Theme - Economic Transformation

Qing Dynasty (1900-1911):

Agricultural:

• Undeveloped peasant economy

Industrial:

• Produced many natural resources
  • tea + sugar
  • silk + opium
• Foreign influence
  • Trade concessions
  • Railways

Taxes:

• High taxes => 67M reparations for the Boxer Uprising

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Warlord Era (1916-1927):

• Cost to the economy
  • Taxes raised => warlord armies needed feeding, training + supplies
  • => more money printed => inflation
• No government reforms possible
• Foreign influence continues

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Weak GMD Control (1928-1937):

Civil war: continuing conflict

• No GMD reforms
• CCP reforms in the Jiangxi Soviet
• Foreign influence continues

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Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945):

• Devastation of country

Agricultural:

• No GMD reforms
• Popular land reforms in CCP areas

Industrial:

• GMD inflation
• GMD corruption
  • Chiang Kai-shek’s big businesses

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Civil War (1946-1949):

• Devastation of country (industrial output 50% decrease than in the mid-30s)

Agricultural:

• No GMD reforms
• Popular land reforms in CCP areas

Industrial:

• GMD inflation
• GMD corruption
  • Chiang Kai-shek’s big businesses

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Mao and the CCP (1950-1959):

Agriculture:

• Agrarian Land Reform (1950)
  • Redistribution of land
  • Aim:
  • Combat class struggle
  • Improve efficiency
  • Success
• Mutual Aid Teams (1951-53)
  • Working together
  • Teams of 10 households
  • Shared equipment BUT land individually owned
  • Aim:
  • Improve efficiency
  • Success
• Agriculture Production Cooperatives (1953-55)
  • Pooling resources
  • 30 households
  • Shared resources BUT land individually owned
  • Aim:
  • Improve efficiency
  • Success
• Advanced APCs (1955-57)
  • Collective ownership
  • 150-200 households
  • No ownership over land BUT paid wages for labour
  • Aim:
  • Improve efficiency
  • Success
• Collectivisation (1958-60) Part of the GLF
  • Communes
  • 30,000 people in one
  • 26,000 communes
  • No private ownership whatsoever
  • Work included: farming, irrigation, backyard blast-furnaces, building schools, hospitals + roads
  • Aim:
  • Mass Mobilisation
  • Improve efficiency
  • Disaster => Great Famine (1959)

Industrial:

• The First Five Year Plan (1953-57)
  • Copying Stalin
  • Moving towards collectivisation
  • Focus on heavy industry
  • Aim:
  • Increase output
  • Expand working class
  • Success
• The Great Leap Forward (1958-62)
  • Mao’s own ideas
  • Focus on heavy industry
  • Aims:
  • Increase output
  • Self-reliance
  • Disaster

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Deng & Liu (1959-1965):

Agriculture:

• Smaller communes
• Limited capitalist reforms
  • Peasants paid on how well they worked
  • Private land plots
  • Some produce could be sold for profit

Industrial:

• Inefficient, small factories + backyard furnaces shut down
• Professional advisors put in charge
• Paid on quality of work
• Return to large urban factories
• 11% growth per annum (1962-65)

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The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976):

Agricultural:

• Private land taken (1966)
• Little change (1970)
• Slow growth (1970)

Industrial:

• Red Guards assaulted experts
• Return of experts (1970)
• Limited capitalist reforms (1970)

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Deng Xiaoping (1978-1989):

Agricultural:

• Large steps towards capitalism
• Communes ended
  • Xiang - land on a 15 year lease, free choice of crops
• Big success - motive for profit
• Limited peasant investment
  • Land still held by state

Industrial:

• Huge success
  • Special Economic Zones (coastal areas)
  • businesses privately owned
  • Lower taxes imposed
  • Foreign investment encouraged
  • Develop export industries
    • exports 500% increase
  • Town and Village Enterprises
  • Concept of SEZs extended inland
  • Production of goods to domestic market
• Foreign influence
  • Business with foreign businessmen
• Return of capitalist problems
  • Strikes + anger

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