A Study On The Transmission And Influence Of Western Economics In China In Late Qing Dynasty

Economics is a borrowed discipline and is originated from modern west. It emerges in the mercantilist era and during the classical political economy period, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in the forty-first year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in late Qing Dynasty, which also marks the establishment of Western Economics system. After hundreds of years of development, Western Economics experiences Mercantilist period, agriculture-focused period, the classical political economy period and new-classical political economy period. A great amount of economic masters and relevant works come out, enriching the theoretical content gradually. Western Economics has already become mature in late Qing dynasty. Western Economics is the product of capitalist development of the commodity economy. It is natural that western modern economics-as an idea-must be spread out together with the commodity transmission to the outside world, thus making it an orientation to be transmitted into China in late Qing dynasty.Before the Opium War, China is a feudalist country with great centralization. The Qing government implemented closed door policy and the communication with foreign countries has been strictly controlled by Qing government. After the Opium War, together with the fierce foreign invasion by force and the flushing of goods into China, the Western Economics is able to be transmitted gradually. As WeiYuan (an ancient government official) said:" We should learn the advantage from the foreign invader first and the defeat them." Chinese people began to know the West and, actually, that's the exact background upon which the Western Economics is developed. During the long history of the development in China during 1840 to 1911(altogether more than 70 years), its spreading way changed from a unitary one to a pluralistic one, promoting each other as they co-exist. Also, the spreading content changed from fragmentary to systematic, together with a different focus during the different historical period. The Western Economics exert big influence within China—from superficial to pluralistic, and also influence many domains around late Qing Dynasty, such as Chinese education, economics,industry and business , scholar and press, etc. At present, woks on Western Economics spring up, but the works which can elaborate systematically the Western Economics are extraordinary needed. The writer has tried his best to collect the relevant materials and documents and focus the attention on the historical background, the way, the influence and the change of the transmission.This paper is divided into four parts: the first part deals with China's Economics origin and causes of transmission of Modern Econonics into China before The Revolution of 1911; the second part elaborates the situation of Western Economics transmission in late Qing dynasty from five different aspects, Early patriotic personages, Foreign missionaries, Chinese students abroad and overseas bourgeois(to avoid political problems),new schools set up in china and Press and publication industry; the third part explains from five angles the influence of western economics towards China; such as Chinese education, economics,industry and business , scholar and press, etc. and the last part displays a briefoverview about the transmission and influence of western economics in China.Though the writer absorbed the previous research results and colleted a great deal of relevant materials and did a research initially, it is still inevitable that some issues can not be fully elaborated. To be honest, there are inevitably some defects and flaws and any suggestion will be welcomed sincerely.