A Study On The Public Debt Thoughts In The Period Of Late Qing Dynasty And Early Republic Of China

There was no bonds system in the history of China until the outbreak of the Opium War during which time the Chinese natural economy gradually collapsed and slowly stepped into the commodity economy era with the consequence that the government "tax-and-spend" financial management thoughts was replaced by the "spend-and-tax" thoughts. China's bonds system in a modern sense was formed with the establishment of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal political system after the Sino-Japanese War, and at that time the Qing Dynasty was unable to meet financial expenditure demands. The foreign debts in the late Qing Dynasty were a medium that the imperialist powers exerted political oppression and economic exploitation but it also played a simulative role in the development of China's modernization. The domestic debts were a trying of the government for the political stability and economic development in the complex social environment of late Qing Dynasty suffering from the exploitation of external debt and insufficiency of tax-raising. However, most of the raising acts failed because of the lack of modern financial institutes and the influence of the traditional ideas.The thesis is divided into four parts with the composition of six chapters.The first chapter gives a brief introduction on the background, research subject and method, purpose and significance of the study as well as the previous studies both at home and abroad, and puts forward the innovation and deficiencies of this study. Bonds are a important factor of national economic development whether in the late Qing Dynasty, or at the socialist construction period, thus it has a great theoretical and realistic significance to make clear the evolution of Chinese bonds and put forward the cream of the thoughts. At home and abroad the researches on foreign debts in the late Qing Dynasty are fruitful but the researches on internal debt in that period are comparatively weak with some research from the perspective of economic history, or of special characters, lack of systematic studies. Through the investigation on related literatures, this thesis puts forward its innovation and deficiencies with the analysis of the late Qing Dynasty bonds.The second part, the second chapter firstly comprehensively discusses the relationship between bonds and economy, politics and finances, then conducts a detailed analysis on the change of Chinese financial management system and the background of Chinese bonds appearance, and finally introduces the general situation of bonds issues of the late Qing Dynasty so as to provide convince for the further exploration on the public debt thoughts in the following parts. Chinese bond's thought is developed with the shift of financial management ideas and the development of commodity economy following the disintegration of natural economic.The third part, from the third chapter to the fifth chapter, firstly explores the reason of the public bonds appearance from the initial arguments of some outstanding representatives from all sectors of society on whether use bonds for the economic development to the agreement to make good use of bonds to survive and finally to the widespread use of bonds after Sun Yat-sen proposed the opening to the slogan. And then the thesis expounds the bonds issues and thoughts of bonds management and repay. The public bond's thoughts in the history provided positive explanations on the raising method, principle, use and repay of the external debt and internal debt. They were put forward according to the specific circumstance of China with feasibility and made a great contribution to China's modernization.Chapter six, the conclusion part sum up the law of modern Chinese bond's thoughts with a comprehensive summary of its development and mentions its suggestive role on the run of today's public bonds and on the utilization of foreign funds.