Commerce and Economics in Chinese History

Commerce and Economics in Chinese History

Introduction

With the passage of time, the way Chinese society can be defined has changed a lot. This is especially evident when one talks about the economic and trade policy. Initially the country that was the hallmark of conservatism and conventional economics has transformed itself as one of the leading trading nations of the world. This has to do a lot with the way China has made its presence felt in some of the larger foreign markets. They used to follow the economic system that was more on the lines of the communism, but with the passage of time, they have shifted their priorities and now they are one of the leading advocates of the free market economy and free trade. So China has changed a lot when one talks about the economics aspects.

On the other hand, if one looks at the political system of China, it is surprisingly alienated from the economic structure of the country. While China is the worldwide advocate of using trade as a tool for its development, and due to the manner in which they have positioned their currencies, it is pretty evident that they will face some of the outside trading forces with the relative ease. This level of liberation and freedom does not seem to exist in the Chinese political system at the moment. When one talks about the political system of China, it can be seen that they are one of the few governments who successfully adopted the one party system. There is one party system in China and one just cannot tamper a lot with this system. There is only party that is dominating the whole country and one is just not allowed to form its own political party.

Chinese Economy before the Reform

Looking at the way Chinese economy operated in the early 1930's, it can be seen that in the beginning, the overall structure of the Chinese economy was very primitive in its nature. Even when one talks about the time during the Great Depression, the share of China in the international trade was very minimal at that point of time. Another thing that defined the China's economy and some other ideologies were constant struggle with Japan. During the time period of the Chinese Civil War, especially between the 1937 and 1948, at that time the victorious communist changed the very landscape of the Chinese economy. Before that time period, China was progressing albeit at a much slower rate, while on the other hand, after the implementation of the Communist setup, the economy was stagnated.

Initial Meltdown

There were famines at that point of time, and more than 30 to 40 million people were killed in that war and famine. The standard of the living was the one to suffer as Chinese people suffered no increase in their standard of living. While on one hand, some of the Chinese people were not really clear about their economic preference, there were some people ...