Early Attempts To China's Agricultural Modernization

After the opium war with the western capitalist invasion of China, the modernwestern capitalist civilization began to spread in china. China began the process ofmodernization slowly because of the stimulus of the influences of western culture andcivilization. At the same time, some new atmosphere gradually emerged in Chinesetraditional agricultural areas in this process. Some of the new management ideas andproduction mode on agriculture gradually accepted by people and put into practice.The appearance of new land reclamation company was the important embodimentabout these attempts.This article takes the salt-agricultural reclamation companies in northern Jiangsuaera as the research object and the period from1901to1949, mainly concentrated thetime from the first world war to1937. The salt-reclamation companies wereessentially a form of reclamation-company. It was a name generally about thecompanies which set up between the end of Qing-dynasty and the early years of theRepublic of China in north Jiangsu coastal zone. These companies took the form ofcorporational company to produce cotton. The reason why these companies’ nameplused the word salt and reclamation mainly because the position of the companieslocated in the place which produced the salt before, and at the same time somecompanies had engaged in the production of a small amount of salt as a transition intheir early stage, so these companies totally be called as salt-reclamation companies.The article analyzes the whole process of the companies from their appearance to theend systematic and comprehensively, specific include the background of thesalt-agricultural reclamation companies’ appearance, the process of the companies’establishment，the operation mode and the effect of the companies based on historicalarchives and previous research. At the same time the article analyzed the performanceabout Dasheng capital system in which the dasheng spinning mill was the core partreform the salt-agricultural reclamation companies roundly further. Due to a series ofreasons, the salt-agricultural reclamation companies in north jiangsu province whichattempted to develop agriculture based on the form of corporation failed at last, andthe reasons which result the failure, and the lessons learned from the companies arealso important parts in the paper.The full-text is divided into five parts in the structure: the first part is the introduction and the first chapter. The Introduction mainly includes the researchobject and significance, the research status about the salt-agricultural reclamationcompanies, the problems existing in the research，the research methods and thedifficult points in writing process and so on. The first chapter mainly introduces thebackground of the rise of the salt-agricultural reclamation companies. The main ideaas follows: the rise of salt-agricultural reclamation companies in northern jiangsu wasthe result of China’s early agricultural modernization, and also was an importantreflection of China’s early agricultural modernization process. The natural conditionssuch as the soil and climate suitable for planting cotton in salt-reclamation areaprovided the premise for the salt-agricultural reclamation companies and the declineof traditional salt industry production in this area constituted an important internaleconomic motivation.The second part is the chapter two. This chapter mainly elaborated the the rise ofthe salt-agricultural reclamation companies. About the rise of the salt-agriculturalreclamation companies, Zhangjian played an important role. To some extent, it wasthe reflection of Zhang’s thought on industrial salvation and agriculture development.The tonghai reclamation-grazing company which organized by Zhangjian in1901wasthe first company among the salt-agricultural reclamation companies in this area, andit was also a model pattern to be imitated by other companies. But because of a seriesof objective factors, the agitation about the salt-agricultural reclamation companies’establishment was appeared just before and after the first world war. Compared withother reclamation plant companies in other parts of china in this period, thesalt-agricultural reclamation companies in northern jiangsu had its uniqueperformance whether about the size, the organizational form or the participants, theyconstituted an important part in the process about china’s agricultural modernizationin this period.The third part is the third chapter and the fourth chapter. This part mainly discussthe salt-agricultural reclamation companies’ operation mode and their performance inpractice. The third chapter focuses on the companies’ operating mode, including theform of production organization and management. About the produce organization,the salt-agricultural reclamation companies mostly adopt the pattern which combinedcorporation with small farmers. Though this pattern keep some backward elements, toa great degree, it accord with the local actual situation at that time. To the companies’ management style, the paper discuss it from the following aspects: the companies’management system, the companies’ social management and the united organizationbetween the companies. The purpose is to reveal the companies’ exploration aboutagricultural management form in the process of early modernization of agriculture.The fourth Chapter’s main content is to research the companies’ actual businessperformance. This chapter focuses on the coordination between the corporation andthe peasant household, the social efficiency which the companies achieved, the setbacks that the companies encountered in the process of their operation. At last thepaper would perspective the achievements and difficulties that this new agriculturalmode had in practice through the above issues.The forth part is the fifth chapter. This chapter researches the salt-agriculturalreclamation companies in Dasheng capital system. First it analysed the role Zhangjianhad played in the operation and management about the companies. Just because ofZhangjian’s led, a large number of agriculture companies be founded before and afterthe first world war, and the disorder reduced in the process of the companies’establishment and operation. At the same time, the companies’ operating activities andDasheng system is closely linked. Then the paper focused on the interactive contactconcretely between Dasheng system and the companies, such as the mutual affectionwhich between the salt-agricultural reclamation companies and dasheng-cotton mills,nantong-agriculture college, junshan-meteorological observatory, huaihai-industrialbank, dada-steam launch company and so on. And at last to analyse the effect andsetbacks that the social and economic system which make the modern industry as thecore remake the traditional agriculture that Zhang Jian tried to experiment on themodernization of agriculture in the process.The fifth part is the the sixth chapter. This chapter emphatically analysis thereasons which caused the failure of the companies and the lessons that comes from thetrial of the agriculture. The reasons of the companies’ failure generally can be dividedinto two parts, one was from the companies itself, and the other from the socialenvironment of the time. From the company’s own point of view, the company in theprocess of investment, with more land speculation intention. Though the company setup the bureaucracy management mode, it had not formed the modern enterprisemanagement system effectively. These reasons had brought a lot of obstacles to thecompanies’ operation. From the view of external condition, the political and economic invasion of imperialism, the frequent natural disasters in this area, the turbulent socialenvironment all gave the companies directly or indirectly impediment. The failure ofthe companies reflected that in the special social background of China, through thedevelopment of capitalism in agriculture to promote agricultural modernization wasimpractical. Although the salt-agricultural reclamation companies ended in failure,the creative exploration and the factors which caused the companies’ final failure inthe early stage of agricultural development in China still had the importantenlightenment significance to solve the current China’s new countryside constructionand the issues of agriculture, farmer and rural area.