This book focuses on several specific features characterizing China’s economy in the Mao era (1952–1976), and discusses whether and how they are related to the new economic strategy called “reforms and opening-up” under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership with the result of the aftermath of well-known rapid growth.
It provides the reader with basic knowledge of the continuity and discontinuity between the Mao and Deng eras. Readers are provided with some important clues for thinking about how Maoist China could have contributed to or alternatively prevented today’s economic development. The topics addressed here include a brief overview of economic development under Mao, significant differences between Mao and Deng economics, and socialist transformations during the early Mao era. These include collectivization as well as communization and the effects on agricultural productivity; water supply construction drives utilizing a vast amount of rural surplus labor; rural finance; the effects on national savings, and the development of heavy and light industry. Also considered are the effects on the socialist industrialization, rural small-scale industries during the Cultural Revolution and their aftermath, and the realities of social life in a Third-front construction site promoted by Mao’s military strategy in the 1960s. This book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in contemporary China’s economy, particularly to scholars and students. The volume gives new insight into the background or preconditions that made possible historically rare miracles of the Chinese economy after Mao.
Author(s): Katsuji Nakagane
Series: Studies in Economic History
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 273
City: Singapore
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
Editor and Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction: Economic Performance and Background of the Mao Era
1.1 Reality of the Economic Growth of the Mao Era1
1.2 Structural Changes
1.2.1 Changes in the Industrial Structure
1.2.2 Changes in the Employment Structure
1.2.3 Changes in the Regional Structure
1.2.4 Changes in the Growth Structure
1.2.5 Price Fluctuations and Economic Changes
1.2.6 Infrastructure Construction
1.2.7 Medical Care and Education
1.2.8 Trade Dependence
1.3 Mechanisms of Growth and Structural Changes
1.3.1 Preobrazhensky Model
1.3.2 Heavy Industry-Oriented Development Model
1.3.3 Self-reliance Model
1.3.4 Politics-in-Command Model
1.4 Institutional and Policy Context
1.4.1 New Democracy Period (1949–1953)
1.4.2 The Period of Socialist Transformations (1953–1957)
1.4.3 The Great Leap Farward Period (1958–1961)
1.4.4 Adjustment Period (1962–1965)
1.4.5 The Cultural Revolution Period (1966–1976)
Notes
References
2 Mao Zedong’s Political Economics and Deng Xiaoping’s Economics
2.1 Characteristics of Mao Zedong’s Political Economics
2.1.1 Mao’s Economic Thought and Philosophy
2.1.2 Economic Institutions
2.1.3 Macroeconomic Policies
2.2 Mao’s Economic Goals
2.3 Deng Xiaoping’s Economics
Notes
References
3 From “New Democracy” to “Socialist Transformation”: Bankers and Commercial Associations in 1950s Chongqing
3.1 The CCP’s Policy of Urban Expropriation: “Jieshou” and “Guanli” in Early PRC
3.1.1 The Opportunity of Establishing a System for Urban Expropriation
3.1.2 Providing a System of Urban Expropriation
3.2 Establishing the Preparatory Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry
3.2.1 Organization of the Central Chamber of Commerce and Industry
3.2.2 PCCCI’s Organization in Chongqing
3.3 Reorganizing “Trade Association” in Chongqing
3.3.1 Reorganizing Former Guilds
3.3.2 The Study Campaign and the Land Reform Inspection
3.3.3 The Movement of Purchasing Government Bonds and the Korean War
3.4 Becoming a “Chamber of Commerce”
3.4.1 The PCCCI and the Policy of Processing, Ordering, and Purchasing
3.4.2 Commercial and Industrial Loans
3.5 Five Antis Campaign, Socialization and the End of Trade Associations
3.5.1 Five Antis Movement
3.5.2 The Joint Operation, Joint State-Privately Operation, and the Demise of Trade Associations
Notes
References
4 Examination of Collective Farming from Production Cost Survey
4.1 Agricultural Organization and Marketing System During the Mao Era
4.1.1 Agricultural Marketing Under the “Unified Purchase and Unified Supply System”
4.1.2 Production Team as an Independent Profit-Accounting Unit
4.1.3 Food Expenditure of Urban and Rural Residents
4.2 Characteristics of Collective Farming from Production Cost Survey
4.2.1 Overview of Production Cost Survey
4.2.2 Factor Decomposition of Agricultural Income
4.2.3 Basic Features of Production Cost Survey
4.3 Decomposition of Agricultural Income and Estimation of Agricultural Surplus
4.3.1 Factor Decomposition of Agricultural Income by Crop
4.3.2 Calculation of Hypothetical Wages and Net Revenue
Notes
References
5 People’s Communes: A Microanalysis Based on Accounting Data of Production Team X in Jiangsu Province (1965–81)
5.1 State of Affairs at Jingjiang County and Xinqiao People’s Commune in Jiangsu Province
5.2 Accounting Documents of Team X
5.3 Composition and Nature of Team X
5.4 Agriculture and Its Structural Changes in Team X
5.4.1 Agricultural Equipment, Cultivated Land, and Labor
5.4.2 Structural Changes in Agricultural Production
5.4.3 Revenue and Expenditure Structure
5.5 Distribution Structure Among the State, Communes, and Peasants
5.5.1 Relationship Among the State, Communes, and Peasants
5.5.2 Grain Distribution
5.6 Economic Disparities Among Peasants and Mechanism of Rural Poverty
5.6.1 Changes in Management Performance
5.6.2 Economic Disparity Among Peasants
5.6.3 Life Stages of a Household: The Case of Household H
5.6.4 Mechanism of Rural Poverty
Notes
References
6 Water Use Construction: Flood Control and Irrigation Projects and Labor Accumulation
6.1 Historical Development of Water Conservancy Construction
6.1.1 Emergency Flood Control and Large-Scale Irrigation Projects (1949–57)
6.1.2 Irrigation Projects and Their Adjustments Under and After the GLF Movement (1958–65)
6.1.3 Water Conservancy Construction Under the “Learn from Dazhai” Movement
6.2 Quantitative Evaluation of Water Use Construction
6.2.1 Changes in Irrigated Area
6.2.2 Flooded Area
6.2.3 Crop Yields
6.2.4 Water Conservancy Heritage
6.2.5 Water Conservancy Construction and Agricultural Collectivization System from Mid-1950s to 1978
6.3 Water Conservancy Construction Through Labor Accumulation
6.3.1 Number and Percentage of Labor Force Mobilized for Water Conservancy Construction
6.3.2 Mobilization System
6.3.3 Forced Labor Accumulation
Notes
References
7 Rural Finance: State Banks and Rural Credit Cooperatives in the Context of Fund Transfers
7.1 Formation of Financial Systems in Rural Areas
7.1.1 Development of Rural Finance Through State Banks
7.1.2 Spread of Rural Credit Cooperatives and Financial Services
7.2 Flow of Financial Resources in Rural Areas
7.2.1 Capital Flows in Rural Finance
7.2.2 Flow of Funds in State Banks
7.2.3 Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of Rural Finance on Agricultural Development
Notes
References
8 Heavy Industry: Heavy Industrialization and Its Evaluation
8.1 Historical Background Behind Heavy Industrialization
8.2 Development of Heavy Industry
8.2.1 The Five Year Plans
8.2.2 The “156 Projects”
8.2.3 The Great Leap Forward
8.2.4 Third Front Construction
8.3 Legacy and Evaluation of Heavy Industrialization
8.4 Another Legacy: Embryonic Reform and Opening-Up
8.4.1 Utilization of Foreign Equipment, Technology, and Funds
8.4.2 Exploration of SOE Management System
Notes
References
9 Light Industry: Socialist Industrialization and the Textile Industry
9.1 The Textile Industry before 1949
9.2 Socialist Industrialization Policy and the Textile Industry
9.2.1 Introduction of the Socialist Industrialization Policy
9.2.2 Impact on the Textile Industry
9.2.3 Contribution of the Textile Industry
9.3 The Reform and Opening-Up Policy and the Long-Term Development of the Textile Industry
References
10 Rural Industry: Policy on Five Small Industries with a Special Emphasis on the Fertilizer and Cement Industries
10.1 Fertilizer Industry as the Typical Case of Five Small Industries
10.1.1 Fertilizer Industry
10.1.2 Fertilizers in the Mao Era
10.1.3 Ammonia Production by Scale
10.1.4 Controversy over Small-scale Production
10.1.5 Controversy Described in China Central Archives
10.1.6 China’s Unique Development of Small Ammonia Technology
10.2 Change through the Reform and Opening-up Policy
10.2.1 Transition of AB Share
10.2.2 Peasants’ Preference for Urea
10.2.3 Conversion of AB Plants into Urea Plants
10.3 Cement Industry
10.3.1 Cement Industry in the Mao Era
10.3.2 Change through the Reform and Opening-up Policy
Notes
References
11 Chinese Societies During the Mao Era: Work and Life in the “Shanghai Small Third Front”
11.1 Isolated Societies During the Mao Era
11.2 The Construction of the Shanghai Small Third Front and Its Production
11.2.1 The Plan
11.2.2 Construction of Factories and Production
11.2.3 Difficulties and Withdrawal
11.3 Life in an Isolated Society
11.3.1 Marriage
11.3.2 Food Supply
11.3.3 Relationship with the Local Society
11.4 After the Withdrawal
References
Epilogue: What Are the Initial Conditions for the Reform and Opening-up?
E.1 What Are the Initial Conditions for Economic Development and Systemic Transition?1
E.2 What Has the Reform and Opening-up Era Inherited from the Traditional and Mao Eras?
E.3 How Should We Evaluate the Economic Institutions and Policies of the Mao Era?
References
(in Japanese)
(in Chinese)
(in English)
