Research On Industrialization Thought In Late Qing Dynasty

Since modern times,China’s economic development gradually lagged behind that of the western countries that had started industrialization,and the political sovereignty and economic sovereignty of the late Qing dynasty were also controlled by western countries.The backward industrial development and the lack of industrialization policies made it difficult for the Chinese nation to "get rich".Smith’s theory of "free trade" swept the world,allowing Britain,the world’s industrial hegemon,to dump its best and cheapest manufactured goods on other poor countries.After the founding of the People’s Republic of China,Japan started the process of modernization,but it did not follow the guidance of "Smith theory" to compete with western countries freely.On the contrary,Japan borrowed from the "Liszt road" of Germany and the United States,and the strategy of "production and production" in Meiji restoration period had obvious "Liszt mark".It was under the guidance of this strategy that Japan’s national strength became stronger and stronger,and it gradually became a world-class industrial power.In such an international environment,the elites of the late Qing dynasty gradually realized that "industrialization" was the only way to make the country strong and the people rich and get rid of the backwardness and being attacked.The earliest thoughts on industrialization in the late Qing dynasty can be traced back to Wei Yuan’s idea of "learning from yi to control yi",which was inherited by the westernization movement.However,no matter Wei Yuan or the westernization faction,they only attached importance to the development of military industry,and they all advocated "official supervision and commercial affairs".This narrow thought and policy of industrialization could not naturally drive the industrialization process of the whole country.Faced with such a situation,there emerged among the elite such mercantilists as Wang Tao and Xue Fucheng.They were striving to build industry,hoping that the development of industry would lead to the development of commerce,and then they would compete with foreign businessmen for profits to save the domestic economy.This is a typical mercantilism.From the point of view of Liszt economics,although its view on business relations is a little upside down,its judgment on the direction of economic development is undoubtedly correct.However,if industry is subordinate to commerce,the real development of the former will inevitably be hindered,and Wang Tao and others have no good ideas on how to develop industry.After the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895,Kang Youwei witnessed the vigorous productive forces brought by the industrialization of Japan,and thus put forward the development strategy of "designating the country as an industrial country"--taking large industry as the main economic sector of the country and transforming the country from an agricultural country to an industrial country.The elites of the late Qing dynasty had a fundamental improvement in their understanding of the industrial status and function,but "designated as a working country" was still a choice under the feudal system,so from the perspective of Liszt economics,it was impossible for them to have a true vision of "nationalism".In addition,the influence of industry on other sectors and the joint development among different sectors mentioned by Liszt are not mentioned in the idea of "designating the country of industry",which is the essence of Liszt’s thought of industrialization.In the late Qing dynasty,people of insight were deepening their understanding of industrialization,but in the final analysis,they did not have particularly profound views on the significance,function and policy means of industrialization,which is more prominent when compared with the modern Japanese thoughts on industrialization.Although the thoughts of industrialization in the late Qing dynasty failed to guide China on the road to prosperity,the study of these thoughts still has important enlightenment and warning function for the development of contemporary China.This paper is divided into five parts:The first part is the introduction.The first section expounds the theoretical and practical significance of this paper.The second section is a literature review,summarizing the current domestic and foreign research results related to this.The third part is the research method,innovation and shortcomings of this paper.The second part introduces the background of industrialization in late Qing dynasty.The first section then introduces the external driving force of industrialization thought in late Qing dynasty,which is divided into two sections: the influence of western culture and the promotion of industrial development by foreign investment.The second section introduces the inner motive force of industrialization thought in the late Qing dynasty,which is mainly attributed to the awakening of the consciousness of the insightful people in the late Qing dynasty,the disintegration of the thought of "emphasizing agriculture over commerce" and the comprador class’ s promotion of industrialization in the late Qing dynasty.The third part is the evolution of the thought of industrialization in the late Qing dynasty,the first section is industrialization status understanding evolution,from the westernization movement attaches great importance to the military industrial evolution to the mercantilists believed business better than the industry,and then to the reformists "at work",vigorously develop industrial idea,the final part of this section is Liszt productivity economics theory as the standard of industrialization status evolution was reviewed.The second section is about the evolution of the industrial function understanding,first westernization movement think role even stable regime of industrialization,the mercantilists believed industrialization is to be rich,and reform people think again is to and self-improvement of the national industrialization,finally for industrial action reference Liszt productivity theory to business of industry,agriculture,transportation and national economy development impact evaluation.The third section is the evolution of the understanding of the industrialization policy.The evolution of the industrialization policy went from the official to the private sector.Finally,the late Qing dynasty industrialization thought is reviewed from the perspective of trade protection theory of Liszt economics.The fourth part is the comparison of industrialization thoughts between China and Japan in the late Qing dynasty.The first part analyzes the similarities and differences between the backgrounds of China and Japan at that time,including the differences in the degree of people’s intellectual development,the open source industrialization thought and the development degree of capitalism.The second section is the comparison of the thoughts of industrialization between China and Japan.The fifth part is the conclusion and enlightenment from the study of industrialization thought in late Qing dynasty.The first section is the conclusion obtained by using the data of Chinese and Japanese industrialization.The second section is the enlightenment of the late Qing dynasty industrialization thought research to today’s China.