Domestic Product Certificate

 In the late nineteenth century, due to poor industrial development in China, China’s market was filled with foreign products. To prevent foreigners from obtaining all of the benefits and controlling the Chinese market, citizens started to boycott foreign products and promote domestic products. In 1905, to demonstrate their rights and maintain trade benefits, Chinese people began boycotting foreign products with the reason that Chinese laborers were persecuted by the American government. However, the boycott was not the fundamental solution. The Chinese government and the public focused on promoting domestic products, improving the quality and quantity of domestic products, and strengthening industrial development.


After the Republic of China was established, the Beijing government and the National government in Nanjing developed measures related to promoting domestic products and rewarding industrial development. In May of 1928, after the Jinan massacre, Chinese people boycotted Japanese products. Kong Xiangxi, the minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, suggested that domestic products should be certified officially to combat against foreign products which were often faked as domestic products and that foreign products should be examined strictly to prevent the spread of counterfeits. In June of the same year, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce declared the issue of Domestic Products Certificate Regulation, built the domestic products gallery, and held a Chinese domestic products exhibition. In December of 1930, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture and Mines were merged to form the Ministry of Basic Industries which became the Ministry of Economic Affairs in January 1938. During this period, the Domestic Products Certificate Regulation was modified many times.


At the Institution of Modern History, files from the Department of Industry of the Ministry of Basic Industries and of the Ministry of Economic Affairs contain discussions of provision amendments and demonstrate the process of applying for domestic product certificates. These files were very important historical materials for study.  

 

Related Collection  
1. The Domestic Products Certificate Regulation
  In 1928, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the national government declared the Domestic Products Certificate Regulation. The provisions contain rules enacted by the Domestic Products Standard Examination Committee.
     
2. The Domestic Products Certificate Receipt for Tiger Balm
  This is the receipt of a domestic products certificate applied by Haw Par Healthcare in July 1933, for the product Tiger Balm. Though the headquarters of Haw Par Healthcare was in Singapore, the establisher, Hu Wen-hu, was from Fujian province. SoTiger Balm was classified as a domestic product.
 
     
3. The Domestic Products Certificate Receipt for DARLIE
  This is the receipt for the domestic products certificate for DARLIE Toothpaste, the product of a Chinese company, Hawley & Hazel.
 

 

Text and images are provided by Digital Archives of Famous Personages, Diplomatic Records, and Economic Records in Modern China (Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica)