ABSTRACT
For reasons shown in the foregoing chapters, the study of Chinese social and economic history was, by the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, in a position to advance to the ‘new synthesis’ which had so long been desired. This was possible on the international plane at any rate, but in China itself the outlook was more negative; in that country a state of war prevailed, and the most active influences were Marxism and other kinds of formalism.
