An Examination of the Quality and Quantity of Various Forms of Capital in China

Yanan Wang ()
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Yanan Wang: Xiamen University

Chapter 11 in The Basic Theory of Chinese Economy, 2026, pp 73-79 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This section argues that multiple forms of capital—modern and precapitalist—coexisted in Republican China and that precapitalist forms often retained decisive influence instead of being subordinated to industrial development. For analytical clarity, it sets aside foreign capital and focuses on the period prior to the War of Resistance against Japan. It examines commercial capital, interest-bearing capital (usury and banking), and industrial capital as an interrelated structure. Shaped by a landlord economy and the tradability of land, commercial capital historically intertwined with landed property and tended to divert accumulation away from industrial transformation; under modernization it assumed new roles yet remained constrained by comprador dependence. Interest-bearing capital displayed a duality in which usury and banking overlapped and competed, while bank capital often retained usurious, fiscal, and commercial orientations owing to weak industrial foundations. Quantitatively, industrial capital accounted for a relatively small share of total capital, whereas commercial and financial capital were disproportionately large. This distribution reinforces the qualitative diagnosis that the autonomous expansion of commercial capital crowds out industrial development and reproduces structural imbalance.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-95-6330-2_11

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-95-6330-2_11

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