2 Reed, Christopher A., Gutenberg in Shanghai (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004), 188 Google Scholar.

3 See other cases in Cochran, Sherman, Encountering Chinese Networks (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000)Google Scholar. Regarding Chinese company law and its interaction with the state, see Kirby, William, “China unincorporated”, Journal of Asian Studies 54/1, 1995, 43–56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Liufang, Fang 方流芳, “Shi jie Jie Fucheng he Ke Bi de Zhongguo gongsi zhi mi 試解薛福成和柯比的中國公司之谜”, in Zhiping, Liang 梁治平 (ed.), Fazhi zai Zhongguo 法治在中國 (Beijing: Zhongguo zhengfa daxue chubanshe, 2002), 280–318 Google Scholar; Zhongmin, Zhang 張忠民, Jiannan de bian qian 艱難的變遷 (Shanghai: Shanghai shehuikexueyuan chubanshe, 2002)Google Scholar; Faure, David, China and Capitalism (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

4 Chandler, Alfred D., The Visible Hand (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1977)Google Scholar; Hannah, Leslie H., The Rise of the Corporate Economy, 2^nd ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

5 For discussion on the context of China, see So, Billy K.L. and Lee, Albert S., “Legalization of Chinese corporation, 1904–1929”, in So, Billy K.L. and Myers, Ramon H. (eds), The Treaty Port Economy in Modern China (Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 2011), 186–90Google Scholar. For a survey of corporate law and development of corporation in Japan, see Oda, Hiroshi, Japanese Law, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 218–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baum, Harold and Takahashi, Eiji, “Commercial and corporate law in Japan”, in Röhl, Wilhelm (ed.), History of Law in Japan Since 1868 (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 330–401 Google Scholar.

6 Feather, John, A History of British Publishing (London: Routledge, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chartier, Roger (ed.), The Culture of Print, Cochrane, Lydia G. (trans.) (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Darnton, Robert and Roche, Daniel (eds), Revolution in Print (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

7 Richter, Giles, “Entrepreneurship and culture”, in Hardacre, Helen and Kern, Adam L. (eds), New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 590–602 Google Scholar; J. Thomas Rimer, “Iwanami Shigeo's Meiji education”, in Hardacre and Kern, New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan, 136–50. There is also a substantial body of Chinese-language literature on the Commercial Press as well as other major Chinese publishers, e.g. Qihou, Zhou 周其厚, Zhonghua shuju yu jindai wenhua 中華書局與近代文化 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2007)Google Scholar.

8 Giles Richter, “Marketing the word” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1999); Zaisheng, Ye 葉再生, Zhongguo jindai xiandai chuban tongshi 中國近代現代出版通史 (Beijing: Huawen chubanshe, 2002)Google Scholar, vol. 2; Yuguang, Wang 王余光 and Yonggui, Wu 吳永貴, Zhongguo chuban tongshi – minguo juan 中國出版通史—民國卷 (Beijing: Zhongguo shuji chubanshe, 2008)Google Scholar; Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai.

9 These accounts are largely based on the existing scholarship but also include our own findings through archival search. Japanese and Chinese personal names in the accounts are written with their family names first, followed by their given names, following the conventions in Japan and China.

10 For instance, see Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai, 197–8. His explanation of their joint partnership is based on Manying, Ip, The Life and Times of Zhang Yuanji, 1867–1959 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1985)Google Scholar, which was commissioned by the Beijing Commercial Press in the early 1980s (Ip's book, written in English, has never been circulated widely and its Chinese translation is more accessible); Manying, Ye Song 葉宋曼瑛, Cong Hanlin dao chubanjia 從翰林到出版家, Renfeng, Zhang 張人鳳 and Zhenhuan, Zou 鄒振環 (trans.), (Hong Kong: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1992), 105–11Google Scholar. After the publication of Ip's book, an alternative explanation began to appear; cf, Reynolds, Douglas R., China, 1898–1912 (Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1993), 121–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Teruo, Tarumoto 樽本照雄 (ed.), Shōmuinshokan kenkyū ronshū 商務印書館研究論集 (Ōtsushi: Shinmatsu shōsetsu kenkyūkai, 2006), 7–42 Google Scholar; and his Shoki Shōmuinshokan kenkyū 初期商務印書館研究, rev. ed. (Ōtsushi: Shinmatsu shōsetsu kenkyūkai, 2004), 160–212 Google Scholar. More recent discussion on the subject can be found in Yu Yiwen 尤怡文, Chih Wong Ming-chu 遲王明珠, Su Jilang (Billy K.L. So) 蘇基朗 and So, Sufumi 蘇壽富美, “Jingangdang yu Shangwu yinshuguan 金港堂與商務印書館”, in Weiming, Wu 吳偉明 (ed.), Cong jinxiandai Zhong-Ri jiaoliushi kan xiandaixing ji shenfen rentong 從近現代中日交流史看現代性及身份認同 (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2012), 205–22Google Scholar.

11 The most detailed account is found in Inaoka Masaru 稲岡勝, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei 明治検定期の教科書出版と金港堂の経営”, Tōkyō toritsu chūō toshokan kenkyū kiyō 東京都立中央図書館研究紀要 24, 1994, 1–144; see also his “Kinkōdō shōshi 金港堂小史”, Tōkyō toritsu chūō toshokan kenkyū kiyō 東京都立中央図書館研究紀要 11, 1980, 63–135; “Meiji zenki kyōkasho shuppan no jittai to sono ichi 明治前期教科書出版の實態とその位置”, Shuppan kenkyū 出版研究 16, 1985, 72–125; “Meiji zenki monbushō no kyōkasho shuppan jigyō 明治前期文部省の教科書出版事業”, Shuppan kenkyū 出版研究 18, 1986, 1–53. For the early life of Ryōzaburō, our account is also based on one of his biographies: Mitsuyuki, Segawa 瀬川光行, “Hara Ryōzaburō den 原亮三郎伝”, in his Shōkaieiketsuden商海英傑伝 (Tokyo: Fuzanbō, 1893), 9/52–6Google Scholar.

12 Shūkan Asahi henshūbu 週刊朝日編集部, Nedan no Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa fūzoku shi 値段の明治・大正・昭和風俗史 (Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 1981)Google Scholar.

13 Shingo, Takeda 竹田進吾 and Satoshi, Tonoike 外池智, “Miyake Yonekichi no rekishi kyōikuron to Kinkōdō no rekishi kyōkasho 三宅米吉の歴史教育論と金港堂の歴史教科書”, Nihon kyōikushi kenkyū 日本教育史研究 26, 2007, 1–37 Google Scholar.

14 Kōshinjo, Tōkyō 東京興信所, Ginkō kaisha yōroku 銀行会社要録, 3rd ed. (Tokyo: Tōkyō Kōshinjo, 1912), 413–4 and 418Google Scholar.

15 Hara Ryōsaburō was indicted in the first round of 88 prosecutions in this bribery case in January 1903. See Magoroku, Iyama 井山孫六, Meiji minshūshi o aruku 明治民衆史を步く (Tokyo: Shin jinbutsu ōrai sha, 1980), 213–5Google Scholar. We thank Inaoka for bringing our attention to Iyama's work.

16 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 117–21.

17 Inaoka Masaru, “Kinkōdō shōshi”, 119–31.

18 Katsumi, Yahagi 矢作勝美, Dai-nippon tosho hyakunen-shi 大日本図書百年史 (Tokyo: Dai Nippon tosho kabushiki gaisha, 1992), 287 Google Scholar.

19 Yoshio, Takano 高野義夫, Meiji Taishō Shōwa Tōkyō jinmeiroku jōkan 明治大正昭和東京人名録上卷 (Tokyo: Nippon tosho sentā, 1989), 78 Google Scholar.

20 Teikoku himitsu tanteisha 帝囯秘密探偵社, Taishū jinjiroku 大衆人事録, 13th ed. (Tokyo: Teikoku himitsu tanteisha, 1939), 623 Google Scholar.

21 There is a growing body of literature in Chinese on the Commercial Press and its major figures including Zhang Yuanji and Wang Yunwu. Substantive monographic studies include Ye Song Manying, Cong Hanlin dao chubanjia; Jiarong, Wang 汪家熔, Shangwu yinshuguan shiji qita 商務印書館史及其他 (Beijing: Zhongguo shuji chubanshe, 1998)Google Scholar; Wu, Zhou 周武, Zhang Yuanji 張元濟 (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe, 1999)Google Scholar; Yang, Yang 楊揚, Shangwu yinshuguan 商務印書館 (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe, 2000)Google Scholar; and Jiaju, Li 李家駒, Shangwu yinshuguan yu jindai zhishi wenhua de chuanbo 商務印書館與近代知識文化的傳播 (Hong Kong: Xianggang zhongwen daxue chubanshe, 2007)Google Scholar, among others. Apart from Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai, 161–225, monograph theses in European languages on the Commercial Press include Drège, Jean-Pierre, La Commercial Press de Shanghai, 1897–1949 (Paris: Institut des hautes études chinoises, Collège de France, 1978)Google Scholar and Florence Chien, “The Commercial Press and modern Chinese publishing 1987–1949”, (MA thesis, University of Chicago, 1970). Culp, Robert, Articulating Citizenship (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007), 19–54 CrossRefGoogle Scholar provides a succinct account of the early history of the Commercial Press largely based on Reed.

22 Prior to its registration with the Qing Commercial Bureau in Shanghai, the company may have attempted to register in Hong Kong in 1905; see Su Jilang (Billy K.L. So) 蘇基朗, and Sufumi So 蘇壽富美, “Zaoqi Shangwu yu Xianggang 早期商務與香港”, Shanghai xue 上海學 4, forthcoming. Cf. Wang Fei-hsien, “Creating new order in the new knowledge economy” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2012), 178, n.16.

23 Zhou, Chang 長洲, “Shangwu yingshuguan zaoqi gudong 商務印書館的早期股東”, in Shangwu yinshuguan 商務印書館 (ed.), Shangwu yinshuguan jiushiwu nian 商務印書館九十五年 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1992), 642–55Google Scholar, esp. 650; Shangwu yinshuguan 商務印書館, “Shangwu yingshuguan chengji gailüe 商務印書館成績概略 (1914)”, in Yonggui, Wu 吳永貴 (ed.), Minguo shiqi chubanshiliao huibian 民國時期出版史科彚编 (Beijing: Guojia tushuguan chubanbu, 2013), 1/3–4Google Scholar; Shanghai newspaper Shenbao 申報, 1 February 1914.

24 Although the assassin was arrested and convicted, the case remained unresolved as the Xia family dropped their pursuit of its mastermind when the assassin was executed. For a brief account of the complexity of the case, see Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai, 216.

25 The company's own booklet Shangwu yinshuguan zhilüe 商務印書館志略 (Shanghai: Shanghai Shanghai Shangwu yinshuguan, 1928)Google Scholar explains these undertakings.

26 Florence Chien, “The Commercial Press”, holds the view that in the years between 1933 and 1936 the company experienced its most productive phase (p. 42), mainly based on the sheer number of books being published each year. However, more than 1.6 million copies of a single history textbook were printed in the 1930s, for instance. Cases such as this could have boosted the number of publications on record; see Yuan, Bi 畢苑, Jianzao changshi: jiaokeshu yu jindai Zhongguo wenhua zhuanxing 建造常識：教科書與近代中國文化轉型 (Fuzhou: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe, 2010), 158–9Google Scholar. The company's dominant position against its competitors in 1930 is discussed later in this article.

27 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 39–64; Li Jiaju, Shangwu yinshuguan yu jindai zhishi wenhua de chuanbo, 49–82, 161–71; Culp, Articulating Citizenship, 43–52.

28 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 76–8. Regarding competition among the three companies, see Yahagi Katsumi, Dai-nippon tosho hyakunen-shi, 39–52, 313.

29 Richter, “Entrepreneurship and culture”.

30 Culp, Articulating Citizenship, 43–52.

31 Shanghai Municipal Archives (SMA), file no. 313-1-128-67.

32 For the educational reforms and textbook system in the Meiji era, see Kokumin kyōiku shōreikai 囯民敎育獎励会 (ed.), Kyōiku gojūnenshi 敎育五十年史 (Tokyo: Nihon tosho sentā, 1982), 223–48Google Scholar; Yahagi Katsumi, Dai-nippon tosho hyakunen-shi, 13–38; Tomitarō, Karasawa 唐澤冨太郎, Kyōkasho no rekisi 教科書の歴史 (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1956), 146–90, 191–201 Google Scholar; Marshall, Byron K., Learning to Be Modern (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1994)Google Scholar; Lincicome, Mark E., Principle, Praxis, and the Politics of Educational Reform in Meiji Japan (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1995)Google Scholar; Duke, Benjamin, The History of Modern Japanese Education (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009)Google Scholar.

33 Yahagi Katsumi, Dai-nippon tosho hyakunen-shi, 195; Karasawa Tomitarō, Kyōkasho no rekishi, 201–27.

34 Tōkyō shoseki kabushiki gaisha 東京書籍株式會社 (ed.), Kyōkasho no hensen 教科書の變遷 (Tokyo: Tōkyō shoseki kabushiki gaisha, 1959), 551–63Google ScholarPubMed.

35 For an overview of China's education reform, see Xincheng, Shu 舒新城, Zhongguo jindai jiaoyushi ziliao 中國近代教育史資料 (Beijing: Renmin jiaoyu chubanshe, 1961)Google Scholar; Linxiang, Jin 金林祥 and Shusheng, Yu 于述胜, Zhongguo jiaoyu zhidu tongshi 中國敎育制度通史 (Jinan: Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe, 2000)Google Scholar.

36 Jianjun, Wang 王建軍, Zhongguo jinday jiaokeshu fachan yanjiu 中國近代教科書發展研究 (Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe, 1996), 105–27Google Scholar; Huaxing, Lee 李華興, Minguo jiaoyushi 民國敎育史 (Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu chubanshe, 1997), ch. 6Google Scholar; Ding, Gang, “Nationalization and internationalization”, in Peterson, Glen, Hayhoe, Ruth, and Lu, Yongling (eds), Education, Culture, and Identity in Twentieth-Century China (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2001), 161–92Google Scholar; Culp, Articulating Citizenship, 20–43; Jiarong, Wang 汪家熔, Minzuhun 民族魂 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2008)Google Scholar; Bi Yuan, Jiangzao changshi; Xiao'ou, Wu 吳小鷗, Zhongguo jindai jiaokeshu de qimeng 中國近代教科書的啟蒙價值 (Fuzhou: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe, 2011)Google Scholar; Norimasa, Kawakami 川上哲正, “Shinmatsu minkokuki ni okeru kyōkasho 清末民囯期における教科書”, in Yorihisa, Namiki 並木頼寿, Hiroaki, Ōsato 大里浩秋 and Yukio, Sunayama 砂山幸雄 (eds), Kindai chūgoku kyōkasho to Nippon 近代中囯教科書と日本 (Tokyo: Kenbun shuppan, 2010), 23–65 Google Scholar.

37 The normal practice was that private publishers were granted permission to publish school textbooks and local school boards authorized to choose from an array of textbooks on an open market.

38 There is an essay on the textbook review system of the Republican Era written by Zheng Hesheng 鄭鶴聲, “Sanshi'nianlai zhongyang zhengfu dui bianshenjiaokeshu de jiantao 三十年來中央政府對編審教科書的檢討”, in Wu Yonggui, Minguo shiqi chubanshiliao huibian, 1935, 16/1–48.

39 Shangwu yinshuguan 商務印書館, Shangwu yinshuguan shilüe 商務印書館史略 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1929)Google Scholar; Xiang, Wu 吴相, Cong yinshua zuofang dao chuban chongzhen 从印刷作坊到出版重镇 (Nanning: Guangxi jaioyu chubanshe, 1999)Google Scholar.

40 Tarumoto Teruo, Shōmuinshokan, 318–85; Ikuma, Sawamoto 沢本郁馬, “Shōmuinshokan to Kinkōdō no gōben kaiyaku sho 商務印書館と金港堂の合弁解約書”, Shinmatsu shōsetsu 清末小說 27, 2004, 93–133 Google Scholar.

41 Culp, Articulating Citizenship, 50–52.

42 For instance, in 1931 the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Education issued a directive calling on the publishing trade associations to include the GMD ideology in the textbooks published in Shanghai, which was reportedly carried out faithfully by the member publishers of the associations (SMA, file no. 313-1-161).

43 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 72–5, 85–6. For an account of the keen competition between Fuji Paper and its rival Ōji Paper Company Limited (Ōji seishi yūgensekinin gaisha 王子製紙有限責任会社) of Mitsui Zaibatsu, and their subsequent concerted efforts at co-ordination that created a competitive Japanese paper-making industry to compete in international paper markets, see Toshiyuki, Shinomiya 四宫俊之, Kindai nihon seishigyō no kyōsō to kyōchō 近代日本製紙業の競爭と協調 (Tokyo: Nihon keizai hyōronsha, 1997)Google Scholar.

44 This situation is succinctly mentioned in the Commercial Press's report to the Shanghai Municipal Government in the early 1930s. SMA, file no. 313-1-128-79.

45 Yuanji, Zhang 張元濟, Zhang Yuanji riji 張元濟日記 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1981)Google Scholar.

46 SMA, file no. 313-1-128-79.

47 Quanguo jingji weiyuanhui 全國經濟委員會 (ed.), Zhizhigongye baogaoshu 製纸工業報告書 (Nanjing: Quanguo jingji weiyuanhui, 1936)Google Scholar; Wenxi zhichang choubei weiyuanhui 温溪纸廠籌備委員會 (ed.), Zhongguo zaozhi gufenyouxiangongsi jihuishu 中國造紙股份有限公司計劃書 (Nanjing: Wenxi zhichang choubei weiyuanhui, 1935)Google Scholar. Wang Yunwu was named director of this proposed company to be set up in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. For more information on this company and its dissolution, see the Institute of Modern History Archives (IMHA, Academia Sinica), file no. 18-23-01-72-08-040.

48 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 76–85. On the Commercial Press's printing operations from its early years, see Li Jiaju, Shangwu yinshuguan yu jindai zhishi wenhua de chuanbo, 29; Ye Song Manying, Cong Hanlin dao chubanjia, 145–6. Reed provides a detailed account of technology transfer and expansion of the Commercial Press's printing operation. See Reed, Gutenburg in Shanghai, 128–60.

49 The lead founder of Tokyo Kikai was Nakamura Michita (中村道太), who was also one of the key founders and the first president of Yokohama Specie Bank in 1880 as well as the founder of No. 8 National Bank in 1877. Nakamura was close to Fukuzawa Yukichi and had earlier joined Maruya Trading Company (Maruya shōsha 丸屋商社) in Yokohama, which later turned into the renowned, long-lasting publisher Maruzen, one of the major textbook publishers, as mentioned earlier in this article. See Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 76–8. For Nakamura's banking career, see Takagaki Torajirō 高垣寅次郎, “Fukuzawa Yukichi no mittsu no shokan 福沢諭吉の三つの書翰”, Mita shōgaku kenkyū 三田商學研究4/4, 1961, 1–18.

50 The total could come to more than 1,500 yen. Wenzhe, Chen 陳文哲, Putong yingyong wulijiazokeshu 普通應用物理教科書 (Shanghai or Tokyo: Changming gongsi, 1907; available in the National Library in Beijing), 1–18 Google Scholar.

51 Shangwu yinshuguan, Shangwu yinshuguan shilüe, 43–47. Kenzaburō, Amagai 天海謙三郎 Chūkaminkoku jitsugyōmeikan 中華民國實業名鑑 (Shanghai: Tōa dōbunkai kenkyū hensanbu, 1934), 1115 Google Scholar.

52 For instance, one of the company's advertisements highlighted the recent high-profile hiring of a seasoned engineer, Zhou Hougun (周厚坤), who was educated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States and worked in a US aircraft manufacturing industry; see Nongshang gongbao 農商公報 [An Official Bulletin on Agriculture and Business], 15 May 1916 and 15 October 1919.

53 The Chinese typewriter was one of the award-winning products in the late 1920s, although the machine generated little profit in the 1930s and barely survived thanks to tax exemption that the government granted in protecting local industries. See IMHA, file no. 17-22-030-01.

54 Amagai Kenzaburō, Chūkaminkoku jitsugyōmeikan, 1115 and 1105 respectively. The Commercial Press also had a printing ink factory as its subsidiary but no more than 20 per cent of the total production was sold at least until 1927 (p. 738).

55 For the currency printing deal with Zhejiang Xingye (淅江興業) Bank, see SMA, file no. 6-268-1-606; for the one with Siming (四明) Bank, see SMA, file no. 6-4279-1-265-44; for the one with Yanye (鹽業) Bank and three other smaller banks, see SMA, file no. 3-4267-1-26-82.

56 For Japanese banking history in the Meiji era, see Teruo, Akashi 明石照男 and Norihisa, Suzuki 鈴木憲久, Nihon kin’yūshi 日本金融史 (Tokyo: Tōyō keizai shinpōsha, 1957–58)Google Scholar; Tamaki, Norio, Japanese Banking (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 28–136 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Chinese banking and its relationship with local corporations, see Xuncheng, Du 杜恂诚, Zhongguo jinrong tongshi, vol. 3: Beiyang zhengfu shiqi 中國金融通史第 3 卷: 北洋政府時期 (Beijing: Zhongguo jinrong chubanshe, 2002)Google Scholar; Yixiang, Li 李一翔, Jindai Zhongguo yinhang yu qiye de guanxi: 1897–1945 近代中國銀行與企業的關係: 1897–1945 (Hong Kong: Haixiao chuban shiye youxian gongsi, 1997)Google Scholar; Cheng, Linsun, Banking in Modern China: Entrepreneurs, Professional Managers, and the Development of Chinese Banks, 1897–1937 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)Google Scholar; Sheehan, Brett, Trust in Troubled Times (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

57 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 65–71.

58 Shinbun kiji bunko nippon 新聞記事文庫日本 (23-043) jiji-shinpō 時事新報, 13 March 1931–18 April 1931, http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/das/jsp/ja/ContentViewM.jsp?METAID=00484669&TYPE=IMAGE_FILE&POS=1 (retrieved 27 October 2013).

59 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 68–70.

60 Li Jiaju, Shangwu yinshuguan yu jindai zhishi wenhua de chuanbo, 28–9; Zhou Wu, Zhang Yuanji, 99–104.

61 Regarding Ye's role as director of the Commercial Press from 1913 to 1932, see Changzhou, Liang 梁長洲, “Shangwu yinshuguan lijie dongshi minlu 商務印書館歷屆董事名錄”, in Yuanfang, Song 宋原放 (ed.), Zhongguo chuban shiliao 中國出版史料近代部分 (Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe, 2004), 3/35–7Google Scholar. For a recent work on Zhejiang Industrial Bank, see Guosheng, Li 李國勝, Zhejiang xingye yinhang yanjiu 浙江興業銀行研究 (Shanghai: Shanghai caijing daxue chubanshe, 2009)Google Scholar.

62 Wu Xiang, Cong yinshua zuofang, 340. This practice was common among major Republican-era Chinese corporations; see Li Yixiang, Jindai Zhongguo yinhang yu qiye de guanxi, 211–3.

63 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 18–28, 86–93.

64 A sample retailing contract between a bookstore and Kinkōdō can be found in Masaru, Inaoka, “Zukai shuppan no rekishi (5) Meiji kentei kyōkasho no kyōkyūmō to Kinkōdō 図解・出版の歴史 (5) 明治検定教科書の供給網と金港堂”, Nihon shuppan shiryō 日本出版史料 9, 2004, 107–27Google Scholar. For the textbook supply chain system through designated local retail bookstores, see Yahagi Katsumi, Dai-nippon tosho hyakunen-shi, 266–88.

65 Li Jiaju, Shangwu yinshuguan yu jindai zhishi wenhua de chuanbo, 173–205.

66 Inaoka Masaru, “Meiji kenteiki no kyōkasho shuppan to Kinkōdō no keiei”, 35–64; also Karasawa Tomitarō, Kyōkasho no rekishi, 146–90.

67 See, for instance, Schneider, Axel, “Nation, history, and ethics: the choices of post-imperial historiography in China”, in Moloughney, Brian and Zarrow, Peter (eds), Transforming History (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2011), 271–302 Google Scholar; Peter Zarrow, “Discipline and narrative”, in Moloughney and Zarrow, Transforming History, 169–207.

68 On Zhang Yuanji's reformist association and his distancing himself from government appointments, see Zhou Wu, Zhang Yuanji, 42–53. On his relationship with GMD, see 84–92, 200–05.

69 Xiaoxu, Zheng 鄭孝胥, Zheng Xiaoxu riji 鄭孝胥日記 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1993), vols 2–3Google Scholar.

70 Ye Song Manying, Cong Hanlin dao chubanjia, 84–92.

71 Yang Yang, Shangwu yinshuguan, 83–5.

72 Regarding textbooks and state building, see Zinder, Yvonne Schula, “Propagating new ‘virtues’ – ‘patriotism’ in late Qing textbooks for the moral education of primary students”, in Lackner, Michael and Vittinghoff, Natascha (eds), Mapping Meanings (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 687–710 Google Scholar; Tsuchiya Hiroshi 土屋洋, “Shinmatsu no shūshin kyōkasho to Nipppon 清末の修身教科書と日本”, in Namiki Yorihisa et al., Kindai Chūgoku kyōkasho to Nippon, 286–328.

73 Hakubunkan also used a vertical integration model as its shipping and transportation businesses contributed significantly to the efficient distribution of its books and magazines; see Richter, “Entrepreneurship and culture”.

74 Mumby, Frank Arthur, Publishing and Bookselling, fifth ed. (London: Jonathan Cape, 1974)Google Scholar, Part Two, authored by Ian Norrie, 235; cited in Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai, 339, n. 82. We thank an anonymous reviewer for bringing this point to our attention.

75 For a succinct review of the literature on the idea of reputation in business history, see C. Kobrak, “The concept of reputation in business history”, Business History Review 87, Winter 2013, 763–86.