The Prospect for China's Industrialization

TITH the spread of Western culture and civilization, industrialization has assumed a phenomenal growth in many parts of the world. In the West, notably in Northwestern Europe starting with the British Isles, industrialization began a century and a half ago. In these countries coal and iron, together with capital accumulated mainly from maritime and colonial commerce, could be found in abundance. Historically, it is evident that industrialization acts not only as a spontaneous, unconscious, and self-generating factor for nation-building, but also transforms itself at once into a deliberate, conscious, and planned policy of all governments, in the hands of far-sighted statesmen. China is no exception to this general trend of development. Here the need for industrialization is no less urgent than in any other country. Both economic poverty and military decadence have contributed to the demand for industrialization. Under a predominantly agricultural economy China's poverty is characterized by an unfavorable man-land ratio, which gives rise to the perennial struggle of an overcrowded population for the limited supply of cultivable land; while her military decadence increased through the successive defeats which she suffered at the hands of industrialized Powers for almost a whole century following the Opium War of i84I-42. Attempts at China's industrialization were launched as early as the reign of Emperor Tung-chih after i862. Under the leadership of Tseng Kuo-fan, Tso Tsung-tang, and Li Hung-chang, the statesmen responsible for the revival of the Manchu dynasty after the Taiping Rebellion, several factories were established for the manufacturing of ammunition. This period, lasting from i862 to i877, was followed by commercial product manufacturing during i878I894, influx of foreign enterprises from i895 to I902, cancellation or

China · Economics · Industrialisation · Market economy · Political science · Economic Zones and Regional Development

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  Paul B Trescott•History of Political Economy•2002

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