Chapter 54 The Institutional Legacy of the Westernization Movement

The French thinker Tocqueville once said: "For a bad government, the most dangerous moment is usually the moment when it starts reform." The Westernization Movement has made important achievements at the practical level. It has comprehensively reconstructed China's industrial structure, After laying a basic and complete foundation for industrialization, the Westernization Group built railways, set up a nationwide telegraph network, built Asia's largest steel complex and shipbuilding factory, founded banks and insurance companies, explored and developed national mineral resources, and drafted The first joint-stock company articles of association were issued, which gave birth to the first "Company Law".However, the congenital defects of the Westernization Movement made it impossible for China to truly bid farewell to the past. I try to propose four defects from the perspective of system construction.

First, there is a lack of institutional top-level design. Compared with previous and subsequent major economic reforms, the most special feature of the Westernization Movement is that it was not launched by the central government from top to bottom, but was carried out spontaneously and without organization by some local Han officials. Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Zuo Zongtang, Yuan Shikai, Sheng Xuanhuai and other officials from the Westernization School have never really been in charge of the government, while Cixi and Manchu ministers are both in charge and blindly regard "maintaining stability" as the most important thing.Therefore, the Westernization School cannot complete the top-level design of the system from the height of system design. Changes are highly random, often vary from person to person, and are very easy to change or be interrupted.

Second, fiscal, monetary and land policies were never involved. These three elements are the core propositions of economic reforms in the past dynasties, and success or failure are all due to this.It is a pity that throughout the period of the Westernization Movement, the financial situation continued to deteriorate, the silver system was precarious, and land reform was impossible to talk about. All changes only occurred intensively in the field of industrial economy. We can regard it as "incremental reform", while The increase did not form a fundamental replacement effect on the stock. Therefore, although the reform is vigorous, it cannot cause the transformation of the social mechanism. It is true that Li Hongzhang laughed at himself as a "papermaker" in the precarious age in his later years.

Third, the Westernization Movement was not a universally beneficial economic revitalization movement. Judging from the distribution of benefits among the four major interest groups, the Westernization Movement was essentially a decentralization reform that benefited the local and business class.For hundreds of millions of grassroots people, economic reform is like thunder after a long drought. The thunder is loud, but the rain never falls. Therefore, they lack enthusiasm for the reform.Most importantly, the central government has never gained economic benefits from reforms. During the entire process of industrialization, the imperial court’s income still relied on agricultural taxes, salt taxes, and customs duties. In the eyes of the highest ruling group, they had to bear the cost and risk of reform , institutional risks, and moral hazards, but there is no sign of the consolidation of the regime, and even in the later stages, reform demands have already threatened the regime itself.Therefore, from beginning to end, the imperial court has always been hostile and wary of reform, becoming the most passive group.In contrast, those who started or participated in the reform became the biggest profit class, and the Sheng Xuanhuai and Li Hongzhang families became wealthy for a while, and became a typical example of power and corruption.

Fourth, there is more than enough modernization, but not enough modernity. Any economic change is a projective manifestation of political ideas in the economic field. The economic system is the shadow of the political system, and the shadow cannot betray the body.As early as the 1870s, Li Hongzhang stated that "China's civil and military system is far superior to Westerners in everything, and firearms alone cannot match it."By 1894, Zhang Zhidong still proposed that "Chinese learning should be the body, and Western learning should be applied." For more than 20 years, there has been little progress in thinking.As a result, the reform of the political system has lagged behind.When the people clamored for the establishment of a constitution, the government did not make any preparations and blindly delayed the suppression, which led to the sudden closure of the "time window" for moderate reforms.