The above materials reflect what changes have occurred in China's economy since modern times

Changes: the influx of foreign commodities, the gradual bankruptcy of the traditional handicraft industry; the increase in exports, the increasing commercialization of agricultural products. Impact: the small peasant economy (or: natural economy) began to disintegrate; China was gradually reduced to a dumping market for commodities and a source of raw materials for the capitalist countries; objectively, it was conducive to the development of the commodity economy and the emergence of national capitalism.

Natural Economy:

A form of economy which, in contrast to the commodity economy, produces not for the purpose of exchange but mainly to satisfy the needs of the producers themselves, and which can be referred to as the "self-sufficient" economy. It was the basic form of economy in feudal society.

The gradual disintegration of the natural economy:

1. Causes:

(1) After the Opium War, the Western powers carried out economic aggression against China, frantically dumping commodities and plundering raw materials in China, and involved China in the world capitalist market.

(2) The influence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement;

(3) The emergence of new thinking.

2. Performance:

(1) The importation of foreign sand and the separation of "spinning" and "weaving"

(2) The importation of foreign cloth and the separation of "weaving" and "farming". "cultivation"

(3) bankrupt craftsmen became consumers of cotton cloth

(4) the nature of production of non-bankrupt craftsmen changed

3. Impact:

(1) further development of the commodity economy;

(2) provide the conditions for the emergence of modern national Chinese capitalism;

(3) China gradually became a vassal of world capitalism.

Factors promoting the gradual disintegration of the natural economy:

1. Invasion by Western powers

Foreign capitalism, with a series of political and economic privileges . The large-scale export of commodities and capital to China, the plunder of agricultural products, and the onslaught on the natural economy. This was the main reason for the disintegration of the natural economy in China.

2. Development of modern enterprises

The emergence and development of national capitalist machine industry. Changed the traditional economic and class structure of China.

3. Strengthening of urban-rural linkages

With the acceleration of China's modernization and the development of shipping, railroads and other transportation, the linkages between urban and rural economies were strengthened, which also contributed to the disintegration of the natural economy.

4. Limitations of Individual Production

Dispersed individual handicraft production based on manual labor, with low technical level, small scale of production, undeveloped division and collaboration, could not resist the powerful attack of capitalist machine mass production. This is the internal root cause of the disintegration of China's natural economy.