A Study On The Thoughts Of Agriculture And Commerce Of Zhang Zhi-dong And His Practice

The thoughts of agriculture and commerce of Zhang Zhi-dong came out and developed on the condition that economic aggression of capitalism was getting deep gradually and domestic class contradiction was becoming sharp and traditional agriculture and commerce were struck very much. On the agriculture, he emphasized the basic status of agriculture and thought that agriculture, industry and commerce were co-existed. The development of agriculture depended on industry and commerce, the powerful industry provided new technology and machine for agriculture; the prosperous commerce widened the channel for the sale of the agricultural products; certainly the development of industry and commerce also depended on agriculture. Because agriculture can offer raw materials for industry, and offer the source of goods for commerce. Because of above–mentioned understanding, he advised Qing Government to give up policy of laying stress on the agriculture and restraining the trade, establish the state basic policy that the agriculture, industry and commerce are equally important, set up the agriculture management organization with new function, encourage individuals to establish the land–reclaimable company. Meanwhile, he developed commercial agriculture and processed agricultural product by machine in practice; he learned western advanced agriculture knowledge and introduced agriculture technology by all means. The above –mentioned state policy that the agriculture, industry and commerce are equally important and the agricultural management organization with new function offered the political guarantee for development of the modern agriculture of China; The establishments of the land –reclaimable company and factory which raw materials came from agricultural products were favorable to the growth of relations of production of capitalist nature in Chinese agriculture and industry; popularization of western agricultural knowledge and introduction of agricultural technology helped to improve the agricultural productivity of China . In a word, the agricultural thought and practice of Zhang Zhi-dong are favorable to transform Chinese traditional agriculture into modern agriculture. In the commercial respect, he maintained comprehensive commerce where the industry and commerce are related each other; he advocated setting up the commercial institution, making the commercial law and regulation, punishing corruption and reducing tax in the interest of commerce .He advocated setting up commercial school and sending students, merchants and officers to go abroad for observing and learning commercial knowledge .In practice, Zhang Zhi-dong persuaded merchant to buy machine and set up factory to produce goods ,which resist western product and export our product. In a word, in the commercial respect, Zhang Zhi-dong realized the important function in the course of developing modern national industry, pointed out the relation of acting as the cause and effect of each other between the industry and commerce, thought the purpose to pursue commercial profit is the economic motive force that the businessman invests to set up factories. His practice that encouraged merchants to set up factory helped to transform the traditional commerce of China into modern commerce, and promoted the establishment and development of Chinese modern national industry. Generally speaking, Zhang Zhi-dong's thoughts of agriculture and commerce have progressing nature and rationality, belong to the modern thoughts of agriculture and commerce, occupy the important status in the history of Chinese modern economic thoughts, his practice of agriculture and commerce is advantageous to transform traditional agriculture and commerce into modern agriculture and commerce.