Between 1939 to 1943, the economy of Indochina entered a period of growth and diversification. Economic development fostered a new class of entrepreneurs while rivalry between French and Japanese for the support of the Vietnamese facilitated the rise of many Vietnamese to higher administrative posts. The economy declined from late 1943 when war and isolation began to take their toll and finally collapsed in 1945, culminating in famine, increasing inequality among the population, and finally a breakdown in the traditional social structure. These were preconditions for the revolution in August 1945. In this book, the author traces and analyses the changes in economic policy and in the mechanism governing the economic life of Vietnam that enabled it to survive wartime conditions of blockade and isolation. He also looks at how these changes have a profound effect on the history of modern Vietnam.