ABSTRACT
Introduction The first known book devoted to Western Economics published in the Chinese language was prepared by a German missionary, Karl Friedrich Gutzlaff (1803-51). He was a colourful figure who was willing to travel on board opiumsmuggling ships in order to distribute Christian literature. Around 1840, he published a text entitled Outlines of Political Economy; in it, he praised ‘free-market’ conditions but stressed the need for an appropriate system of law and justice (cited in Lutz, 1985: 82-83). Unfortunately, no copy of it has ever been found. In 1871, a number of German principalities united to form a ‘German Empire’. However, many ethnic Germans also lived in the neighbouring Habsburg Empire (Austria-Hungary), as did numerous other ethnic groups. The dynastic empires of the Hohenzollerns (Germany), the Habsburgs (AustriaHungary) and the Romanoffs (Russia) were at that time experiencing internal agitations for greater political democracy, for ethnic self-determination, as well as for greater economic equality in face of early industrialization. The years following 1871 witnessed increasingly intense rivalries among the European nations which were fuelled in part by efforts of the ruling class to distract people from internal controversies. These rivalries extended to the competition for ‘spheres of influence’ in China around the turn of the century. Germany entered into competition with the United States, Britain and France in order to attract Chinese students to their universities (see Trescott, 2007). Broadly speaking, Germany is generally credited with developing modern research-oriented universities in the nineteenth century. With this came the rise of Economics as a specialized subject, namely: Wirtschaftswissenschaft, which became the German terminology for the subject. Whilst British economic writing followed the lines of Adam Smith (1723-1790), Thomas Malthus (1776-1834) and David Ricardo (1772-1823), German economics tended to downplay abstract deductive theory. Such influential figures as Friedrich List (1789-1846), Gustav Schmoller (1838-1917) and Adolf Wagner (1835-1917) took a ‘historical’ approach, stressing the link between the economy and the broader dimensions of the society.2 They favoured a strong, interventionist government, as epitomized by many of the policies of Bismarck and sought protective tariffs and
other government interventions to promote industrialization. German economists tended to see international economic affairs as elements in the rivalry, in contrast to the cosmopolitanism which characterized British (but not American) attitudes. An extreme example was Werner Sombart’s (1863-1941) 1915 book Handler und Helden, which could be translated as ‘Hucksters and Heroes’. He poured scorn on the British (the Hucksters), whilst praising the noble, warlike spirit of the Germans (the Heroes). Many Americans studied in the German universities in the late nineteenth century and returned to America to spread similar ideas. Notable was Richard T. Ely (1854-1943), an Institutionalist Economist, whose textbook was a best-seller in the US and was widely used in China, both in English and in its 1910 Chinese translation (Ely, 1893). Major writings of German economists were translated into Chinese in the 1920s and after (see the earlier chapter on China by the present writer in this volume). In 1897-1898, the German government seized control of Qingdao and its environs in Shandong Province. They introduced some innovative ideas relating to land-value taxation, which caught the attention of soon to be leader of the new Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925). He was strongly influenced by the ideas of the American social reformer Henry George (1839-1897) who argued that land-owners benefitted unfairly from the rise in land-values which attended economic progress. He recommended that government tax the increments in land-values, a tax which would not harm productive incentives and would contribute to social justice. There was briefly a ‘Sino-German University’ founded in Qingdao. The Germans also set up a well-known brewery; it still operates, producing the world-famous ‘Tsingtao Beer’. China was just beginning to develop its modern universities around 1900. In 1898, the Chinese government created what eventually became its flagship university, Peking University – colloquially known as ‘Beida’. In 1907-1910, numerous Sino-German secondary schools were established in China. As universities developed, they often offered instruction in the German language. In 1907, Tongji University was established in Shanghai, emphasizing medical education and lecturing in the German language. By 1949, it had produced 2,251 graduates. It is still operating and is well regarded for instruction in science and technology. German influence was also significant in FuRen [sic] University, a Catholic university in the then Peking, which opened in 1925. German influence on the educational system was enhanced by Germaneducated Tsai (Cai) Yuanpei (1868-1940). Tsai was Minister of Education in 1911-1912 and President of Peking University 1916-1926. An early chair of the Beida Economics Department was Ku (Gu) Mengyu, who had graduated from Beida in 1906 with a specialization in the German language. He studied in Leipzig 1906-1908 and Berlin 1908-1911. In the early 1920s, he was teaching socialist theory and systems in Beida. He left there in 1925 and became active in government and politics. By 1941-1948, he was Chancellor of National Central University in Nanjing. When the Communists took over, Ku left China, living at times in Hong Kong, the United States and Taiwan (Zhou, 1999: 329).
