The Evolution of Agricultural Credit during China’s Republican Era, 1912–1949

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxix

   PDF

2. Current Conditions of Rural Credit in China

   • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

   Pages 1-50

3. China’s Sorrow

   • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

   Pages 51-79

4. Low-Level Equilibrium and Fractional Poverty Traps

   • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

   Pages 81-122

5. Traditional Forms of Credit in Rural China

   • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

   Pages 123-160

6. Emergence of Modern Rural Financial Institutions in the Warlord Era: 1912–28

   • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

   Pages 161-178

7. Estimating the Demand for Farm Credit in the Republican Era

   • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

   Pages 179-232

8. The China International Famine Relief Commission

   • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

   Pages 233-255

9. Rural Reconstruction

   • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

   Pages 257-274

10. A Blueprint for Credit Under Rural Reconstruction

    • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

    Pages 275-284

11. Evolution of the Cooperative Financial System: 1927–49

    • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

    Pages 285-301

12. Chinese Communists, Border Currency, and Agricultural Credit during Wartime

    • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

    Pages 303-325

13. The Farmers Bank of China

    • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

    Pages 327-347

14. Nong Ben Ju, the Farm Credit Bureau, and the KMT’s Agrarian Policy

    • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

    Pages 349-368

15. Successes and Failures of Agricultural Cooperatives and Credit Societies

    • Hong Fu, Calum G. Turvey

    Pages 369-402

16. Back Matter

    Pages 403-419

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In the modern era, China’s rural credit landscape is transforming at a dizzying rate, but, in terms of financial development, these changes represent a second attempt in the past 100 years to reform China’s credit institutions and provide credit access to farmers. The first period was during the Republican era, between 1912 and 1949, which saw the first attempts at formalizing rural credit with the Industrial and Agricultural Banks. This book uses primary data and papers to present a full picture of the difficult conditions China faced during the Republican era in order to explain the myriad reforms to the country's rural credit system. Fu and Turvey build a narrative around these developments based on the foundation of thousands of years of dynastic rule in order to explore the specific impacts of drought, floods, famine, communist insurgencies, Japanese expansionism, and more on credit access, supply and demand. They consider powerful personalities—such as J.B. Taylor, John Lossing Buck, Paul Hsu and Timothy Richards—and influential institutions—from Nanking and Nankai Universities to the China International Famine Relief Commission—that sought ways to end the cycle that trapped the vast majority of Chinese farmers in poverty. This rich, wide-ranging, and stimulating work will appeal both to readers focused on present day China and those who want to understand China’s rural economy and credit policies in a historical context. 

• agricultural economics
• Kuomintang
• Nationalist Party of China
• Chinese Nationalist Party
• Guomindang
• Farmers Bank of China
• cooperative Farm Credit System
• cooperative development
• chinese agricultural history
• banking

• Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China

  Hong Fu

• Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

  Calum G. Turvey

Hong Fu is Associate Professor at Shandong University of Finance and Economics, China. Her research interests include economic history, rural finance and crop insurance. 


Calum G. Turvey holds the W.I. Myers Professorship of Agricultural Finance in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, USA. 

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