From Free Trade to Controlled Trade -- A Study of Ma YInchu's Trade Thoughts of Protecting the National Industry before the Anti-Japanese War

Abstract

This dissertation is a treatise which attempts to approach Ma Yinchu's thoughts of developing national industry from the angle of trade protection. The present dissertation believes that, from the beginning of WOrld War I to the eve of World War II, Ma Yinchu favoured expanding production for the purpose of strengthening the country and enriching the people. He strongly advocated protecting and developing the national industry and appeared in the economic circles in China as a spokesman of the national bourgeoisie. Ma Yinchu was strongly influenced by the idea of saving the nation by engaging in industry in his early years. During the period of his college study, realizing that the national minor-and medium-sized enterprises were not equal to the competition from the western countries, Ma Yinchu maintained the merging and acquisition of small enterprises, the expansion of production and the reduction of the production cost in order to compete with the western goods.In the period of World War I, especially in its later stage, Ma Yinchu established ties with the circles of capitalists in Jiangsu and Zhejian provinces, preaching extreme free trade and free competition to make room for the development of national bourgeoisie. In 1923 when the westem goods poured into China, Ma was in favour of the acquisition of the small- and medium-sized enterprises by the national bourgeoisie and against the extreme tariff protectionism,putting forward a moderate tariff protection. In the period, Ma Yinchu experienced a change from the boycott of the foreign goods to the maintenance of the autonomy of the national bourgeoisie. Afer his hopes were destroyed, he fell back on the Kuomintang's govemment, placing his ideal of protecting the national bourgeoisie on the regime of Kuomintang. In the 1930s, faced with flow of westem goods and the aggression of Japan, he actively preached the moderate controlled foreign goods, the development of national capitals and restriction of free competition to accelerate the development of national capitals on the one hand and prevent the intensification of class struggle brought about by the capital monopoly in China on the other. The author believes that, the dual character of China's national bourgeoisie cast die for the dual character of Ma Ynchu's thoughts of industrial protection. It is no doubt that Ma Yinchu's proposal of protecting the national bourgeoisie has its merits, but owing to the limpness of the national bourgeoisie and particularly to the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the working class, Ma Yinchu dared not and could not put forward any thoughts of industrial protection which was based on the democratic revolution. His propositions, instead of bringing about the prosperity of the national capital group, became the best pretext of plundering the national capitals by the bureaucrat-comprador's capital.

Alternate abstract:

本文是一篇从保护贸易角度探讨马寅初发展民族工业思想的专题论文。笔者以为，第一次世界大战开始到第二次世界大战爆发前，马寅初主张用大量生产的办法达到富国强民的目的。因此，他要求保护和发达民族大工业，以民族资产阶级上层利益代言人身份活跃于中国经济学界。马寅初是在西方资本主义不断侵略中国的刺激下，在民族资产阶级“实业救国”思想的影响下，走上了以发展工业实现国家富强道路的。由于在大学学习期间，他认为发达民族中小工业不足与西方商品竞争，遂主张学习美国、德国，通过实现企业的大型化，进行大量生产、降低生产成本，达到与西方商品抗衡的目的。为发达中国的大量生产，第一次世界大战期间尤其是战后初期，他与江浙资本家集团建立联系，积极鼓吹极端自由贸易，主张通过自由竞争和自主经营，求得民族资本集团的进一步发展。1923年西方商品大量涌入中国后，他更加支持民族资本集团对中小企业的兼并，反对民族资产阶级中下层和劳动群众的极端保护关税主张，提出要用适度保护关税的办法，既防止政府劫掠，又使民族资产阶级上层保持与西方的联系。为达适度保护关税之目的，马寅初经历了由依靠民众抵制洋货以代保护关税到依靠民族资产阶级、城市小资产阶级自主宣布收回关税自主权的变化，当这一切都失败后，他投向了南京国民政府，将适度保护民族资产阶级上层希望寄托在蒋介石政权身上。进入30年代后，面对西方的商品进攻和日本侵略，他积极倡导依靠国民政府实现温和的统制贸易，发达国家资本，限制民族资本的自由竞争，以既加快民族资本的发展，又防止西方垄断资本下尖锐的阶级斗争在中国重演，并以发达农村小工业为抵抗帝国主义侵略和为民族大工业提供销售市场的手段。笔者以为，中国民族资产阶级的两面性决定了马寅初的保护工业思想的两面性。由民族资产阶级一定程度上的革命性，使马寅初在各阶段就保护民族大工业提出的主张、方法不乏针对性，某些方面还取得了一定效果，但由于民族资产阶级的软弱性，更由于资产阶级与工人阶级之间的矛盾，使马寅初不敢也不能提出建立在进行彻底的反帝反封建的民主革命基础上的保护工业思想，而不断妥协、调和，最后将全部希望寄托在蒋介石政权身上，幻想中国民族资产阶级能如德国资产阶级般，以政治权和企业管理权的出让换取蒋介石政权支持民族工业的发展。这套主张不仅没有实现民族资本集团的发展，反成了中国官僚买办阶级掠夺民族资本的最好借口。