| 摘要: |
| 房地产市场催生的土地开活动发成
为近代上海城市化的重要途径。文章研究
1927-1937 年南京国民政府如何通过制定金
融法规干预上海租界房地产市场的内在机
制，以此揭示制衡租界发展的金融路径。研
究发现，华洋地产商对约束性法规差异化执
行、对扶持性法规一致性遵守。与之伴生，
租界出现约束单一开发主体的低密度空间开
发与刺激多元开发主体的混合密度空间开发
的两阶段城市发展方式。这是国家层面力量
之于上海全局治理的重要体现，对当代中国
城市发展具有借鉴意义。 |
| 关键词: 制衡 空间增长 金融法规 房地
产市场 上海租界 |
| DOI：10.13791/j.cnki.hsfwest.20250106003 |
| 分类号: |
| 基金项目:江苏高校哲学社会科学研究一般项目（2024SJYB1258）；南通大学引进人才启动基金（135424632041） |
|
| Seeking spatial checks and balances with financial legislation：A Study on the interventionof the Nanjing National Government in the real estate market of the Shanghai Concessions（1927-1937） |
|
HE Wen
|
| Abstract: |
| In the trajectory of early modern history of China, the Nanjing National Government
demonstrated superior urban governance wisdom compared to other contemporary regimes. It is
particularly evident in its state intervention in the Shanghai concessions real estate market. The
establishment of the Shanghai concessions provided the material foundation for the transplantation of
Western modern institutions into China. Rapid industrial and commercial development led to
significant population agglomeration within the concessions. The concentration of financial, human,
and material resources in the concessions resulted in the majority of Shanghai's progressive interest
failing to accrue to the Chinese-controlled areas. Consequently, controlling the spatial growth of the
concessions and driving integrated urbanization for Shanghai and China became a paramount task for
the Nanjing National Government. To this end, the concession real estate market emerged as a key for
the government to achieve checks and balances on the concessions, as it concentrated vast capital,
resources, and population due to immense housing demand. Furthermore, residential architectures
developed via the real estate market constituted the largest proportion of physical urban space, serving
as crucial mediums for advancing concession urbanization. Therefore, researching how the Nanjing
National Government intervened in the Shanghai concessions real estate market is essential for
understanding state-level strategies of checks and balances. Legislation was a fundamental power of
the Nanjing National Government and a primary instrument for intervening in the real estate market.
The paper investigates the mechanisms through which the Nanjing National Government intervened
in the Shanghai concession real estate market by enacting financial laws between 1927 and 1937,
thereby revealing the financial pathways employed by the state to counterbalance concession
development. It finds that laws pertaining to the real estate market issued during this period fall into
two main categories: constraining laws—including the Banking Act (1931) and the Savings Bank Act
(1934); and supportive laws—including the Draft Provisional Measures for Mortgage of Land Deeds
(1935), the Proclamation on Implementing the New Monetary Policy (1935), and the Executive Yuan
Directive No. 919 (1936). The paper reveals that although the concession authorities possessed
legislative power, they did not enact specialized financial laws for the concessions. Consequently, the
financial laws promulgated by the Nanjing National Government could influence the land
development activities of developers within the concessions. However, the existence of
extraterritoriality rights granted foreign developers the privilege to selectively comply with Chinese
laws based on self-interest. This resulted in an inequitable phenomenon: Chinese and foreign
developers differentially implemented constraining laws but uniformly adhered to supportive laws.
The enactment of these two types of laws reflects distinct phases in the concession real estate market's
development and embodies two strategies of checks and balances employed by the Nanjing National
Government towards the Shanghai concessions: (1) 1927-1934: During this phase of overall market
growth, the government enacted constraining laws prohibiting financial institutions, represented byChinese banks, from funding land development using savings deposits. Consequently, Chinese banks could only utilize trust funds. Although both were forms
of financial capital in the early modern era, trust funds had a narrower investor base than savings deposits. This reduced the development capital available to
Chinese banks, thereby slowing the Chinese developers’ contribution to concession spatial growth. (2) 1934-1937: During this phase, the Shanghai concession
real estate market slumped due to the Silver Purchase Act of America, which triggered massive smuggling of silver abroad. Depleted silver reserves forced
Chinese financial institutions to cease mortgage lending to developers. The loss of financial capital support depressed the market. The Nanjing National
Government thus enacted supportive laws to stimulate financial institutions’ willingness to provide mortgage loans, attempting to restore market vitality and
prevent a collapse of the concession system. Concomitantly, these strategies of checks and balances impacted the urban space of the concessions: First, the debt
burden of financial capital and the declining purchasing power of lower-income groups led Chinese banks to primarily develop residential architectures catering
to middle and upper classes—including garden houses, new-styled lane houses, and multi-story apartments—characterized by low density. The constraining
laws thus reduced the development volume of these architectural types. Second, supportive laws enabled both Chinese and foreign developers to access
mortgage financing support. Archival data indicates that the development volume of diverse residential architectural types catering to various social strata
increased to varying degrees in both concessions. Therefore, under the Nanjing National Government’s intervention, Shanghai concessions exhibited a twophase
urban development pattern between 1927 and 1937: constraining a single type of developers for low-density spatial development followed by stimulating
diverse types of developers for mixed-density spatial development. This represents a significant manifestation of state power in the holistic governance of
Shanghai. Naturally, it is also essential to recognize the limitations of the Nanjing National Government’s intervention to the Shanghai concession real estate
market through financial laws, which were inevitably constrained by the historical context of the period. In summary, the analysis presented in the paper also
holds reference value for the development of China's contemporary real estate market and urban development. |
| Key words: checks and balances spatial growth financial laws real estate market Shanghai concessions |
