EN ECONOMÍAS ABIERTAS
Capítulo 3. La determinación de la tasa de interés y el equilibrio macroeconómico en una economía abierta.
1985), pp. 364-78 (parts of this discussion, such as pp. 374-76, are an unattributed translation
from Chesneaux); Tang Hai, Zhongguo laodong wenti (Chinese labor problems), (Shanghai,
1926), pp. 127-49; Chen Da, Zhongguo laogong wenti (Problems of Chinese labor), (Shanghai,
1929), pp. 263-364,415-62.
Wages and income
than wages) were frequently derived from petty trading — buying and selling vegetables, fur pelts, company coal, and other goods obtained along the line — and the smuggling for exchange of specie, metals, and narcotics. Non-cash income would include the provision of housing and meal allowances, and the allocations of coal or kerosene by the railway or the foreman of a gang. There were also irregular non-cash supplements, such as the theft of coal.
On the debit side, the money wages received could be reduced by fines for infringement of regulations, by temporary lay-offs, and by imofficial deductions by foremen and other supervisors. During the warlord period of the 1920s, wages were commonly in arrears or paid in non-convertible paper (currency or bonds) issued by local military authorities or the railway administration. China's bimetallic currency system also affected earnings: a worker's purchasing power varied with the differentials in the exchange rates between the copper and silver currencies in circulation and thus influenced the level of inflation experienced by a particular wage-earner.^ Railwaymen other than Chinese had similar experiences.^ These various factors combined to affect the level of nominal and real wages, and complicate the measurement of income.
Salary and wage regimes
The high degree of differentiation of the railway workforce, between staff and manual workers, and within the manual grades, produced wide variations in remuneration. Salaried staff were paid considerably more than most manual grade employees. On the Chinese National Railways staff (siyuan) were paid on average between three and four times the wage of the manual grades (zhigong). In 1935 salaried staff received $85.21 a month compared with the manual employees' average of $23.75.^ Regional variations were marked. The highest average salaries and wages were paid on the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou line, an average of $115 a month for staff and $32 for workers; the lowest average pay for salaried staff was $61 a month on the Nanchang-Jiujiang line, and for workers $17 a month on the Longhai line. Averages, useftil as they are, neither indicate clearly the common rate nor relative distribution of salaries and wages of the workforce.
' The changes in the exchange rate between silver (coinage or taels) and copper coinage is a vexing problem. Several silver dollars of various purity circulated, each with a theoretical exchange cross rate and big differences between the south and north China silver-copper exchange rate. ' Nineteenth Century railwaymen in the USA experienced frequent arrears in wages, payment in non-
convertible company paper and company bonds. Walter Licht, Working for the Railroad: The
Organization of Work in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton, 1983), chapter four.
' Tiedao nianjian (Railway Yearbook), 3, (Nanjing, 1936), p. 1, foldout table. The average for manual
grades had risen 11 cents a day compared with the 1933 average from the Guoyou tielu laogong, 1. The averages are derived from the monthly salary and wages bill for each of the 13 railway administrations in the Chinese National Railways system.
Chapter 5
Salary and wages were governed by set scales for staff officers and manual grade workers. Staff salaries were determined on a national scale set by the Ministry of Communications (and later, the Ministry of Railways). Unlike the staff, there was no uniform national sale of wages for manual workers. Each railway administration set its own rates to reflect local labor market conditions. Xu Xiehua explained the local determination of wage rates as "owing to regional variations in the cost of living and dissimilar skill levels" on different railways."^ The China Postal Service, to the contrary, established a national scale that applied from the lowliest postman
(xinchai), who delivered letters, through to the postmaster general (youwusi). II
The salary structure of stajf officers. For nearly every occupation there was a range of salaries which differed according to the class of the railway administration. The state-owned railways were grouped into three classes: first-class, second-class and third-class railway administrations.'^ The staff salary scale was revised frequently. In
1930 a new set of service regulations and salary classifications were proclaimed.'^ The 1930 staff salary scale of 40 grades or points, from the lowest point 40 ($50) to the highest, point 1 ($600), is shown in Table 5.1.
The chief executive officer (juzhang) of a first-class line, for example, was paid on the scale from point 5 to point 1 ($450-600) while his equivalent on a second- class line was on point 7 to point 3 range ($400-500). Some posts did not exist for certain classes of line: the third-class line did not have a deputy CEO (fujuzhang).
Salaries for station masters were graded according to the class of the railway administration and by the class of railway stations, third to first-class station, based on the size of the station. The salary ranged from point 38 ($60) for a junior third- class station master on a third class line to point 22 ($180) for a senior first-class station master {yideng zhanzhang) on a first-class line. Train conductors (chezhang)
were the lowest level staff in this scheme on point 40 to point 20 ($50-100).
Xu Xiehua, Tielu laogong wenti, p. 89.
" Tang Hai, Zhongguo laodong wenti, pp. 162-67. The postal service had four levels of employees
— xinchai, lianxinsheng, youwusheng, and youwuyuan — and each level was further divided
into classes and sub-grades. Salaries at the fourth or staff level (youwuyuan) were paid in taels rather than silver currency.
Laws and regulations governing railways for the early Nanjing period can be found in the Ministry of Railways, Tiedao fagui huibian (Compilation of railway laws and regulations), (Nanjmg,
1933). Revisions between 1932 and 1936 were printed in the Tiedao nianjian (Railway Yearbook), No. 1-3. First class railway administrations comprised the Beiping-Hankou, Beiping- Liaoning, Tianjin-Pukou, Qingdao-Jinan, and Shanghai-Nanjing lines; second class included the Beiping-Suiyuan and Longhai lines, and the north and south sections of the Guangzhou-Hankou line; and third class included the Canton-Kowloon and Daokou-Qinghua lines. The Chinese
Year Book, 1935-36, pp. 618, 619-20. Tiedao nianjian, 1, p. 146.
Wages and income
Table 5.1 Salary scale of staff on the Chinese National Railways, 1930
Band Occupation title Line Class Scale Monthly Rates
A. Chief executive juzhang 1 1-5 600 450
II 3-7 500 400
III 5-9 450 360
B. Deputy CEO fujuzhang 1 3-9 500 360
II 6-12 425 300 C. Department head; chuzhang; 1 5-13 475 285 deputy head fuchuzhang II 9-16 360 240 III 12-20 300 200
D. Secretary mishu 1 9-20 360 200
II 11-22 320 180 III 15-26 255 140 E. Department section, kezhang 1 9-16 360 240
head II 12-18 300 220
III 14-22 270 180 F. Hospital director yiyuanzhang 1 10-22 340 180 II 13-25 285 150
G. Clinic head suozhang 1 13-22 285 180
II 16-25 240 150 III 19-28 210 120 H. Department section. keyuan 1 22-40 180 50
officer II 23-40 170 50
III 24-40 160 50
1. Section head duanzhang 1 9-16 360 240
II 12-19 300 210 III 17-23 230 170 J. Section, deputy fuduanzhang 1 13-22 285 180 K. Sub-section, head fenduanzhang 1 16-26 240 140 II 19-29 210 110 III 22-32 180 90 L. Sub-section, deputy fufenduanzhang 1 20-29 200 110 M. Station master. yidengzhanzhang 1 22-30 180 100
first class II 23-32 170 90
III 24-34 160 80 N. Station master, erdengzhanzhang 1 25-32 150 90
second class II 26-34 140 80
III 27-36 130 70 0 . Station master. sandengzhanzhang 1 28-38 120 60
third class II 29-38 110 60
III 30-38 100 60 P. Station master. fuzhanzhang 1 28-40 120 50
deputy II 30-40 100 50
III 34-40 80 50 Q. Train conductor chezhang 1 30-40 100 50 II 32-40 90 50 III 34-40 80 50
Source: Tiedao nianjian, 1, 1932, p. 146. Line class denotes the ranking of the administration as a first (I), second (II) or third class (III) line.