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

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

Weak GMD Control (1928-1937):

Civil war: continuing conflict

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

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

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

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

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)

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)

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