Study On The Changes Of Imported Daily Nessesities In The City Of Tientsin(1912-1937)

Since its forced opening to the world in 1860,the port of Tientsin has gradually grown into the most important international-trading port of the north china region in the following decades.By the time of the Republic of China,Tientsin had become the largest import port for foreign products,and a crucial indicator of North China economy.This dissertation combed through relevant data of the import trade in Tientsin from the year 1912 to 1937 under the perspective of economic globalization,and attempted to use foreign products as the focal point,to study in-depth its transshipment,sales processes,price,dealer profiles consumer groups and other factors,and then discussed the relationship between Tientsin's port trade and people's life.During the period of the Republic of China,foreign products imported from Tientsin covered the categories of textiles,food,hardware,industrial products,building materials,daily necessities,means of transportation,fuel oil,etc.The main body of this dissertation selected some of the typical imported goods-most of them were modern industrial products-sorted by the aspects of daily life,namely,food,clothing,housing,and transportation,as well as a wide selection of archival documents,newspaper advertisements and charts,to explain in-detail how the import trade in Tientsin changed people's life.In the section of “clothing”,the author studied textiles,ready-to-wears,shoes and hats,and daily-use cosmetics imported from Tientsin port,and tried to establish a connection between imported clothing and human body.In ”Food”the author discussed how imported food and medicine transformed people's lifestyle.In “Housing” the author discussed how the import trade in Tientsin changed people's living space by doing research on some of the representative sample of foreign products that related to housing matters,particularly how they were imported,and how they were distributed throughout the North-China Region.In “transportation” the author paid special attention to the process ofmodernization of transportation and communication in North-China,and what's the role of Tientsin port in this process.Throughout the Republic of China period,it is evident that the major products imported from Tientsin gradually shifted from textiles and food,to industrial products and modern means of transport.More obvious is the shift of main source of these imported products,from traditional european powers to emerging powers like the USA,the USSR,and Japan,especially Japan.Looking through the history of import trade in Tientsin from the year 1912 to 1937,it is obvious that foreign products changed people's life.For instance imported cotton fabric,garments and cosmetics transformed what people wear,imported flour,sugar and processed food helped forming news eating habits and consumer awareness,imported machine,hardware and electrical material improved people's life space and living condition,imported automobiles and telephones drastically improved the efficiency of communication.Nonetheless,the seemingly booming import business of Tientsin is nothing but an illusion.The reasons are divided into four parts.Firstly,the loss of tariff sovereign rights means China's Foreign trade in itself was a result of foreign oppression,revenue generated by import duties was not to be used by the Chinese government to give back to society,instead is was parceled out among foreign powers,it simply means that,however glamorous the trade figure might seem,it was nothing but false data.Secondly,there were significant differences between urban and rural dwellers,and between different urban classes in terms of the impact brought by foreign products.Also,under no circumstances would ordinary people enjoy the dividends of foreign trade,they would only stuck in the level of using some individual product.Thirdly,there was a tremendous impact of import trade on domestic products.The foreign products affected national industry in two ways: on the positive side,imported products inspired improvements in domestic products,meanwhile foreign machines and technicians immediately helped increasing productivity of national industry.On the negative side,the dumping of foreign products was precisely the reason why Chinese national industry was destroyed.Lastly,Japanese influence cannot be ignored.In Tientsin,Japan adopted the policy of economic erosion,namely,dumping products and smuggling,and in that order,they severely damaged Tientsin's foreign trade.Until the outbreak of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1937,Tientsin's foreign trade showed a tendency to transfer from European and American Dominated market to Japanese dominated market.Throughout the period of the Republic of China,there was always a strong correlation between Tientsin's import trade and the changes in people's life,albeit some of the changes might not be positive.The inflow of foreign commodities actually led the trend for awhile,and ushered in the vision of modern life for the people of North China.