“Bankers Are Stingy?” Re-Examining Stock Exchanges and Public Debt in Prewar Shanghai (1920s-1930s)

Abstract

This review article surveys new studies of China’s economy in the early twentieth century that have been published in both China and the West. It analyses the nuances that we find in these recently published studies and how those might improve our conventional understanding of the era, with particular emphasis on the link between fiscal revenue and stock-exchanges. First, a detailed introduction treats the evolution, beginning in the nineteenth century, of Shanghai’s segmented stock exchanges in the context of wider global currents. Section two reprises the still common notion that heavy domestic borrowing by the Nationalist (Kuomintang, or GMD) government in the 1920s–1930s forestalled industrialization. Section three discusses at length the degree to which Chinese banks in that period may be seen as merely a GMD conduit of borrowing. Chinese banks were probably more conducive to Shanghai’s industrialization than is usually acknowledged, and they also played a key role in stabilizing China’s monetary environment well beyond their perceived focus on managing public debt. But more evidence needs to come to light, and this article sets out the areas in which future research might advance our knowledge. The conclusion will underscore how the various findings of scholars might, as a whole, remould current conceptions.

Keywords

Shanghai / Kuomintang (GMD) / stock exchanges / public debt

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2014 Higher Education Press and Brill