The Shanghai Capitalists and the Nationalist Government, 1927-1937

by Parks M. Coble

A common generalization about the Nationalist Government in China during the 1927-1937 decade has been that Chiang Kai-shek's regime was closely allied with the capitalists in Shanghai. This book brings to light a different picture--that Nanking sought to control the capitalists politically, to prevent them from having a voice in the political structure, and to milk the wealth of the urban economy for government coffers. This study documents major political conflicts between the capitalists and the government and demonstrates that the regime gradually suppressed the main organizations of the capitalists and gained control of many of their financial and industrial enterprises. This is the first systematic examination of the political role of the Shanghai capitalists during the Nanking decade. A number of related issues--the operation of the government bond market, the role of the Shanghai underworld and its ties to Chiang Kai-shek, the personalities and policies of key government officials such as TV. Soong and H.H. Kung, the Japanese attempt to control the economic policies of the Nanking government, and the growth of "bureaucratic capitalism"--are brought into focus.

Genres: China

376 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 1980

Reviews

[LaMarx · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Nationalist Government and the Shanghai Capitalists, 1927-1937, by Parks M. Coble, Jr. is a good read for those interested in the corrupt, vacillating, and strange Nanjing Decade. Coble’s analysis isn’t perfect, but he certainly gets the broad strokes and recounts events and describes people and factions quite well. He is able to give a solid critique of the subpar Marxist analysis that many adopt, as well as the conservative defense of Nanjing, while also offering a nuanced view himself.
My critique lies in the fact that, with the evidence he lays out, the Nanjing government appears to be an abnormally corrupt national-capitalist in the sense Engels predicted in Anti-Duhring. Nanjing neutered the independent capitalist class, leaving them “no further social function than that of pocketing dividends, tearing off coupons, and gambling on the Stock Exchange, where the different capitalists despoil one another of their capital.” (Anti-Dühring) Nanjing relied heavily on guanxi relations and connections to the Green Gang, paramilitaries like the Blue Shirts Society, and Chiang’s control of the National Revolutionary Army. Both the position that the Nanjing government represented an easy alliance between Chinese capital and the GMD, as well as the position that it represented an autonomous military complex that solely represented itself as a political institution and nothing more, seem unsatisfactory.
Overall though, this book was great. It gets four big booms! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!