Commercialization and Agricultural Development
Central and Eastern China, 1870–1937

This book provides an assessment of China's recent reform of the foreign trade system and discusses the benefits of such reform.

Loren Brandt (Author)

9780521022866, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 November 2005

248 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.5 cm, 0.384 kg

"Brandt's methodologically sophisticated interpretation therefore is an important addition to the debates in Chinese agrarian history and shows the power as well as the limitations of the econometric approach." Robert Y. Eng, American Historical Review

Drawing on material previously available only in Chinese, this book provides an assessment of China's recent reform of the foreign trade system and discusses the benefits of such reform in terms of higher growth for its economy. The result suggests that the benefits from foreign trade reforms have been reduced by the lack of responsiveness among China's businesses to changes in domestic and foreign market conditions, and by the tendency for foreign trade to aggravate the inflation problem.

Tables
Figures and maps
Acknowledgments
Weights and measures
1. Introduction
2. Chinese agriculture and the international economy
3. Price formation, marketing, and output in agriculture
4. The accelerated commercialization of agriculture
5. Productivity change and incomes in the rural sector
6. The distributive consequences of commercialization
7. Conclusion
Notes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Agricultural science [TVB], Development studies [GTF], Regional studies [GTB]