural commercialization and with the large increase in agricultural and subsidiary products exports .It was clear that the commercialization process was in an accelerating trend that its main trade forms from the original short distance regional trade-oriented to the remote inter-port trade and international trade. The rural economy began showing signs of a market-oriented characteristics, The crop planting structure began a major change that there had been the crop cultivation characteristics of professionalization of regionalization, especially reflected on tobacco cultivation and the emergence of the hand-woven cloth industry .The tobacco industry and the hand-woven cloth industry became the two pillar industries of the economy in Wei County in the 1920s and 1930s.From a regional economic research point of view, this topic discusses the causes as well as the impact of the commercialization development of agricultural and subsidiary products before the outbreak of Comprehensive War of Resistance against Japan. Some useful enlightenment to the building of our new socialist countryside will be finally obtained.