Modern China's national market formation and the Empire of Japan(Formation of capitalism in East Asia,PANEL DISCUSSION: 78th annual conference)

Abstract

This paper explores the structure of modern China's national market and its independence from the Empire of Japan. Although Japan dominated China's market and territory mainly in Manchuria, it failed to integrate the whole Chinese market into its empire. The reason is that China had established a market between the Yangtze River area and Shanghai, independent from the Empire of Japan. The economy of the Yangtze River area demanded industrial goods from Shanghai and also supplied raw materials, which the national industry needed. Furthermore, this area also supplied various raw materials needed by the world market aside from Japan. As long as this structure of trade relations was maintained, the Chinese market was able to attain sustainable growth independent of Japan. To integrate the Chinese economy's wealth into its empire, Japan had to bring both the internal and external trade structures under its control. But Japan's invasion into the Yangtze River area resulted in the destruction of the structure of China's trade relations. The recovery and formation of the Chinese national market was postponed until after the Japanese surrender.