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Abstract Chinese statistic system was gradually built up during the period of Republican China.After the Directorate-General of Budgets,Accounts and Statistics of National Government came into existence,great progress were made in the creation of statistic laws,the establishment of statistic institutions,the unification and standardization of the statistic methods,and the publication of statistic magazines.A lot of statistic activities were organized, and a great deal of statistic data were published.The official statistic data involved various aspects of social changes,and included both departmental and general information.They are the primary source of comparative history and the proper object of quantitative methods.From them not only the branches of history which meet some difficulties in cleaning up historical data such as social history,but also the branches of history which have a better groundwork such as political and economic history benefit.However,they are not fully valued in the study of the history of Republican China,and this condition will not be changed in the near future,since the material collection and textual analyses of them are still in difficulty.
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Received: 25 June 2005
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