Keywords: Germany's economic development system innovation theory innovation
Key words: Germany, economic development, system innovation, basic theory innovation.
This paper analyzes some characteristics of Germany's economic development, and points out that the vitality of Germany's economic development lies in its innovation in economic production system and basic theory according to its own traditions and national conditions, so that it can always maintain its own economic vitality.
This paper analyzes some factors in the development of German economy, and points out that the vitality of German economy is based on the innovation of modern production system and basic academic research.
Modern Germany is the most important country in Europe, which brought war disasters to the world twice. Although the political failure of Germany's development model is very regrettable, scholars generally appreciate that Germans have been able to maintain extraordinary vitality in the economy. The achievements of Germans in basic theory, heavy industry, chemistry, precision instruments and military weapons manufacturing have left a deep impression on the world. Why, then, did the Germans maintain their economic vitality for centuries, no matter what the system? According to my own research, the author analyzes the following factors that affect the economic development of Germany, which may provide some useful materials for the answer to this question.
First, development based on agriculture.
Before industrialization, Germany was divided mainly by agriculture-maintaining the division of Germany has always been the main foreign policy goal of big countries such as Britain and France. The division of Germany did hinder Germany's economic development, but this role was transformed into a huge driving force to promote industrialization after Germany's reunification. All the forces demanding industrialization and urbanization in German society quickly occupied the political stage in Germany. Its capital investment rate is estimated to be only 5% around 1850, and it increased to 9% of the gross national product during 1850- 1860, and it was 12.5% in the 1970s.
However, compared with Britain, Germany did not sacrifice agriculture because of industrial development. Once the agricultural products of countries like the United States began to threaten the grain market, the foundation of German agriculture, the German government used tariffs and other methods to assist agriculture. Although this kind of protection was only used because of the rising cost of living of urban residents, it benefited German agriculture from the development of new agriculture in the era of rapid industrialization and developed steadily. During the period from the establishment of the German Empire to the First World War, Germany's grain and potato production almost doubled. The increase of output partly comes from the increase of cultivated land area, but it is mainly the result of the increase of output per unit area. According to statistics, compared with the average annual yield of 1878-79 and1901910, the average yield per hectare of wheat increased from 1.35 tons to1.
Although the agricultural sector continues to absorb new technologies to promote the modernization of the agricultural sector, the problem of rural population loss still occurs in the process of industrialization. Like other industrialized societies, rural life has gradually lost its appeal. A great escape from the land has begun, and the natural growth rate of urban population is rising. The reason for this change is simple: cities need labor, wages are rising, and people naturally yearn for a pleasant urban living environment. The following table shows the trend of this population change:
Table of changes in the employed population by sector;
Age188219071925193919501964.
Percentage of employed population
Agriculture and forestry 42.2 33.9 30.3 25.0 24.611.4
Industry and handicrafts
Commerce, transportation and services 22.2 26.2 27.4 34.2 32.7 40.3
Of course, western scholars can't get very accurate data at present, but what is certain is that since the establishment of the German Empire, the relative position of industry and agriculture in German economic life has changed-industry has become the leading sector of the national economy, while agriculture has become a small partner in the national economy.
In this process, most Junkers regarded their land as their own property and kept expanding, but they no longer rented the land to farmers, but hired free labor to work, which enabled many new technologies to be applied and greatly improved the output of agricultural products in Germany. From 1820 to 1875, the output of wheat and rye doubled. At the same time, the economic structure of Germany has also changed, as can be seen from the following table:
German economic structure map: 1850- 19 13.
Share of each industry in domestic production (DM)
1850/4 1870/4 19 10/3 1849/58 1878/9 19 10/ 13
Agriculture 45.2 37.9 23.4 54.6 49. 1
Industry and mining 21.431.7 44.6 25.2 29 438+0 37.9
Transportation 0.7 2.16.41.12.03.6
Service 30.0 25.0 20.519.119.8 23.6
Housing 2.9 3.3 5. 1
A total of 9.6 million157,000,456,000156,000,5438+0,000194,000,302,000.
The traditional guilds in German industry are powerful, and the real professional freedom did not appear until after 1869. However, the position of traditional guilds and craftsmen in Germany has not been replaced, which leads to another feature in the process of German economic development, namely "dual economy". Even in 1870, the ratio of craftsmen to industrial technicians is still one to one.
Therefore, an important feature of Germany's economic development is that the rural areas have not been impacted like the British enclosure movement, and the agricultural population has gradually left the land and joined the urban employment force. At the same time, the industrial composition of the city is also very complex, not a single modern industrial economy. This gradual evolution and coexistence of various industries, although retaining a large number of feudal remnants, has maintained the basic stability of the transitional society, which is conducive to the Germans to integrate their traditional fine style into new industries.
Second, the industrialization process driven by railway construction.
After the foundation of Germany's modern industry was gradually formed, a number of large companies appeared from the middle of19th century, which were the symbols of Germany's modern industry. Although the formation of large German companies is extremely fast, its formation process is no different from that of Britain and Belgium. At first, they all started in the textile sector. Due to the employment of a large number of laborers, the wool industry has gradually adopted a modern model, but it has little impact on the transformation of the entire economic structure, mainly because the cotton textile industry and silk weaving industry have achieved the greatest success in the process of mechanization. Although the handicraft industry was backward, it persisted in the 1980 s and was replaced by large companies that appeared rapidly.
Compared with Britain, Germany's economic starting point is completely different. In Britain, the liberation of rural labor force occurred simultaneously with the growth and improvement of agricultural productivity, which prepared for the market purchase needed by industrialization. However, because Germany's agricultural technology is backward and agricultural productivity has not improved, the purchasing power of rural people has not improved accordingly. In this way, compared with Britain, Germany's driving force for industrialization comes from a completely different direction, that is, railway construction, that is, industry itself. Because the German Customs Union unites most parts of Germany into a unified sales area, it encourages the state and private entrepreneurs to make the necessary investment, develop the transportation in this area, and connect it, so that it can truly become a modern capital-rich economic zone. 184 1 Liszt, a famous German economist, wrote: "The customs union and the railway system are conjoined twins, born at the same time ... with the same spirit and consciousness, they support each other." "Cheap, fast, reliable and regular passenger and cargo transportation is one of the most powerful levers to promote national wealth and civilization in all directions." Like this scholar, Halcott, an entrepreneur in Ruhr, also believes that the railway is the source of a country's wealth and the pioneer of the spirit of unity to overcome local interests for the overall interests. Railway construction is indeed an effective real engine of industrialization. On July 7th, 1835, the first passenger railway in Germany was opened. 1850, the railway in Germany has been 6000 kilometers.
Germany's Great Leap Forward in Industrialization began with the construction of railway network in1840-50s and the discovery of huge mineral deposits in Ruhr area. The construction of the railway has promoted the iron and steel industry, coal mining industry and machinery industry. German coal mines increased from10.3 million tons in 1820 to 5 1 10,000 tons in 1850, and191900,000 tons, together with 870,000 tons of lignite, accounting for almost two-thirds of the coal production in the whole European continent. The steel output increased from 1870 to12.6 million tons to1917.6 million tons in 2003. The production organization is large-scale, modern and efficient. For example, 1900, at least 24 Ruhr coal mines have an annual output of more than 500,000 tons. 1902, the average output of each steel mill in Germany was 75,000 tons, while that in Britain was only 40,000 tons.
Railway is a department that develops faster in Germany than in France, and this development began before the reunification of Germany. Therefore, the German railway is characterized by many small centers, rather than having a unified national planning and foundation like France.
On the contrary, this feature of Germany has become a very favorable factor for its economic development, because its railways have been developed with the economy as the goal and developed rapidly to meet the needs of the people. Government planning and construction, as well as private investment, have accelerated the speed of German railway construction. The large-scale construction of German railways began in the 1940s of 19, and experienced rapid development for about 30 years. The importance of the development of this railway to the German industrial revolution cannot be overemphasized. "Germany's industrial revolution ... seems to be an unbalanced development dominated by railways." The proportion of railway investment in the national net investment is 185 1.