Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2014

 

The Amendment of the Law on Chambers of Commerce in the 1920s and Its Effects

(Abstract)

 

Zhu Ying

 

In the mid- and late 1920s, with the rise and expansion of the merchant movement launched by the Kuomintang, chambers of commerce began to encounter an unprecedented survival crisis. Many chambers of commerce strongly urged the amendment of the Law on Chambers of Commerce to ensure their own legitimate survival and development. The policy that the Kuomintang adopted was at first ambiguous, but after the establishment of the Nationalist Government in Nanjing, it moved from "revolutionary destruction" to a new stage of "revolutionary construction", with a concomitant change in its understanding of the nature and role of the chamber of commerce. Finally, it enacted a new law on chambers of commerce in August 1929, ensuring them a safe passage through the political crisis and continued legal existence. Not only did this amendment have unique causes, it also involved a complex process with which the chambers of commerce were intimately and proactively associated. In general, the reorganized chambers of commerce under the new law on chambers of commerce retained their identity as independent non-government industrial and commercial groupings.