1901On August 29th, the Qing government ordered the whole country to stop the martial arts imperial examination. 1 1 In September, all provinces were ordered to imitate Beiyang and Liangjiang to build armament schools. /kloc-in September of 0/2, all provinces in China were ordered to reduce the old army and train the "standing army". The compilation and training of the "new army" has been rolled out throughout the country.
In order to carry out the plan of training the "new army" in the whole country, the Qing government set up a training institute on 1903 12.4, which was responsible for the training of the Qing prince Yi Kuang, with Yuan Shikai as the training minister and Tie Liang as the assistant. The real power of the training office is in Yuan Shikai's hands. The Qing government also ordered all provinces to set up training institutes to train "new army" institutions for provincial leaders.
1904 In September, the Ministry of Training and the Ministry of Military Affairs authorized the training of "new army" in 36 towns across the country and promulgated the Measures for Army Schools.
1906165438+17 October, the Qing government changed the Ministry of War into the Ministry of War, incorporated the training department into it, and took Tie Liang as the minister to command the "new army" of the whole country in a unified way.
1in August, 907, the war department made a huge plan to train 36 towns of the "new army" nationwide. It is planned to train 1-2 towns in all provinces except Feng Jingen 4 and Sichuan 3 in 2-5 years. However, until the demise of the Qing Dynasty, only the guards of 14 town, 18 mixed concord 4 and 1 town were established, with about160,000 people.
The Qing government carried out the "New Deal" and trained the "new army". However, training needs huge funds, so raising salary became another "important policy" of the rulers in the late Qing Dynasty. In order to raise the salary, the Qing government did not hesitate to find excuses and searched in many ways.
From 1902, stamp duty is levied at the trading port, and house donation and shop donation are levied at Huguang; 1903, kiln donation and vehicle donation in Jilin; In other places, cattle donation, horse donation, salt merchants donation, gentry and rich households donation, as well as household registration tax, tax and so on. At the same time, the tax rate is also raised at will. Some of them are decided by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development to raise the tax rate publicly throughout the country, while others are raised at will by local governments, allowing local officials to increase their own taxes. Such "salary increase" has caused fiscal and taxation chaos and rampant corruption, which has brought unprecedented disasters to the working people. 1On September 7th, 903, the Qing government set up the Ministry of Commerce to encourage officials and businessmen to set up industrial and commercial enterprises. Then, a series of industrial and commercial laws and measures were promulgated to reward the industry, such as: Qing Commercial Law, Articles of Association of Chamber of Commerce, Concise Railway Articles of Association, Articles of Association for Rewarding China Company, Articles of Association for Mining Company, Articles of Association for Company Registration, Articles of Association for Pilot Banks, etc. These articles of association stipulate that the free development of industry is allowed, the establishment of industrial and commercial enterprises is rewarded, and the organization of chambers of commerce is encouraged. These regulations and practices are conducive to the development of national industry and commerce and the prosperity of social economy.
1906, the Ministry of Finance promulgated six clear measures to clean up the finances, which were responsible for unifying the revenues and expenditures of central and local government organs, coordinating the borrowing and repayment of foreign debts, assessing banks in various provinces, and stipulating penalties for overdue payment in various provinces. Minister of Education, Zaize, is also the minister in charge of supervising the salt policy, responsible for the implementation of the rights of administrative personnel in the national salt policy, and discussing the tax exemption and tax increase clauses in the 1902 Sino-British commercial agreement. In terms of the composition of modern financial budget, 1907 Zhao, an imperial consultant of Fuzhou Road, asked the central government to formulate the national budget. Finally, the Qing court compiled the first national budget in 19 10 for the first time.
19 10 promulgated Article 24 of the National Monetary Rules to draw the weight and fineness of silver coins and copper coins. However, because the total value of old coins in circulation at that time reached more than1500 million, the financial cost of recycling was beyond the government's affordability. Finally, the Qing court needs to pay in April 19 1 15.
From 1900 to 1905, the overall development of the railway is 3200 Li. Except for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway with a total length of 20 1km, which was built by China, all other railways were built by foreign countries with some shares. Another important content of the Qing government's "New Deal" was to abolish the imperial examination, set up schools and send overseas students.
190 1 On September 4th, the Qing government ordered that the academies in provincial capitals be changed into university halls, the provincial capitals and Zhili prefectures into middle schools, the counties into primary schools, and more schools were set up. On February 5, 65438, the regulations on imperial examination certificates were promulgated, which stipulated that school graduates could pass the examination to become Jinshi, Juren and Gong Sheng.
1902 February 13 announced measures to promote schools. /kloc-in August of 0/5, the charter of King James School was promulgated.
1904,65438+10, 13 On June 3rd, the Revision of School Rules was promulgated, which stipulated in detail the rules, regulations and management systems of schools at all levels and required them to be implemented nationwide in the form of decrees. Parallel to ordinary schools is professional education, including normal schools and various industrial schools, which has its own system in academic system and establishes a complete school system.
1September 2, 905, Emperor Guangxu summoned Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong, stopped the imperial examination, set up a school passbook, and ordered "to stop the imperial examination and spread learning", which finally abolished the imperial examination system that lasted for more than 1300 years in China history, and completely decoupled the imperial examination from school education. On February 6, 65438, the Qing court issued a decree to set up a school department, which is an institution specializing in school affairs in China. In the process of carrying out the "New Deal", the Qing government put together "rewarding study tours" and "changing studies to stop imperial examinations", requiring all provinces to raise funds to send students to study abroad and pay attention to special studies. For graduate students, they will be awarded backgrounds such as Jinshi and Juren respectively. Those who study abroad at their own expense are treated equally with those who send students.
In order to manage the work of international students in a unified way, the Qing government sent directors to Japan and Europe on June 1902, June 3 1 and June 1906 and June 2, respectively.
1903 10 The Qing government promulgated the "Regulations on Awards for Graduates Studying Abroad", stipulating that all Japanese students studying in China who have graduated from Japanese ordinary middle schools for five years and obtained excellent diplomas will be given eight public schools; Those who have graduated from institutions of higher learning directly under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and industrial schools with equivalent academic qualifications for three years and obtained excellent diplomas will be given a juren origin; Those who have an elective subject or a general diploma after graduation in a certain subject or several subjects of the college will be given a Jinshi background; Those who have graduated from a national university or an official school with equivalent academic qualifications for three years and obtained a bachelor's degree will be given an Hanlin background; Those who graduated with a doctorate in five years will be promoted to Hanlin in addition to their origins. At first, during the Westernization Movement, most international students planned to study in countries such as Britain, America and France. However, due to the financial constraints of the post-boxer indemnity government, most international students planned to study in Japan during the reform in the late Qing Dynasty. By 1907, the total number of students studying in Japan reached 15000. Reforming the official system is an important part of the Qing government's "New Deal", including "cutting redundancy", "reducing officials" and "stopping donations", and making some changes to the ruling institutions.
190 1 On July 24th, the Qing government abolished the Prime Minister's Office and established the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was the first of the six departments at that time.
1902 On February 24th, the Governor of Hedong was dismissed and the affairs were handed over to the Governor of Henan. On March 6th, James and Si Tong were dismissed.
On September 7th, 1903, the Ministry of Commerce was established.
19041February 12, the governors of Yunnan and Hubei provinces were dismissed, and the governors of Yunnan, Guizhou and Huguang took charge.
1September 4, 905, the magistrate of Fengtian was dismissed and the governor was in charge; Cut Feng Tianfu and change to study politics in the three northeastern provinces.
Set up patrol department. Set up a department to punish imperial academy. In addition to reducing and adding administrative agencies, the Qing government also ordered "stopping donations", "cutting bad regulations" and "fixing public expenses"
19019 September 200919, the Qing government announced that it would stop reporting donations to official positions.
1905 July 18 announced that it would stop donating money to Wuzhi. Promote the development of free economy
1895, 19 July, the Qing government issued an imperial edict: "According to Chinese and foreign official regulations, such as building railways, minting coins, building machines, opening mines, folding the south trough, reducing troops, creating postal services, training the army, reorganizing the navy, and establishing schools; Urgent need to raise training funds; Taking caring for businessmen and benefiting workers as the origin. This should be held in time. " Marked by this imperial edict, the economic policy of the Qing government changed from suppressing private capital, that is, depriving citizens of freedom of economic activities, to "caring for workers and benefiting enterprises", that is, trying to protect and support private capital. There are still many obstacles and difficulties, but on the whole, they are moving in this direction. At the same time, modern property ownership has been gradually established accordingly. The Civil and Criminal Procedure Law of the Qing Dynasty stipulates in the section of "articles sealed after judgment": "If the defendant's articles are sealed with sealed paper, if they are public property of a family, one point shall be sealed in the name of the defendant, and no other person's points shall be implicated." "All the following items are not included in the attachment allowance: first, what my wife owns. Second, my parents, brothers and sisters and their families. Third, what are my children and grandchildren proud of? " This shows that property ownership has changed from family or even family ownership to individual ownership. Although this provision is not only effective in litigation, but also takes some time to become a habit of the whole society, the emergence of these legal provisions means that the mainstream culture has begun to recognize the legitimacy of individual property rights.
From 1904 to 19 10, the number of factories and total investment greatly exceeded that of the previous generation. Before the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, 55 national industries were newly established from 1895 to 1898, with an investment of more than 1 10,000 yuan, with an average of13.75; 1904- 19 10 During the New Deal, there were 276 new factories with an investment of more than 10,000 yuan, with an average annual investment of 39.4, which was 2.87 times that of the former (Information on Modern Industrial History in China, Wang Jingyu, vol. 2, p. 878-9 19). Excluding purely official enterprises). This development is also reflected in the mining industry. From 1904 to 19 10, 48 new mines were built, more than any previous period. In addition, transportation, commerce, finance and so on have made remarkable progress. In agriculture, due to the increase of land area (my humble book "A Preliminary Study on the Development of Industry in the Late Qing Dynasty" and "On the North" No.3, 1985), the crop yield has been improved; The introduction of advanced agricultural technology and knowledge (Li Wenzhi's Materials of Modern Agricultural History in China, series 1, pp. 868-879) shows that China's agricultural production also has a modern color.
The greatest achievement of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty was economic freedom. It goes without saying that there is no freedom in the modern sense in traditional or medieval China. The freedom of the people of China began in the economic field. As far as traditional economic fields are concerned, China people can certainly run agriculture, commerce and handicrafts. However, there is an obstacle: restrictions on property ownership. The Great Qing Law inherits the tradition and clearly stipulates: "Where grandparents and parents are here, children and grandchildren will be beaten with a hundred sticks regardless of their property. Parents lose their relatives, brothers have no hukou, and the property is divided into 80. " The reason is: "grandparents and parents are here, and children and grandchildren are not allowed to have private wealth." If you are in mourning, your brother will still serve your relatives. If you don't establish a household registration and divide your property, you are unfilial and commit a crime of 180 sticks. Or let the book * * * wealth. This is a regulation that seriously suppresses the enthusiasm of enterprises. More seriously, the Qing government set up various obstacles for the development of the new economy. The outstanding performance is that all newly established industries, such as industry and commerce, transportation and finance, must be examined and approved, and monopoly privileges are often set accordingly, and private capital is not allowed to enter freely.
For example,/kloc-the main commodity of international trade in the 0/9th century is textiles. Together with opium, it was the main factor of China's foreign trade surplus in the19th century. In order to compete with foreign businessmen for profits, since the 1970s, the government and the opposition began to organize textile mills. 1890 Shanghai weaving was put into production, which is the first cotton textile factory run by China people. From 1876, when Li Hongzhang approved the preparation, it took 14 years after several twists and turns. 1880, in order to run such a factory, Li Hongzhang specially fought, and with the approval of the emperor, he gave the bureau a ten-year patent. "Only Chinese businessmen are allowed to set up joint-stock companies within ten years, and no other bureaus are allowed." 1888, Zhang Zhidong set up a weaving bureau in Guangdong, so he had to call Li Hongzhang to negotiate: "After reading Shenbao, the layout of Shanghai was approved by your majesty:' No other bureau is allowed within ten years'; Do you mean Shanghai in particular? Guangdong's official bureau is different from the commercial bureau; Moreover, the import of cloth is booming, which is beyond the scope of Shanghai Bureau. If Guangdong is used by Guangdong, I'm afraid it won't be given. When it does not infringe upon the interests of the Shanghai Bureau. Please reply quickly. " Li Hongzhang's answer is: "Guangdong has an official bureau, which is far from Shanghai, so there seems to be no harm." According to the rule of "no other games", the rhetoric of both sides can't stand scrutiny. Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong were the two most powerful governors at that time. In the atmosphere of society ruled by man and officialdom culture, contradictions were successfully resolved.
But if the problem is not really solved, others will not be so lucky to run a business. Guo Songtao was the first diplomatic envoy of the Qing Empire and a second-rate official. After retiring and returning to China, he said this in his letter to Li Hongzhang: "The convenience of ships is well known to the world. Stupid people, like Hunan people, have learned how to know their own benefits. So, ten years ago, the resistance was in the gentry; In the past ten years, it has been the government that has blocked the difficulties. Every three petitions ... people are not allowed to build anything. "The third petition was organized by Guo Songtao and has raised more than 20,000 yuan, but this shipping company still can't do it!
However, due to China's traditional concept, the distinction between public and private is regarded as the difference between good and evil; In addition, the enlightenment, which has been repeatedly banned, is far from completing its historical task; The extreme importance of economic freedom has not been deeply understood by intellectuals. This left a curse for future repetition.
These two examples are universal. In the final analysis, this is an institutional problem: traditional China has no economic freedom. So at that time, all walks of life had to run a new economy, and they all encountered difficulties in official approval.
If 1865 argued about whether to learn from the west and strive for self-improvement, the Qing government argued for 30 years before reaching such a conclusion. More importantly, after the failure of six internal and external wars since the Opium War, especially the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the economic policy of the Qing government had to be greatly adjusted. In the words of a widely circulated memorial, which was approved and forwarded by the imperial court at that time, it was: "Today, Confucius and Mencius are resurrected, and there is no way to govern the country except to be rich and strong, not to imitate the western laws, and there is no way to be rich and strong. In other words, life and death forced the autocratic government to relax its control and let the people gain a certain degree of economic freedom. However, this right was legalized after the promulgation of Concise Articles of Association of Chamber of Commerce, General Rules for Merchants and Company Law in early 1904. It stipulates that "where a company is established and registered with the Ministry of Commerce, all contracts, rules and articles of association of the company must be submitted to the Ministry of Commerce for the record. "As we all know, just like international practice, business enterprises only need to register.
Modernization of legal system in China
1925 After the establishment of the Guangzhou National Government, especially after 1927 became the national political power, the legal process in China was reversed by the Kuomintang's full implementation of "party standard" in all fields of China, including legislation and justice. However, its civil law, criminal law and other basic legal texts still largely inherited the achievements of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. Their autocratic rule was realized in two other ways: one was to enact another law (such as the Constitution of the Republic of China during the political training period and the Regulations on Emergency Crimes against the State during the Counter-insurgency period). ), obliterating all the rights that modern citizens should have. The second is to establish secret police (special agents) organs that are enemies of the people and strictly control the words and deeds of citizens. Scouts, Zhongtong, the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party of the Kuomintang and Party propaganda departments at all levels are the most notorious. They created a system in which the ruling party directly checked and clamped down freedom of speech and academic freedom, hoping to "unify national thinking" with one-party principle. China's anti-Japanese base areas and later liberated areas led by the * * * production party also used the National Government's "Six Laws Quanshu" to handle cases. Until mid-February of 1949, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ordered "contempt and criticism" of western "anti-people laws" and abolished the "six laws" of the Kuomintang. After the "judicial reform" in the early 1950s, the 30-year history was broken. However, in the past 20 years, legislation and judicature began to quietly return to the new tradition initiated by the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty.
Modernization of political institutions
Politically, great changes have taken place in the political system of the late Qing Dynasty. Before the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing government was basically a feudal regime. Great changes have taken place during the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. This change is not only manifested in the change of the Prime Minister's Office to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before 1906, but also in the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce, the Training Department, the Inspection Department and the Academic Department. Also reflected in the official system re-established in June 1906 1 1. In addition to the Cabinet and the Military Department, the newly established or renamed ones are: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Military Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Ministry of Navy, Military Advisory Office, Advisory Committee and Audit Bureau. At this point, although the Qing regime is still half new and half old, it is the beginning of the Qing regime entering modern times.
Modernization of China's Army
The New Army is China's first effort to establish a truly modern army. It is an important page in China's modern military history and has a great influence on the military system, operations, training and establishment of China's army in the future. During the Opium War, the Eight Banners army, which was once brave and good at fighting, was vulnerable under the coordinated tactics of western powers and the attack of new-style infantry guns. The ratio of casualties between Qing soldiers and British soldiers actually reached 600 1. The painful reality forced the Qing rulers to wake up from the beautiful dream of "de-China" and began the Westernization Movement of "learning from foreigners and mastering their skills". However, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing army was defeated even though it was equipped with a considerable number of advanced western weapons, including Mao Se rifles, which were more advanced than the Japanese. The reason is that the Qing army mostly mixed ancient muskets (even shotgun and rifle) with modern rifles with different calibers, and few troops were equipped with unified modern weapons. Once the battle starts, the logistics supply is full of loopholes, with guns but no bullets and no guns. A reporter from The New York Times, USA, reported more directly: "Apart from thousands of elite troops trained by foreign officers, most of the officers and men of the Qing Dynasty lived 300 years ago, and even had modern weapons in their hands.". The rulers of the Qing dynasty finally realized that the combat effectiveness of the army came not only from advanced weapons and equipment, but also from establishing an advanced military system. After reflecting on the victory factors of the Japanese army, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty realized that the Japanese army "specialized in learning western methods to win" and that "the military system for generations was temporary, and it was impossible to imitate ancient medicine to cure new diseases and spend the summer to keep out the cold." Therefore, the Qing government tried to gradually introduce western-style military system and training and set up western-style military schools. At the same time, the old army was ordered to learn foreign exercises, and western instructors were hired to train and even manage the army. These Qing troops who received western-style military training and used western-style weapons and equipment were called the new army. Among them, the Dingwu Army of Beiyang and the Self-improvement Army of Nanyang opened a new river in this respect.
The construction of the new army is an important link in the military history of China in the late Qing Dynasty. Although its final development direction is not consistent with the expectations of the initiators of this military reform, the construction of the new army has created many precedents in the modern military process in China and is an important progress in China's military modernization. There are essential differences between the construction of the new army and the Westernization Movement. The Westernization Movement is "learning as the body and western learning as the purpose". It does not recognize the leading position of western military thought and system at all ideologically. It fantasizes that simply buying foreign guns and guns from western powers and replacing broadswords, spears and earth guns in the hands of the Qing army can become a first-class army, but it does not make any changes to the military system that really determines its combat effectiveness, resulting in the Qing army still having enough strength to suppress domestic revolutionary movements. However, in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese army, which also experienced military reform from the West, was still not an opponent. Therefore, the Westernization Movement did not reform the army in essence, and the combat effectiveness of the army was not greatly improved. On the other hand, the construction of the new army has brought about profound changes in the military system, weapons and equipment, and the training of officers and men. The modern military department, military academy, military band, modern military establishment, logistics system and the concept of "national defense force" are all changes that the conservative forces of the Qing government dare not imagine. A series of changes have played a very obvious role in improving the combat effectiveness of the new army. In the early days of the Revolution of 1911, most of the old armies that were dominant in numbers faced new armies. In the end, the Southern New Army revolted smoothly under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing, and the Northern New Army forced the palace under the command of Yuan Shikai, which gave a fatal blow to the Qing Dynasty. After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, the western-style military system of the new army, after further improvement and transformation, has always been the military system of the national government, and some military systems have even been adopted and developed by the people's army led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), which has far-reaching significance and influence.
Education in Xue Xin is booming.
In terms of ideology and culture, through the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, the changes in this area are very prominent. First, it ended the history of the imperial examination system. Second, there was an upsurge in running schools in the late Qing Dynasty. Due to the call of the Qing government for running a school, the promulgation of the school charter and the abolition of the imperial examination system, new schools have mushroomed and reached an unprecedented level. Thirdly, due to the orders of the Qing government and the efforts of local officials and individuals, the upsurge of studying abroad appeared rapidly. From 1905 to 1906, there were more than 8,000 students studying in Japan alone (10000), which was more than 100 times higher than before the New Deal. Fourth, political and ideological circles have also changed. With the development of "Preparatory Constitutionalism" in the late Qing Dynasty, some ideas of the western bourgeoisie were spread to a certain extent, and a ray of democracy penetrated into China's feudal autocratic thought.
The rise of the national bourgeoisie
In terms of class relations, great changes have taken place in the late Qing Dynasty. With the development of China's national capitalism, the strength of China's national bourgeoisie has obviously increased. Especially at this time, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises with national capital have emerged, which has obviously enhanced the strength of the middle and lower classes of China's national bourgeoisie. At the same time, the working class in China increased from about 65,438+10,000 people before the Sino-Japanese War to more than 660,000 people before the Revolution of 1911.
Promote the democratic revolution
On the relationship between the New Deal and the democratic revolution, the New Deal promoted the outbreak of the revolution. The New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty and the bourgeois democratic revolution were two movements that influenced each other: the development of the democratic revolution touched the feudal autocratic rule of the Qing Dynasty, so the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty had the motive to divert people's attention and destroy the revolution. In this sense, the democratic revolutionary activities promoted the implementation of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. But at the same time, we should also pay attention to another objective fact, that is, the development of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty objectively promoted the development of the bourgeois democratic revolution. The main manifestations are as follows: (1) the development of national capitalism in the late Qing Dynasty provided an economic foundation for the bourgeois democratic revolution; Due to the growth of the national bourgeoisie, it provided a class foundation for the bourgeois democratic revolution; The upsurge of running schools and studying abroad has produced many young students and intellectuals, which is the mass foundation of the democratic revolution; Due to the emergence of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty and the shift of the focus of the revolutionary party's work to the new army, the new army gradually became the grave digger of the Qing government and the position of the democratic revolution. Increase burden
In order to carry out the New Deal, the Qing government had to find ways to raise funds, which increased the burden on the people, made the life of working people in China poorer and made social contradictions more acute. In order to raise funds, the Qing government had to apportion downward, which was the main source of funds for the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. For example, the Qing government issued two imperial edicts on February 24th, 1903, sending 9.6 million taels of silver to the provinces every year (Records of Guangxu East China, page 5116-5117). The Qing government sent money downward, which was squeezed from the working people by local governments by raising the prices of some commodities. For example, in Zhili, 1902, Yuan Shikai planned to "sell wine 100 Jin per household, draw donations as 1600 Wen, and allow the price increase 16 Wen per Jin beyond the regular price." ("Guangxu Chaodong Lu Hua", (5) Page 4925) In addition, many new taxes have appeared, such as donating grain, house, new, school, shop, paste, unified and apportioned.
The Rise of Beiyang Warlords
The rise of Yuan Shikai and Beiyang Warlords was another evil result of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. As we all know, Yuan Shikai started his career by training soldiers at Tianjin Railway Station, and made his fortune by selling out reformists and imperialism and suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. During the New Deal, 1902, the Qing government ordered Yuan Shikai to train the Beijing Banner Army. By the end of 1906, the troops of six towns in Beiyang were in his hands. Therefore, in the late Qing Dynasty, Yuan Shikai was famous and could influence state affairs. The rise of Yuan Shikai and Beiyang warlords is a great cancer of this new policy.
Economic aggression of great powers
During the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, the announcement of some economic policies objectively created convenient conditions for imperialism to export capital. 19 The end of the 20th century was a major turning point in the social and economic development of modern China: the imperialist economic aggression against China accelerated, the national crisis was unprecedented, and the invasion mode of western powers changed from commodity export to capital export, and the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social and economic form of modern China finally formed and further deepened. Commodity export, as the name implies, means that western powers dump industrial products and plunder raw materials, including opium and products produced by their own handicraft factories, to China, or set up factories at trading ports (rarely) to exploit the people of China by using China's cheap labor and raw materials. Commodity export precedes capital export. During the period from 1840 to 1895 signed by treaty of shimonoseki, most of the products were exported. Its essence is to control the colonial market. Capital export refers to using surplus capital to invest in other countries, such as setting up factories in China, or using sufficient capital to obtain railway rights (stipulated in the Sino-French Treaty) and mining rights in China. Or use extra capital as a loan (for example, the Qing government was unable to pay the 450 million taels of compensation stipulated in the Xin Chou Treaty, so it had to borrow foreign debts from imperialist countries with customs duties and other taxes as a guarantee). Its essence is to control the economic lifeline of the colony through capital (the crisis is deeper and more serious).
In the view of western powers, instead of waiting for the conservative Qing government to be overthrown by the revolution, it is better to urge the Qing government to carry out reforms to eliminate the revolution, so as to safeguard and even expand its vested interests in China. Therefore, before and after the signing of the "Xin Chou Treaty", the powers repeatedly put forward reform suggestions to the Qing government. From this point of view, the Qing government finally carried out the New Deal, which to some extent included factors catering to the powers. After the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, the development of national economy needed a lot of money. Zhang Jian was a representative figure who advocated the theory of saving the country by industry in the late Qing Dynasty. He put forward specific measures to develop industry, such as "cotton-iron doctrine" and the development of foreign capital. Cotton iron doctrine refers to the development of national industry driven by cotton textile industry and steel industry, and the formation of national industrial system. He also advocated the use of foreign capital in the form of joint venture, loan and agency to solve the problem of funds needed for the development of national industries. However, imperialism does not allow China to develop capitalism independently. It was Britain, Germany, France and the United States that used loans as bait to coerce the Qing government to nationalize the railway, which intensified the contradiction between the Qing government and the national bourgeoisie.
Strengthen the feudal state machine
During the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, training the new army and running police affairs strengthened the state apparatus of feudal dictatorship, which was beneficial for the Qing government to suppress the people's resistance struggle. Because at the end of the Qing dynasty, the old army of the Qing dynasty had lost its fighting capacity, and the new army trained by it had obviously improved its fighting capacity. In addition, the police set up in various places strengthened the investigation and suppression of the people's resistance struggle, which was also a bad result of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. economic meaning
From 190 1 to the founding of the Republic of China, there were many unfavorable factors restricting economic development: powerful privileged foreign capital; Heavy taxes such as lijin; Corruption of government officials caused by the lag of political system reform; Social unrest caused by unexpected events such as the Russo-Japanese War; Wait a minute. But the national economy still has a good performance. During the period of 1895- 19 13, the national capital industry developed at an average annual rate of 15%, which was slightly higher than the period when the great powers had no time to look east during the First World War. Other economic undertakings have also developed smoothly. The main one is that the government will no longer foolishly adhere to the monopoly economy of government-run or government-supervised commerce, foster and reward private capital, and establish a free market economic system; Coupled with low wages and raw materials; Broad market; These favorable factors are enough to offset the negative factors brought by other institutional defects (such as corruption and extremely low government efficiency).
From the early years of the Republic of China to the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1937, there were constant wars and social unrest. But on the whole, the economy continues to develop at a high speed. During the period of 19 12~ 1936, China's industry grew at an average annual rate of 9.2%, despite several world-wide economic crises, especially the one that began at 1929. 19 12~ 1920, even higher than 13.8%. The reason is that the Beiyang warlord government inherited the economic freedom system of the New Deal and improved it. 1927 after the Kuomintang gained state power, it began to foster feudal comprador bureaucratic capital, but it was not enough to monopolize the national economy.
Humanistic significance
What deserves more attention is the significance of economic freedom to human liberation. When the translation talks about the economic freedom in the west and "matters related to people's livelihood and safety are generally left to the people, without asking them", Yan Fu's emotional department wrote: "After reading this, you will know the difference between the East and the West, and the national qualifications are also very different. King of Gacy, dedicated to the king; And the emperor of China, as a monarch, and as a teacher. And its society, patriarchal society, so it is also the parents of people after the Yuan Dynasty ... down to guarding the slaughter, it has the responsibility of being the monarch of heaven and earth ... The responsibility of the dead monarch is endless, and the people's ability is developing for no reason ... And it is also in the countryside, with no handles of size and no right to be taken away. " Without economic freedom, everything can only be done according to the will of the government, and civil rights will lose their foundation. In the New Culture Movement, Chen Duxiu also reiterated the extreme importance of "making an independent living and becoming an independent personality".