ABSTRACT
In treating the subject of the economic development of China people have found it convenient to sub-divide it into two very unequal parts in time: ante 1949 and post 1949. From the break-up of feudal society until the intrusion of modern Western culture and ideas, China has had a social pattern which had accepted values and social gradations stemming essentially from Confucian philosophy. The social revolution effected by Communism has enabled a reform, long advocated by agriculturalists, to be carried through. Probably more far-reaching and fundamental even than China's ultimate embracing of Communism has been the decay and final collapse of its ancient civilization based on Confucian philosophy. Western science and the power—military and economic— which it gave, and Western ideas of individual freedom, together helped to bring tottering Confucian conservatism to the ground. Far-reaching and fundamental changes in economic geography have taken place since 'liberation'.
