Powerful State And The Destiny Of Folk Mass Organization

The chamber of coTmmerce emerged and developed in Late Qing and EarlyRepublican when the statelwas in weakness. Many achievements concerning with that in this period have been acquired. This thesis, however, by making use of archives,took the chamber of commerce of Suzhou as example and made a systematic research of the relationship between powerful state and the chamber of commerce during1927-1937 in China. The result showed that there existed relationship of control and arrti-cohtrol between them. On the one hand, drawing support from authority, state tried to get the chamber of commerce under control in the areas of legislation, organization, and ideology, etc; on the other hand, unwilling to lose the privileges obtained in Late Qing and Early Republican, the chamber of commerce carried out anti-control measures in the areas of economy, politics, and public opinion, etc. But when fighting for the political rights, they suffered setbacks many times, and only obtained the rights in the fields where the power of state could not reach, their behaviors were also limited in the range of public welfare. In me end, the merchants leading the chamber of commerce had no choice but come back to the role of gentry- merchants in traditional China.