China during the Great Depression: Market, State, and the World Economy, 1929–1937 (Harvard East Asian Monographs) - Softcover

Shiroyama, Tomoko

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674036174 ISBN 13: 9780674036178

Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center, 2009

Synopsis

The Great Depression was a global phenomenon: every economy linked to international financial and commodity markets suffered. The aim of this book is not merely to show that China could not escape the consequences of drastic declines in financial flows and trade but also to offer a new perspective for understanding modern Chinese history. The Great Depression was a watershed in modern China. China was the only country on the silver standard in an international monetary system dominated by the gold standard.

Fluctuations in international silver prices undermined China’s monetary system and destabilized its economy. In response to severe deflation, the state shifted its position toward the market from laissez faire to committed intervention. Establishing a new monetary system, with a different foreign-exchange standard, required deliberate government management; ultimately the process of economic recovery and monetary change politicized the entire Chinese economy. By analyzing the impact of the slump and the process of recovery, this book examines the transformation of state-market relations in light of the linkages between the Chinese and the world economy.

About this title

About the Author:

Tomoko Shiroyama is Professor of Economic History in the Graduate School of Economics at Hitotsubashi University.

Review:

“This is the first readily accessible, comprehensive account of the impact of the 20th century's most serious economic crisis on Republican China, whose experience of the global downturn took a very singular path.”―R. P. Gardella, Choice

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0674036174
• ISBN 13: 9780674036178
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 350