Chapter 1005 The Sorrow of the World's Factory

Jian Danbing and Tu Lei didn't stay in London much longer. Fortunately, the girl came back the next day, and everyone attended the dinner held in the palace. The queen also awarded Shen Ying a medal.

When she returned to the hotel to rest, Shen Ying was still playing with the medal and asked Fan Wubing what medal it was.

"It's probably just a ceremonial thing," Fan Wuyi said casually, "There are a lot of people visiting the British royal family every day. When she meets a guest that the royal family deems worthy of continuing their relationship, the queen usually gives some worthless medals or something like that." , on the one hand, it can prevent the royal record officer from getting his salary in vain, on the other hand, it can also leave a deep impression, and maybe there will be an opportunity for everyone to cooperate. Therefore, this medal is just like the family heirlooms that Fang Shiyu gave away, there are countless of them. "

"Tch, you're just messing around. You ruined anyone's good mood." Shen Ying said very dissatisfied.

On the TV news that I turned on casually, topics related to China were being discussed. Last year, in the white paper of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, it was officially mentioned for the first time that China has become the world's factory. Recently, this has gradually become an international description. A common term used in the Chinese economy.

When the British TV station mentioned this topic, it quoted a research report by a British company, saying that China is to the 21st century what Britain was to the 19th century. Moreover, China is doing better and better.

Regarding this topic, Fan Wubing frowned a little, obviously not agreeing with this statement.

In his view, this is a derogatory term, and the West uses the word "world factory" to summarize today's Chinese economy, which is based on the historical experience of Western industrialization.

China was somewhat unprepared for this, but the concept of the world's factory has gradually been accepted domestically. People use the term world factory to express several different meanings, such as China is showing some characteristics of the world factory, China has become the world factory, China should become the world factory, etc.

However, the world factory has always been full of temptations and hidden traps.

"What is the world's factory?" Fan Wubing asked.

Shen Ying shook her head, wondering what Fan Wubing wanted to do with her brother.

The term "world factory" has its own specific historical background. After the Industrial Revolution, Britain relied on its advanced technology, joint-stock company system, financial center status, and colonies around the world. And a powerful navy, established a global trade network centered on the British Isles, and. The UK plays the role of a factory in the international division of labor, and other countries play the role of raw material suppliers and consumer markets.

British made products,

Sold all over the world, its manufacturing scale and manufacturing capabilities are enough to affect global consumer product output and prices.

At that time, Britain's status as the world's factory was supported by Dar's imitation textile industry, mining industry, ironmaking industry, machine manufacturing industry and shipping industry.

Britain imported raw materials from all over the world, processed them, and sold the finished products to other countries. Most of the products were exported. As Britain expanded its colonies and became an empire on which the sun never sets, Britain dominated a global capitalist trade system. .

At that time, Britain had the most advanced technology, the most advanced industrial organization form, and the most complete division of labor system in the world. In addition, Britain was the world's factory. It has also created London's status as the world's financial center. In turn, London provides complete financial services for British manufacturing and trade.

Through gunboat diplomacy, or colonial rule, Britain established a colonial empire all over the world. Although Britain was an advocate of free trade, a large part of this free trade system was achieved through the colonization of backward countries. , trade activities were mainly carried out within the British colonial system.

"At that time, Britain was truly the world's factory. With only 2% of the world's population, Britain controlled one-half of the world's industrial production and one-quarter of the world's trade in the first seventy years of the 19th century. " Fan Wubing explained, "Later, the rise of Germany, the United States, and Japan were generally called the center of world economic growth. They were all called the world's factories at one time, but people are using this. When using words, they often use analogous meanings, and they do not fully possess all the characteristics of the original Britain. To be precise, these countries are the manufacturing centers of the world. "

Looking back at China, after more than 20 years of reform and opening up, the development of China's industry, especially the manufacturing industry, has achieved remarkable results. In the past few years, the annual growth rate of China's industry has reached 12%, and the export of industrial products has grown rapidly. The export volume of some products has ranked first in the world, such as butterfly charcoal, steel, color TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, cameras, air conditioners, etc. The output ranks first in the world. China’s share of world trade is not only growing rapidly, but also China’s position in the value chain of the global division of labor has also been eliminated.” For example, China’s electronic products, information and technology products, and wine products Out of one, there is a rapid increase.

Chinese products have spread all over the world. From European and American countries to developing countries in Asia and Africa, products made in China can be seen everywhere. China's double-digit growth rate has been maintained for many years.

In addition, China has become the largest recipient of foreign direct investment for two consecutive years. Multinational companies have regarded China as the most important link in the global industrial chain and one of the most important processing bases.

However, in terms of the overall level of China's manufacturing industry, it is far from the UK's position in the world.

In terms of share, even compared with the United States and Japan, there is still a big gap, far less than the United Kingdom back then. The United States' industrial output accounts for more than 20% of the world's share, and Japan's manufacturing industry accounts for more than 20%. It is 15%, while China only accounts for 5% of the world.

From the perspective of its position in the manufacturing value chain, China's manufacturing industry has not yet left the end.

"China's manufacturing industry is still focused on the export of labor-intensive products. It has not mastered the main core technologies of today's manufacturing industry. It only assembles products at the last link of the global production chain. In terms of global marketing, most Chinese products have neither mastered channels, and does not have its own international brand. It can be said that China's manufacturing is a link in the global industrial chain that involves a lot of blood and sweat, but is also a link with meager profits.

Fan Wubing said to Shen Ying somewhat depressedly, "To a large extent, China's manufacturing industry is an assembly industry. While importing a large amount of raw materials and energy, it also imports core components and patented technologies from abroad. The United Kingdom was the world leader at that time. Therefore, the advanced technological status of China and the United Kingdom in the world was not the same at that time. While the level of manufacturing technology was low, the scale of China's local manufacturing industry was too large.

From a deeper level, China's financial market is not fully developed, which hinders the development of the manufacturing industry to a higher level.

Judging from examples such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan, financial centers have emerged with the growth of the manufacturing industry and provided services for the manufacturing industry. Domestic financial reform will take a long process. During this period, China's manufacturing industry Some necessary conditions for development, such as an enterprise system that matches the modern market economy, well-developed capital markets and financial services markets, are relatively lagging behind, thus affecting the development of China's manufacturing industry.

"In fact, China is still far away from becoming the world's factory. One of the signs of the world's factory is industrialization, but China has not yet achieved industrialization." Fan Wubing said, "According to the definition of the National Bureau of Statistics, industrialization means agriculture. The employed population must be less than 20%. At present, China still has at least several decades to go before it can catch up with the manufacturing level of the United States and Japan, not to mention reaching the level of the United Kingdom in the world. "

After hearing Fan Wubing's words, Shen Ying couldn't help but take a deep look before asking, "From what you said, it seems that the topic of World Factory is not a good thing?"

"Obviously it's not a good thing." Fan Wubing nodded and said, "You don't know who are the people in Japan? The current domestic development is faster, so it is inevitable to make people jealous. These people are just afraid If China is not in chaos, it will only suppress their limelight, so all day long I want to remind the world to pay attention to China, so that China cannot develop and steal their own limelight! "Except for this," do you think they are? Are you praising you? "

Fan Wubing's words made Shen Ying think about them for a long time.

Indeed, as Fan Wubing said, China has the comparative advantage of becoming one of the global manufacturing centers.

For example, as the trend of economic globalization continues to deepen, multinational companies have further refined their production and operation activities and searched for the most suitable production bases around the world for different production links of a product. This has led to an unprecedented acceleration of international industrial transfer, and the labor-intensive aspects of product processing have continued to spread to developing countries, making developing countries like China likely to become assembly and export bases for capital- and technology-intensive products.

Or, China has a better industrial foundation and supporting conditions. There is abundant high-quality and low-price labor force for a foreseeable long time. Labor costs will not rise significantly. Moreover, China is integrating into the world economy and has a relatively complete infrastructure to participate in the international division of labor.

Therefore, in the foreseeable future, China will be the most attractive manufacturing base in the world. In the process of capital transfer with a global background, China is the most important gravitational pole.