Synopses & Reviews
The Great Depression was a global phenomenon: every economy linked to international financial and commodity markets suffered. The aim of this book is not merely to show that China could not escape the consequences of drastic declines in financial flows and trade but also to offer a new perspective for understanding modern Chinese history. The Great Depression was a watershed in modern China. China was the only country on the silver standard in an international monetary system dominated by the gold standard.
Fluctuations in international silver prices undermined China's monetary system and destabilized its economy. In response to severe deflation, the state shifted its position toward the market from laissez faire to committed intervention. Establishing a new monetary system, with a different foreign-exchange standard, required deliberate government management; ultimately the process of economic recovery and monetary change politicized the entire Chinese economy. By analyzing the impact of the slump and the process of recovery, this book examines the transformation of state-market relations in light of the linkages between the Chinese and the world economy.
Review
This is the first readily accessible, comprehensive account of the impact of the 20th century's most serious economic crisis on Republican China, whose experience of the global downturn took a very singular path. R. P. Gardella
Synopsis
The Great Depression was a global phenomenon: every economy linked to international financial and commodity markets suffered. The aim of this book is not merely to show that China could not escape the consequences of drastic declines in financial flows and trade but also to offer a new perspective for understanding modern Chinese history.
About the Author
Tomoko Shiroyama is Associate Professor of Economic History in the Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
Hitotsubashi University
Table of Contents
Part I: The Years of Inflation and Laissez-Faire: Economic Trends prior to 1931
- The Silver Standard: China in the International Monetary System
- The Coming of Industrialization: The Textile Industry in the Lower Yangzi Delta
- Companies in Debt: The Capital Accumulation Problem
Part II: The Depression Years, 1931-1937: The Transformation of Economics and Politics
- The Agrarian Depression
- Businesses in a Slump
- The Shanghai Financial Crisis, 1934-1935
- Coping with the Crisis: The Currency Reform of November 1935
- Reaches and Limitations: Economic Policies and the Nationalist Government Reconsidered
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Estimates of China's International Balance of Payments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Character List
- Index