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Rural-Urban Migration to Shanghai (1927–1937)

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Rural-Urban Migration to Shanghai (1927–1937) ADVERTIMENT. Lʼaccés als continguts dʼaquesta tesi queda condicionat a lʼacceptació de les condicions dʼús establertes per la següent llicència Creative Commons: http://cat.creativecommons.org/?page_id=184 ADVERTENCIA. El acceso a los contenidos de esta tesis queda condicionado a la aceptación de las condiciones de uso establecidas por la siguiente licencia Creative Commons: http://es.creativecommons.org/blog/licencias/ WARNING. The access to the contents of this doctoral thesis it is limited to the acceptance of the use conditions set by the following Creative Commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=en TESIS DOCTORAL The Dream and the Reality: Rural-Urban Migration to Shanghai (1927–1937) LEI SHI DIRECTORA DRA. CARMEN SARASÚA Programa de Doctorado en Historia Económica Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica Facultat d'Economia i Empresa Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Junio 2017 A mis padres, Shi Benzhi y Zhang Zhilan; A mi vida como inmigrante. AGRADECIMIENTO A Carmen Sarasúa, quien me ha dado su máximo apoyo y constante dedicación desde el primer momento cuando empecé la investigación doctoral con ella. Su excelencia académica y su exigencia me han guiado para realizar esta tesis, su gran personalidad, confianza y su ánimo me han ayudado a superar los momentos difíciles. Lo que he aprendido con ella durante estos años me iluminará el camino académico y el resto de mi vida. A Javier Silvestre, quien ha mostrado un gran interés por la migración de China y me ha dado sugerencias muy útiles sobre la reconstrucción de series de migración. A Hou Yangfang y Chen Xi, de Fudan University (China), quienes me han ayudado mucho para conseguir los archivos de esta investigación. A Nuria Mallorquí, por su colaboración y dedicación en la parte de econometría; Ivette Fuentes, por su revisión de la parte de análisis de regresión; Meritxell Gisbert, por su colaboración de los mapas; y Andrew Spence y John Berry, por su valiosa colaboración con la corrección del manuscrito de la tesis. Mi especial agradecimiento a todos los que han dado sus sugerencias y comentarios durante las conferencias y seminarios que he participado, entre ellos Angelique Janssen y Julia Hilevych, en la European Graduate School for training in Economic and Social Historical Research (ESTER); Wang Feng, en el Seminario Fundación Ramón Areces de Madrid; Lluís Castañeda, en el XI Congreso Internacional de la AEHE; y Domingo Gallego y otros profesores en el Seminario de Historia Económica de la Universidad de Zaragoza. A los profesores Pedro Fatjó, Montserrat Llonch, Xavier Cussó, Josep Pujol, Emanuele Felice, Anna Aubanell, Roser Nicolau y Grabiele Cappelli por sus comentarios y sugerencias durante los seminarios del departamento y las pruebas anuales de seguimiento del Programa de Doctorado Historia Económica de la UAB. Y a todos los profesores del Máster Oficial de Historia Económica (UB-UAB-UZ): Miquel Gutiérrez, Marc Prat, Alfonso Herranz, Jordi Catalán, Jordi Maluquer, Fernando Collantes, Luis Germán, Enric Tello, Carles Sudrià y Daniel Devolder, sus clases me abrieron la puerta de la Historia económica. Agradezco el apoyo económico que recibí de la Beca de MAEC-AECID (Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación) durante 2010-2014 para el estudio del máster y el doctorado. De igual manera al proyecto Salarios, actividad de las mujeres y niveles de vida (Proyecto I+D del Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia, HAR2013-47277-C2-1-P), dirigido por Carmen Sarasúa. Por último, quisiera agradecer a mis padres, Shi Benzhi y Zhang Zhilan, su apoyo, confianza y amor, que la distancia física nunca puede separarnos; a Jimmy Suaréz, por su entendimiento y cuidado de estos años; a Antxon Álvarez, Sara Sicart, Fabiano Darli, Petra de Llano, Zheng Shanpei, Zheng Haoyu, Shi Yan, Wan Chenxiu, Gao Wei, Han Mo, Zhao Xin, Liu Ran, por su apoyo espiritual y generosidad al estar en todo momento alentándome en la consecución de mi meta. ABSTRACT As a result of massive rural-urban migration, Shanghai transformed from a small coastal city into the largest metropolis in China. Using the official statistics published by the Nanjing Government, and historical archives and surveys, this research is one of the first attempts to quantify the population of Shanghai and internal migration in Republican China, and to analyse the characteristics of Shanghai’s immigrants. The research findings show that around four million migrants flocked to Shanghai between 1850 and 1949 to make up almost 80 per cent of its population. The scale and duration of the migration make Shanghai’s case an exceptional one. Most of the immigrants were young men from nearby rural areas — Subei and Jiangnan. This massive migration to Shanghai was caused by ‘push factors’ in the countryside and ‘pull factors’ in the city. In rural areas, agricultural productivity had stagnated, land holdings were unevenly distributed, and both agricultural and non-agricultural production were tied in with international markets after China’s opening up to foreign trade following The Opium War. When ‘push factors’, such as natural disasters or economic crises arose, hordes of labourers were forced to leave their villages to seek opportunities elsewhere. ‘Pull factors’ were Shanghai’s rapid development of commerce, industries and business with the growth of foreign trade and investment. This created huge numbers of jobs — especially in manufacturing — as Shanghai began industrialising in the 1930s. Labour force segmentation occurred among immigrants, largely based on their places of origin and as a result of their different personal connections and networks. Using the industrial wage statistics (1930-1936), this research uses regression analysis of income to verify this segmentation and compare it with other, traditional segmentation patterns such as those based on gender, occupations and type of workers. The Great Depression had differing impacts on China’s economy. With its silver-based currency and a sufficient money supply, China did not suffer a banking crisis. Thus, unlike in Western countries, Chinese industry received enough investment and liquidity to continue growing. Although the crisis caused evident unemployment in some sectors, overall demand for workers kept rising and real wages grew slowly. This was the key reason why net migration to Shanghai rose throughout the crisis. i RESUMEN Desde finales del siglo XIX, la masiva emigración desde las zonas rurales convirtió a la ciudad de Shanghai en la mayor metrópoli de China y una de las mayores del mundo. Utilizando como fuentes las estadísticas oficiales publicadas por el Gobierno de Nanjing y numerosos archivos históricos e informes contemporáneos, esta tesis es una de las primeras investigaciones que se propone cuantificar la población de Shanghai y la migración interna durante la República China, y analizar las características de los inmigrantes. El resultado muestra que cerca de 4 millones de inmigrantes entraron en Shanghai entre 1850 y 1949, constituyendo casi el 80 por ciento de la población de la época. Tanto el volumen como la duración de esta masiva migración son excepcionales en la historia. La mayoría de los inmigrantes eran jóvenes, hombres y mujeres, que llegaron de las zonas rurales cercanas, principalmente de dos zonas: Subei y Jiangnan. Esta migración a Shanghai se explica por factores de expulsión del campo y factores de atracción en la ciudad. En las zonas rurales la productividad agrícola se había estancado, la tierra estaba distribuida de manera muy desigual, y la producción agrícola y no agrícola estaba cada vez más integrada en el mercado internacional después de la apertura forzada por la Guerra de Opio. Cuando surgieron ‘factores de expulsión’, como desastres naturales o crisis económicas, los campesinos tuvieron que abandonar el campo para buscar oportunidades en otros lugares. En cuanto a los factores de atracción, el rápido desarrollo del comercio, la industria y los negocios en Shanghai después de la apertura trajeron una gran prosperidad a Shanghai, y crearon gran cantidad de oportunidades de empleo. La acelerada industrialización de Shanghai después de 1920 creó una gran demanda de mano de obra en las industrias manufactureras, intensivas en trabajo, que producían especialmente para la exportación. La importancia de las redes sociales, formadas por las conexiones personales y las asociaciones de origen, explica la fuerte segmentación de inmigrantes de diferentes orígenes en el mercado de trabajo de Shanghai. A partir de las estadísticas de salarios industriales (1930-1936), la tesis analiza la desigualdad del ingreso mediante el análisis de regresión, para verificar esta segmentación de lugares de origen, que se suma a las segmentaciones tradicionales de género, sector ocupacional y tipo de remuneración. La Gran Depresión tuvo un impacto diferente en la economía de China que en los países occidentales. Debido al patrón monetario de plata y a la oferta de dinero suficiente, no se produjo la devastadora crisis bancaria que existió en Occidente, y la industria siguió mostrando crecimientos positivos gracias a la inversión. La crisis provocó desempleo en algunos sectores, pero la demanda de trabajo agregada siguió creciendo y el salario real incluso aumentó ligeramente. Esta es la razón fundamental que explica la aparente paradoja de que los inmigrantes siguieran llegando a Shanghai durante la Depresión. ii Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................
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