This paper aims to confirm the historical process of establishing the official statistical system
in prewar China. This is of great significance when we use the government statistics particularly
for the prewar period, since perfection degree of the statistical system reflect the effectiveness and
reliability of those statistics. We clarified the collecting and editing system of statistical information
in central and provincial statistical offices since late Qing China. This is realized by mainly
examining government laws and regulations, detailed information available from the periodical
Tongji Yuebao (The Statistical Monthly), and historical records of government organization. The
cases of major statistics for population, agriculture and the manufacturing industry are confirmed
in the concrete context.
We obtained the following findings: (1)The strength of administrative power in the Central
Government was crucial for establishing the official statistical system. In other words, the
construction of the national statistical organization was greatly dependent upon control power of
the Central Government over local governments; (2)In this sense, the system of Chinese statistical
organization was almost established in the middle of 1930’s. This means that the compilation of
statistical information was gradually under the charge of professional staff in statistical offices, and
that the quality of government statistics was improved a lot since this period.
View full abstract