The Manchurian Economy and the 1930s World Depression

This paper analyses Manchuria's economic history between 1929 and 1936, as part of a larger project on the Great Depression's impact on China. Based on a new series for Manchurian GDP, 1924–1937, the paper advances four key arguments. First, early in the Depression, Manchuria's use of silver currency partially protected its economy from the global downturn, while creating serious problems for importers and Japanese-owned enterprises, resulting in a small net decline in GDP. Second, as elsewhere, the Depression's impact was deepest where cyclical effects were accompanied by structural change – here, the decline in the soybean trade. Third, output levels, especially in agriculture, declined most steeply in response to climatic and military disasters rather than economic shocks. Fourth, as in Japan, policies that were Keynesian in effect led to rapid growth of the modern sector, especially construction, and to the recovery of many sectors of Manchuria's economy from 1934–1935

Agriculture · China · Chinese economy · Currency · Depression (economics · Development economics · Economic policy · Economics · Economy · Geography · Great Depression · Keynesian economics · Monetary economics · Political science · Recession · Financial Crisis of the 21st Century · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Japanese History and Culture

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