Comprehensive Investigation into Chinese Interest and Profit and their New Current Forms

This section synthesizes the preceding analysis of Chinese interest and profit and examines their new and changing forms under wartime and post-war conditions. It treats interest rates and profit rates as key indicators governing the circulation and allocation of capital, and argues that in China’s historically incomplete commodity–currency relations, capital circulation has often been confined to the interaction of usury capital and commercial capital, with industrial profit repeatedly subordinated. The section highlights how segmented and fluctuating interest benchmarks obstruct the formation of a general (average) profit rate for industrial capital, while commercial profit adapts more flexibly to multiple benchmarks. It then traces how the War of Resistance and subsequent disruptions intensified speculative circulation, expanded “virtual” forms of capital, and blurred earlier boundaries among interest benchmarks. Despite these shifts in form, the underlying tendency persists: excessive profits and interest, whether generated through commerce, finance, or policy-facilitated channels, ultimately squeeze production enterprises of all sizes.