ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the relationship between warlordism and educational finance, and discusses the movement for educational fiscal independence and the impact that inadequate funding had on the development of education in modern China. Between 1922 and 1930, an average of ten major wars erupted in China each year. On March 14 and 15, 1921, the faculty and staff of the eight government colleges and universities in Peking went on strike to protest the government of Peking's nonpayment of educational funds. School representatives not only demanded the funds that were months in arrears, but they also insisted that the government guarantee future financial support by earmarking specific revenues for education. Warlordism, with its perennial internal wars and the disorderly conditions they created, had a damaging and inhibiting effect on the Chinese economy. Educational expenditures varied from province to province. On the whole, as in the case of the Peking government, budgetary allocations for military purposes far exceeded those for education.
