中国近代贸易史上的何炳贤

He Bingxian in the Modern Chinese History of Trade

何炳贤早年赴美留学,回国后担任过大学教授、国民政府实业部国际贸易局首任局长等职。主持过全国范围的实业调查工作,撰写了大量中国与各国贸易的文章,出版了近代第一本高等院校外贸史教材,是近代对外贸易史研究的拓荒者,对近代外贸思想史亦有贡献。他的研究多从对外贸易实践出发,将中国外贸不振的原因归结为被动贸易,提出外贸发展要扩大输出,采取适当保护的关税政策,主张工农立国的基本国策。研究者与从业者的双重身份,使何炳贤的学术研究在当时的经济学界独树一帜。

He Bingxian went to the United States to study in his early years, after he returned China he taught as a professor at university and worked for the Nationalist Government as the first director of the International Trade Bureau in the Industry Department. He Bingxian was a pioneer in the study of modern Chinese trade history and also made contributions to the study of the modem intellectual history of Chinese trade since he wrote a number of articles on the trade between China and other countries and published the first university textbook on the history of international trade in modem China. His research mostly began with the practice of international trade and he attributed the failure of Chinese international trade to the passive stance. He proposed that China should encourage export to increase trade, adopt appropriately protectionist tariff policy and implement the principled policy taking the industrial and agricultural development as the first priority. His dual identities as both a researcher and a practitioner made his academic productions remarkable in the study of economics at his time.