The distribution and structure of China's economic geography after 1840

The change of industrial structure and layout in China before 1949 can be bounded by 1840 Opium War, which was preceded by slave society and feudal society, followed by semi-feudal and semi-colonial period.

I. Industrial structure and layout of slave society and feudal society

As early as five or six thousand years ago, the Chinese nation began to produce agriculture and animal husbandry. The Yellow River Basin is the earliest and largest agricultural production center in China, and it is also one of the most developed areas in ancient world history. The activity center of early Han people was in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Eastern Han Dynasty, agricultural production expanded westward to Huangshui Valley in Qinghai, Hexi Corridor in Gansu and a few oases in Xinjiang, southwest to Chengdu Plain, and south to Jianghuai Plain and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. From Han Dynasty to Song Dynasty, in the process of internal integration of the Chinese nation, there were several large-scale population migrations to the south. Not only the population and economy in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River developed rapidly, but also immigrants poured into the Pearl River Basin, and the economic center of the whole country moved southward from the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In the Ming Dynasty, the immigrants from the lower reaches of the Yellow River to the southeast of Northeast China increased greatly, and the agricultural reclamation in the Liaohe River basin also developed greatly.

The ancient capital of China has changed many times, from Xi to Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Beijing. This historical order not only marks the transfer of political center, but also marks the transfer of economic center, and it is also an important symbol of the change of industrial layout in ancient China.

In the long history, from the perspective of the world, China is a closed country and a mysterious big country. The Silk Road in its heyday was once an important trade channel to Central Asia during the Han and Tang Dynasties, and also an important channel for cultural exchanges. Since the Tang Dynasty, especially in the Ming Dynasty, port cities such as Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Mingzhou (Ningbo), Guangzhou and Yangzhou along the southeast coast of China have opened their maritime portals and played a role in communicating with China and foreign countries. However, the closeness of feudal society limited their role, which was incompatible with the status of the great eastern countries. Major technological inventions, such as compass, papermaking, printing and gunpowder, played an important role in the formation of a unified multi-ethnic country in China and the development of Chinese culture, but did not cause the industrial revolution like that in Western Europe. Ancient history has fully proved that economic and cultural development is relatively fast in any relatively open period.

In the long-term feudal economic development, more than 50 nationalities including Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, Hui, Zhuang and Uygur jointly developed the motherland. The vast majority of ethnic minorities are located in border areas, mainly engaged in animal husbandry, fishing, hunting, farming and other operations; The Han nationality is rich in cultivation, mainly distributed in the eastern coastal areas and inland plains and basins. The rise and fall and integration of all ethnic groups have formed a unified Chinese nation, and it is also a process of forming a unified whole economically. The Han nationality is an advanced main ethnic group in economy, culture and population, which is an important foundation for the formation of a great eastern country and the economic development of China. Due to the different natural conditions in different places and the different development history of various ethnic groups, the industrial types and economic development levels of various ethnic groups are also very different, and the regional differences in industrial layout are quite obvious. The Han nationality has a large area, superior natural conditions and the highest level of economic development.

Large-scale water conservancy projects such as the Grand Canal and Dujiangyan, handicraft production such as copper smelting, ironmaking, ceramics, embroidery, sugar making, tea making and paper making, and concentrated production areas of grain, sericulture and fruit. , mostly in Han areas. The North China Plain, the plains and deltas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Sichuan Basin and the Pearl River Delta are densely populated areas with developed agriculture and handicrafts. However, despite the obvious regional economic differences, the self-sufficient natural economy is still the common feature of industries all over the country, and the commodity economy is underdeveloped, mainly based on self-production and self-marketing.

At the end of feudal society and after the middle of Ming Dynasty, capitalism began to sprout in China, and the commodity production of agriculture and handicrafts also developed considerably. Handicraft industry has emerged production centers of textile, tea making, sugar making, rice milling and ceramics, such as sericulture and silk weaving in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, cotton planting and textile industry in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the North China Plain, sugarcane sugar industry in Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan Province, tea industry in Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang, and ceramics industry in Jingdezhen, Yixing and Liling. But from the national point of view, the self-sufficient economy is dominant, and the commodity economy is not dominant. The regional division of labor based on commodity exchange is still in its infancy. The closed-door policy restricts the development of capitalist elements and the transformation of industrial layout. The connection between regions is mainly "official horse post road", and the means of transportation is "south boat and north horse". Although there are a number of ancient cities in the mainland, such as Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Xi 'an, Chengdu, Wuchang, Changsha and Hangzhou, large economic centers have not yet formed, and most of them are political and cultural centers. Although coastal ports and cities appeared in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Mingzhou, Wenzhou and other places, they experienced ups and downs and developed slowly due to the "closed door" policy in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

Second, the semi-feudal and semi-colonial industrial structure and layout

When the world has entered the highest stage of capitalism-the period of imperialism, it is impossible for China to be isolated from the world for a long time. Hundreds of years of closed-door policy have left China behind. When the imperialist powers all pointed the finger at China to carve up their spheres of influence, the country was swept away, China gradually became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, and industrial development and layout entered a new stage.

Under the oppression of imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and feudalism, China's industry developed slowly, and its dependence on foreign countries was great, and its industrial structure was uncoordinated. Despite the emergence of modern industry and transportation, the degree of agricultural commercialization continued to deepen. Coupled with the destruction of years of war, industrial development is very unstable. Mainly manifested in the following four characteristics:

(a) Slow industrial development

The appearance of modern industry in China began with the "Westernization Movement". Since the 65438+1960s, a number of "government-run", "government-run" and "business-run" enterprises such as machinery, coal mines, iron smelting, petroleum, copper-silver-lead ore, silk reeling, printing, weaving, paper making, matches and flour have appeared in coastal and a few inland cities. The imperialists also invested and built factories in coastal and inland ports to control China's modern industry. Due to the competition and negative influence between imperialist countries, domestic disunity and warlord scuffle, War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and civil revolutionary war, the modern industrial development in China was extremely slow. In 1949, among the main industrial products in China, except for raw coal, which only accounted for 1.98% of the world's total, the rest only accounted for less than 1%.

In agriculture, although China has special commodity areas such as cotton, soybean, silkworm, tobacco, tea and eggs, due to the competition in the international capitalist market, the production is extremely unstable and the rural economic level is very low. In the highest year in history (1930), the grain output was only l50O billion Jin, which dropped from 1949 to 65438+.

The development of modern transportation in China is also very slow. During the 73 years from 1876 to 1949, the first railway in Shanghai, China only built 2 1800 kilometers, and the railway density was less than O.23 kilometers/100 square kilometers. The inland navigation mileage is only 73,600 kilometers, and more than half of the counties have no cars. Civil aviation routes are only about 1 1,000 kilometers. Primitive wooden boats, ox carts, wagons, trolleys and even backpacks are still the main modes of transportation in China.

The emergence of modern industries and ports has promoted the development of cities. Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Dalian, Hankou and Shenyang have developed rapidly and become new economic centers. The proportion of urban population to the total population is only 10.6%, and the level of urbanization is very low.

(B) the external dependence of the industry

This is not only reflected in the imperialist control of China's economic lifeline, but also in its dependence on the capital market. In l936, the total investment of imperialist countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States in China accounted for more than 70% of China's total industrial and commercial investment. Foreign capital monopolizes 86% of the country's pig iron production, 88% of steel production, 56% of coal production and 76% of electricity generation. By 1944, foreign capital monopolized almost all industrial sectors. Modern transportation has been controlled by foreign capital from the beginning. 193 1 year, foreign-controlled railways accounted for 84.3% of the national railway length, and 1937 increased to 9.7%. Although agriculture is still dominated by small-scale peasant economy, due to the deepening of commercialization, imperialism has plundered and planted China's agriculture, which is also under the control of foreign capital.

The control of the world market on China's economic development is more obvious. On the one hand, industrial products and agricultural products from imperialist countries flood the market, and the industrial products imported every year range from foreign nails, matches and foreign cloth to machinery and equipment, among which grain is heavily dependent on imports, accounting for1/5 of the total annual import value during the period before the Anti-Japanese War; On the other hand, China is an imperialist supplier of raw materials and a cheap labor market, and China's economy is bound by the world capitalist market and is in a dependent position.

(C) One-sided industrial structure

This is mainly manifested in the imbalance between industry and agriculture, between the severity of agriculture and within various departments. In the total output value of industry and agriculture, agriculture accounts for a large proportion, and industry, as the leading sector of the national economy, is very weak. From 65438 to 0949, 70% of China's total industrial and agricultural output value was used for agriculture, and only 30% was used for industry. In the total industrial output value, light industry accounts for 73.6% and heavy industry accounts for 26.4%. The ratio of agriculture, light and heavy is 70: 22: 8. This proportional relationship shows that China is still a backward agricultural country.

The internal structure of agriculture and industry is also extremely uncoordinated. From the agricultural point of view, although China has vast mountains, grasslands and vast rivers, lakes and seas, in the agricultural sector structure, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing and sideline industries account for a small proportion, accounting for only110 of the output value of cultivated land, while planting accounts for a large proportion in agriculture. Of the total agricultural output value 1949, planting accounted for 82.5%, and animal husbandry, forestry, fishery and sideline accounted for 12.4%, 6% and 4.3% respectively.

From the industrial internal structure, the output value of 1949' s heavy industry only accounts for 26.4% of the total industrial output value, which is mainly the primary processing industry of raw materials in the mining industry, while the output value of the machine manufacturing industry that provides materials and technical equipment for various sectors of the national economy is very small. Cars, tractors, watches and other products can not be manufactured, but can only serve the assembly and maintenance of imported machines.

(D) unbalanced industrial distribution

The industries in old China were concentrated in the coastal areas, and the coastal areas were concentrated in several big cities controlled by foreign capital and their surrounding areas, which was also one of the characteristics of the industrial layout in old China.

Under the control of Japanese imperialism, southern industrial zones including Shenyang, Anshan, Fushun, Benxi and Dalian have been formed in the northeast of China. In its 1943 main industrial products, the output of raw coal accounts for 50% of the total national output, pig iron accounts for 88%, steel accounts for 93%, machinery accounts for 95%, electricity accounts for 78% and cement accounts for 66%. With Shanghai as the center, the Yangtze River Delta, including Wuxi, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, Nantong and Hangzhou, is the most concentrated area of light industry in China, with textile, flour, cigarettes, matches, egg processing and other industries accounting for more than half of the country. North China is centered on Tianjin, including Beijing, Tanggu, Tangshan and Qinhuangdao along the Beining Railway. With Qingdao as the center, textile, food, coal, iron ore and other enterprises have been established along the Ji Jiao Railway, including Boshan, Weifang and Jinan, initially forming two industrial zones. Located on the southern coast of China, Guangzhou has always been an important commercial city and a manufacturing center of silk and handicrafts.

There are only a few small industrial cities in the mainland, such as Wuhan, Chongqing, Taiyuan and Kunming, which are mainly engaged in metallurgy, machinery and textiles.

There are many reasons for the imbalance of industrial distribution between the east and the west or between the coast and the mainland, as well as the differentiation of production areas, including natural conditions, economy, politics, nationality, history and so on.

Judging from the changes of industrial layout in old China in the past hundred years, social and humanistic reasons play a decisive role. It is precisely because the imperialist aggression mainly takes the coastal area as the bridgehead and base area, and at the same time, the China bourgeoisie, which is highly dependent on foreign countries, mainly takes the coastal area as the activity center, opening commercial ports, building factories, repairing railways and developing commercial agricultural areas, thus forming an extremely unbalanced industrial layout between the coastal area and the mainland.

In addition, the economic plunder and political oppression policies of the ruling class in past dynasties also hindered the normal development of economy and culture in minority areas and aggravated the imbalance of industrial layout. Changing the deformed industrial layout left over from history is an important historical task after the founding of New China.