Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T22:17:13.512Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Britain's Men on the Spot in China: John Jordan, Yuan Shikai, and the Reorganization Loan, 1912–1914*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2012

HIRATA KOJI
HIRATA KOJI*
Affiliation:
School of Legal and Political Studies, University of Tokyo Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper I examine British policy towards the Yuan Shikai government in China between 1912 and 1914 through a consideration of the role of Britain's ‘men on the spot’ in China (i.e. British diplomats and bankers resident there). In doing so, I synthesize two bodies of literature that rarely interact: British imperial history and work by China historians. Three main elements shaped British policy in China: first, British policy-makers were determined to support Yuan Shikai's consolidation of power in China; second, in the making of its China policy, the Foreign Office relied heavily on Britain's men on the spot; and, finally, these men were anxious about the vulnerability of the Yuan Shikai government and were therefore manipulated to a certain extent by Chinese politicians. I suggest that British policy-makers were reacting to, rather than controlling, Chinese politics and that in this period collaboration with British imperialism was a rational choice for the Yuan Shikai government.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , May 2013 , pp. 895 - 934
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This project has been completed with the constant advice, help, and encouragement of Professor Robert Bickers. I also would like to thank Professor Kitaoka Shinichi, Professor Hirano Satoshi, Benjamin Charlton, Professor Ho & Hon-wai, Jon Howlett, Koike Motomu, Professor Kubo Toru, Professor Mitsuta Tsuyoshi, Professor Okamoto Takashi, Professor Sakai Tetsuya, Yin Xinhua, Professor Bu Ping, Professor Hattori Ryuji, Hirano Tatsushi, Professor Kim Seung-Young, & Nik Krause, Ma Xiaojuan, Professor Ian Nish, Professor Niu Dayong, & Professor Nojima-Kato Yoko, Professor Sato Shinichi, Professor Shimizu Yuichiro, Yamada Makio, Yoneyama Tadahiro, two anonymous referees, my grandmother, my mother, and Yuan Zhe. My research was supported by a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

References

1 Referred to hereafter as ‘the Hongkong Bank’ or, simply, ‘the Bank’.

2 Sheng, Hu, Diguozhuyi yu Zhongguo zhengzhi [Imperialism and Chinese Politics] (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1955; first edition 1952), pp. 140–41Google Scholar. See also Gangling, Wang, Minchu lieqiang duihua daikuan zhi lianhe kongzhi: liangci shanhou dajiekuan zhi yanjiu [The Powers’ Joint Control Over the Loans to Early Republican China: Study of the Two Reorganization Loans] (Taipei: Sili Dongwu daxue, 1982), pp. 28–64Google Scholar, 141–230. All citations from sources in Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and French were translated by the author.

3 Enshou, Soejima, ‘Zengo shakkan no seiritsu [The Conclusion of the Reorganisation Loan]’ in Hidemi, Onogawa and Kinji, Shimada (eds), Shingai kakumei no kenkyu [Study of the 1911 Revolution] (Tokyo: Chikuma shobo, 1978), pp. 317–46Google Scholar. Kumiko, Andou, ‘Shingai kakumei undou to teikokushugi [The 1911 Revolution Movement and Imperialism]’, Chikaki ni arite, 32, 1997, pp. 3–22Google Scholar.

4 Chen, Jerome, Yuan Shih-k'ai, 1859–1916: Brutus Assumes the Purple (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961)Google Scholar; Young, Ernest P., The Presidency of Yuan Shih-k'ai: Liberalism and Dictatorship in Early Republican China (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1977)Google Scholar.

5 Edwards, E. W., British Diplomacy and Finance in China, 1895–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Lowe, Peter, Great Britain and Japan, 1911–15: A Study of Far Eastern Policy (London: Macmillan, 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shinichi, Kitaoka, Nihon rikugun to tairiku seisaku, 1906–1918 nen [The Japanese Army and Continental Policy, 1906–1918] (Tokyo: Tokyo daigaku shuppankai, 1978)Google Scholar.

6 Cain, P. J. and Hopkins, A. G., British Imperialism, 1688–2000, 2nd edition (London; Harlow: Longman, 2002), p. 376Google Scholar.

7 Qihua, Tang, ‘Beiyang waijiao yanjiu pingjie [Research Survey on the Diplomacy of the Beiyang Government]’, Lishi yanjiu, 1, 2004, pp. 99–113Google Scholar; Shin, Kawashima, Chuugoku kindai Gaikou no keisei [The Making of Modern Chinese Diplomacy] (Nagoya: Nagoya daigaku shuppankai, 2004)Google Scholar.

8 Qihua, Tang, ‘Zhongguo dui ershiyi tiao de dizhi: jianlun waijiaoshi zhong de shenhua yu shishi [China's Resistance to the Twenty-one Demands: Myth and Facts in Diplomatic History]’, in Kuanzhong, Huang (ed.), Jitiao yu bianzou: qi dao ershi shiji de Zhongguo [Keynote and Variation: China from the Seventh to the Twentieth Centuries] (Taipei: History Department, National Cheng-chi University, 2008), Vol. 3, pp. 333–50Google Scholar; Lu Shenhua, ‘Yuan Shikai zhengfu yu Zhong-Ri ershiyi tiao jiaoshe [The Yuan Shikai Government and the Sino-Japanese Negotiations on the Twenty-one Demands]’, MA thesis, Zhongxing University, 2000.

9 For recent Chinese scholarship on the Reorganization Loan negotiations, see Linghe, Ma, ‘Diankuan wenti yu minguo chunian de zhengzhi dongtang [The Problem of Loan Advancements and Political Turmoil in the First Years of the Republic]’, Anhui daxue xuebao: zhexue shehuikexue ban, 4, 1997, pp. 509–14Google Scholar; Limao, Chen and Jun, Ma, ‘Tuoxie yu kangzheng: Xiong Xiling yu shanhou dajiekuan [Compromise and Confrontation: Xiong Xiling and the Reorganisation Loan]’, Shilin, 4, 2003, pp. 23–29Google Scholar, 123.

10 Kit-Ching, Chan Lau, ‘British Policy in the Reorganization Loan to China, 1912–13’, Modern Asian Studies, 5 (4) 1971, pp. 355–72Google Scholar; Kit-Ching, Chan Lau, Anglo-Chinese Diplomacy, 1906–1920: In the Careers of Sir John Jordan and Yuan Shih-k'ai (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1978)Google Scholar.

11 For Van de Ven's description of Robert Hart as a ‘man in the middle’, see Hans, van de Ven, ‘Robert Hart and Gustav Detring during the Boxer Rebellion’, Modern Asian Studies, 40 (3) 2006, pp. 631–62Google Scholar.

12 There are already many studies on the history of Britons and other foreigners in China, notably those by Robert Bickers, but these are more focused on the social and economic history dimension than political and diplomatic history: see Feuerwerker, Albert, The Foreign Establishment in China in the Early Twentieth Century (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bickers, Robert, Britain in China: Community, Culture and Colonialism, 1900–1949 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999)Google Scholar; Bickers, Robert, Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003)Google Scholar; Bickers, Robert, The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832–1914 (London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press, 2011)Google Scholar; Eiichi, Motono, Dentou Chuugoku shougyou chitsujo no houkai: Fubyoudou jouyaku taisei to ‘eigo wo hanasu Chugokujin [The Collapse of the Traditional Chinese Commercial Order: The Unequal Treaty Regime and the English-speaking Chinese] (Nagoya: Nagoya daigaku shuppankai, 2004)Google Scholar.

13 Galbraith, John S., ‘The “Turbulent Frontier” as a Factor in British Expansion’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2 (2) 1960, pp. 150–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar (citation from p. 168).

14 Scholch, Alexander, ‘The “Men on the Spot” and the English Occupation of Egypt in 1882’, Historical Journal, 19 (3) 1976, pp. 773–85Google Scholar.

15 Nobuhiko, Tamaki, ‘Japan hanzu: henyou suru nichibei kankei to bei seiken nihon senmonka no shisen, 1965–68 nen [Japan Hands: the Japan–United States Relations in Transition and the Perceptions of the Japan Specialists of the United States Government, 1965–68]’, Shisou, 1017, 2009, pp. 102–32Google Scholar.

16 Varè, Daniele, Laughing Diplomat (London: J. Murray, 1938), p. 119Google Scholar.

17 Platt, D. C. M., The Cinderella Service: British Consuls since 1825 (London: Longman, 1971), pp. 52, 180–230Google Scholar. For the service's earliest days, see Fairbank, John King, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: the Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842–1854 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969), pp. 155–75Google Scholar.

18 ‘Obituary: Sir John Jordan: a Great Authority on China’, The Times, 15 September 1925. Coates, Patrick Devereux, China Consuls: British Consular Officers, 1843–1943 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 301–02Google Scholar.

19 Jordan, John N., ‘Modern China’, The Nineteenth Century, 20, 1886, pp. 40–50Google Scholar (citations from pp. 43, 46–47).

20 Li Wenjie, ‘WanQing Zongli Yamen de Zhangjing kaoshi: Jianlun Keju Zhiduxia waijiaoguan de xuanren [The Examination of the Late-Qing Zongli Yamen Staff: Recruitment of Diplomats under the Civil Examination System]’, Jindaishi yanjiu (Second Issue, 2011), pp. 107–23.

21 O'Conor to Sanderson, 4 February 1895, the National Archives (Kew) [hereafter TNA], FO 17/1246.

22 O'Conor to the Marquis of Salisbury, 10 October 1895, TNA, FO 17/1245.

23 Chan, Anglo-Chinese Diplomacy, pp. 4–8.

24 Morrison to Valentine Chirol, 5 May 1905, in Hui-Min, Lo (ed.), The Correspondence of G.E. Morrison, two volumes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976–1978), Vol. 1, pp. 298–301Google Scholar.

25 Isabella Jackson, ‘Managing Shanghai: The International Settlement Administration and the Development of the City, 1900–1943’, PhD thesis, University of Bristol, 2012. For the roles of settlers in colonialism, see Elkins, Caroline and Pedersen, Susan (eds), Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century: Projects, Practices, Legacies (New York: Routledge, 2005)Google Scholar; Bickers, Robert (ed.), Settlers and Expatriates: Britons Over the Seas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Bickers, Robert, ‘Shanghailanders: The Formation and Identity of the British Settler Community in Shanghai 1843–1937’, Past and Present, 159, 1998, pp. 161–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar (citation from p. 192). Also see Robert Bickers ‘Shanghailanders and Others: British Communities in China, 1843–1957’, in Bickers (ed.), Settlers and Expatriates, pp. 269–301.

27 Jordan, ‘Modern China’, pp. 46–47. Also see Motono, Dentou Chuugoku shougyou chitsujo no houkai.

28 Platt, The Cinderella Service, p. 180.

29 ‘The British Legation at Peking’, North China Herald [hereafter NCH], 6 April 1906, pp. 11–12.

30 Shigeki, Iwai, Chuugoku kinsei zaiseishi no kenkyuu [A Study on the Fiscal History of Early Modern China] (Kyoto: Kyouto daigaku gakujutsu shuppankai, 2004), pp. 118–58Google Scholar; Jian, Zhou, ‘Qingdai de tianfu yu difang caizheng [Land Tax and Local Finance in the Qing Era]’, Paper presented at the History Department, Peking University, 22 October 2009Google Scholar. However, it would be too simplistic to assume that the viceroys and governors became prototypes of ‘warlords’ shortly after the Taiping. See Ven, Hans van de, ‘Military and Financial Reform in the late Qing and Early Republic’, in zu, Zhongyang yanjiu yuan jindaishi yanjiusuo shehuijingjishi (ed.), Caizheng yu jindai lishi lunwen ji [Essays on Finance and Modern History] (Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1999), pp. 17–103Google Scholar, especially pp. 27–28.

31 Kousaku, Tamura, Shina gaisai shi ron [A History of China's Foreign Loans], revised edition (Tokyo: Gaikou jihou sha, 1936), pp. 27–51Google Scholar; Van de Ven, ‘Military and Financial Reform’, pp. 34–35.

32 Hon-wai, Ho [He Hanwei], ‘Qingji zhongyang yu gesheng caizheng guanxi de fansi [Reflection on the Relations Between the Capital and Local Provinces in the Qing Period]’, Zhongyangyanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan, 72 (3) 2001, pp. 597–698Google Scholar, especially the table on pp. 612–13.

33 Japan's surprising victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 brought to a close the final phase of the so-called ‘scramble for concessions’ in China: see Otte, T. G., The China Question: Great Power Rivalry and British Isolation, 1894–1905 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 For a classic account of the concept of collaboration, see Robinson, Ronald, ‘Non-European Foundations of European Imperialism: Sketch for a Theory of Collaboration’, in Owen, Roger and Sutcliffe, Bob (eds), Studies in the Theory of Imperialism (London: Longman, 1972), pp. 117–42Google Scholar. The collaboration policy that I discuss here may be comparable to the ‘cooperation’ policy initiated by Minister Bruce after the Arrow War, which aimed at both cooperation among foreign powers and cooperation with the Qing authorities, especially through support for Robert Hart: see Bickers, The Scramble for China, Chapter 7.

35 Quoted in Van de Ven, ‘Robert Hart and Gustav Detring’, p. 76.

36 Seiichirou, Yoshizawa, Tenshin no kindai: shinmatsu toshi ni okeru seiji bunka to shakai tougou [Modernity of Tianjin: Political Culture and Social Integration in the Late Qing City] (Nagoya: Nagoya daigaku shuppankai, 2002), pp. 158–95Google Scholar; Kazuyoshi, Hirano, ‘Gunbatsu seiken no keizaikiban: koutsuukei koutsuu ginkou no doukou [Economic Bases of the Warlord Government: The Communications Clique and the Bank of Communications]’, in Yutaka, Nozawa and Masatoshi, Tanaka (eds), Kouza Chuugoku kingendaishi [Seminar on Modern and Contemporary Chinese History] (Tokyo: Toukyou daigaku shuppankai, 1978), Vol. 4, pp. 53–83Google Scholar.

37 Chan, Anglo-Chinese Diplomacy, p. 28.

38 Grey to Macdonald, 21 February 1911, TNA, FO 371/1062. Also see Memorandum by E. G. Hillier and H. Cordes, 22 June 1911, HSBC Group Archives, London, SHGI 0159.

39 Jordan to Grey, 26 November 1911; 1 December 1911; 3 December 1911, TNA, FO 371/1096.

40 Jordan to Grey; Minutes by Nicolson and Grey, 1 December, TNA, FO 371/1096.

41 Harry de Gray to D. Siffert, 14 December 1911; Wu Ting Fang to D. Siffert, 16 December 1911; Records of Shanghai Municipal Council, Shanghai Municipal Archives, Shanghai, U1-1-733.

42 Jordan to Langley, 30 January 1912, Private, Jordan Papers, TNA, FO 350/8.

43 Merrill to Aglen, S/O, No. 107, 7 November 1911, Papers of Henry F. Merrill, Letterbook, Vol. 6, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This material was provided by Professor Okamoto Takashi.

44 Jordan to Campbell, 10 November 1911, Private, Jordan Papers, TNA, FO 350/7; Memorandum by Aglen, 10 November 1911, TNA, FO 228/2219.

45 Takashi, Okamoto, ‘Shingaikakumei to kaikan [The 1911 Revolution and the Maritime Customs]’, Chikaki ni arite, 39, 2001, pp. 45–61Google Scholar; Wright, Stanley F., The Collection and Disposal of the Maritime and Native Customs Revenue Since the Revolution of 1911, 2nd edition (Shanghai: Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs, 1927), pp. 5–6Google Scholar.

46 I. G.'s Semi-official Circular, 14 March 1912, Archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs, the Second Historical Archives, Nanjing, 679(9)/1326.

47 Ijuin to Uchida, 8 February, Diplomatic Record Office, Tokyo, 1–7-1–5.

48 Foreign Minister to Finance Minister Kokovtsov, 25 March 1912, Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya v epokhu imperializma: dokumenty iz arkhivov tsarskogo i vremennogo pravitelstv 1878–1917 (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoye Sotsialno-Ekonomicheskoye Izdatelstvo, 1931–), 19-II, p. 328.

49 The United States withdrew from the Six-Power Consortium shortly before the conclusion of the loan agreement.

50 Minute by J. D. Gregory, 26 August 1912, TNA, FO 371/1321.

51 Note dated 11 March 1912, Archives Diplomatiques (la Courneuve, France), Correspondance Politique et Commerciale: 1897 à 1918, Nouvelle Série, Chine, NS357.

52 Minute by J. D. Gregory, 26 August 1912, TNA, FO 371/1321.

53 Minister of Foreign Affairs’ telegram to Peterbourg, 25 March 1912, Archives Diplomatiques (la Courneuve, France), Correspondance Politique et Commerciale: 1897 à 1918, Nouvelle Série, Chine, NS357.

54 Addis to Simon, 2 April 1912, in Addis to Langley, 2 April 1912, TNA, FO 371/1316.

55 King, Frank, History of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, four volumes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987–1991), Vol. II, pp. 164–66Google Scholar.

56 Dayer, Roberta Allbert, Finance and Empire: Sir Charles Addis, 1861–1945 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988), p. 71Google Scholar.

57 Draft telegram to Peking, dated 15 May 1912, in Addis to Foreign Office, & 17 May 1912, TNA, FO 371/1318.

58 Copy of telegram received from Peking, 24 June 1912, in Addis to Foreign Office, 25 June 1912, TNA, FO 371/1320; Text of verbal communication made by six ministers, 9 July 1912, TNA, FO 228/2349.

59 Letter by Xiong Xiling, 22 September 1912, Archives of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Beiyang zhengfu waijiaobu dang'an [Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Beiyang Government], 03-20-010–01.

60 Telegram to Representative Shen in Austria, 10 July 1912; Letter from Representative Wu in Italy, 14 August 1912; Letter from Representative Liu in the Netherlands, no date (received on 3 October 1912), Archives of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Beiyang zhengfu waijiaobu dang'an, 03-20-010-01.

61 Grey to J. Jordan, 23 August 1912, TNA, FO 371/1321.

62 Minute by J. D. Gregory, 26 August 1912, TNA, FO 371/1321.

63 Minute by Grey, 27 August 1912, TNA, FO 371/1321.

64 Grey to Jordan, 30 August 1912, TNA, FO 371/1321.

65 Jordan to Grey, 3 September 1912, TNA, FO 371/1322.

66 Grey to Jordan, 9 September 1912, TNA, FO 371/1322.

67 E. Bruce Hart to Aglen, 15 June 1912, Archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs, the Second Historical Archives, Nanjing, 679(1)/31840.

68 Jordan to Max Muller, 17 June 1912, Private, Jordan Papers, TNA, FO 350/8.

69 Jordan to Grey, 19 September 1912, TNA, FO 371/1322.

70 Extract from letter from Jordan to Alston, 18 September 1912, TNA, FO 371/1322.

71 Grey to Bertie, Granville, Buchanan, Bryce, and MacDonald, 27 September 1912, TNA, FO 371/1322.

72 British Ambassador to Uchida, 24 October 1912, Nihon Gaikou monjo [Papers of Japanese Diplomacy] (Tokyo: Gaimushou, 1954-), Vol. 45–2, pp. 551–52. Note à l'Ambassade d'Angleterre, 26 Octobre 1912, Documents Diplomatiques Français (Paris: Impremerie Nationale, 1929-), 3-IV, pp. 257–58.

73 Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank to all the Groups, 4 November 1912, in Addis to Foreign Office, 5 November 1912, TNA, FO 371/1324.

74 ‘Zhongguo guowu huiyi jueyi jiekuan dakang [Outline of the Resolution by the National Council on the Loan]’, in yanjiusuo, Zhongguo shehuikexue yuan jindaishi (ed.), Beiyang junfa [Beiyang Warlords] (Wuhan: Wuhan chubanshe, 1990), Vol. 2, pp. 200–01Google Scholar.

75 ‘The Chinese Government Reorganization Loan Agreement’, 26 April 1913, in Addis to Foreign Office, 25 June 1913, FO 371/1594. ‘Zhongguo zhengfu shanhou dajiekuan hetong [The Contract of the Chinese Government Reorganisation Loan]’, 26 April 1913, in Yao, Sun (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shiliao [Historical Sources of the Republic of China] (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1966)Google Scholar.

76 Record of a conversation between Japanese and French ministers and Lu Zhengxian, 15 January 1913, in dang'anguan, Zhongguo dier lishi (ed.), Zhonghua minguoshi dang'an shiliao huibian [The Compiled Archival Sources on the History of the Republic of China], 3-2 (Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1991), pp. 1019–021Google Scholar; Jordan to Grey, 7 February 1913, TNA, FO 371/1591.

77 M. Conty, Ministre de France à Pékin, à M. Jonnart, Ministre des Affaires Étrangères, T. 11, 4 février 1913, Documents Diplomatiques Français, 3-V, pp. 402–03; Aglen to Tsai Ting-kan [Cai Ting'gan], 27 February 1913, Archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs, the Second Historical Archives, Nanjing, 679(1)/32832.

78 Memorandum by Mayers, 4 April 1913, SHGI 0211, HSBC Group Archives.

79 Ijuin to Makino, 10 April 1913, Nihon gaikou monjo [The Second Year of Taisho], Vol. 2, pp. 167–68; Conty to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, telegram, 7 April 1913, Archives Diplomatiques (la Courneuve, France), Correspondance Politique et Commerciale: 1897 à 1918, Nouvelle Série, Chine, NS367.

80 Copy of telegram despatched to Peking, 14 April 1913, in Addis to Foreign Office, 14 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593.

81 Jordan to Grey, 14 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593.

82 Hillier to Jordan, 15 April 1913; and Sidney Barton's comment, 15 April 1913, on it, TNA, FO 228/2355; Copy of telegram received from Peking, 15 April 1913, communicated by HSB, 15 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593.

83 Foreign Office to Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, 16 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593.

84 Addis to Foreign Office, 16 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593.

85 Telegram from Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Shanghai, to Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Peking, 25 April 1913, TNA, FO 228/2355.

86 Copy of telegram from Stabb to Addis, 25 April 1913, in Jones to Foreign Office, 26 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593; Addis diaries, 26 April 1913, Archives and Special Collections Library, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Papers of Sir Charles Stewart Addis, PPMS 14/Charles Addis/Box 3.

87 Minute by Langley, 26 April 1913, on Jones to Foreign Office, 26 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593.

88 Jordan to Grey, 27 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593. The Japanese minister in Beijing, however, said the contract was signed at half past three: Ijuin to Makino, 27 April 1913, Diplomatic Record Office, Tokyo, 1-7-1-22.

89 Minute by J. D. G., 28 April 1913, on Jordan to Grey, 27 April 1913, TNA, FO 371/1593.

90 With regard to China's domestic politics, this paper owes much to Jiannong, Li, Zhongguo jinbainian zhengzhishi [Chinese Political History of the Recent 100 Years] (Taipei: Taiwan Shangwuyin shuguan, 1998Google Scholar; originally published in 1942); Shoukong, Li, Minchu zhi guohui [The Parliament of the Early Republic] (Taipei: Zhongguo xueshu zhuzuo jiangzhu weiyuanhui, 1964)Google Scholar; Hiroshi, Tanaka, ‘Minkoku gannen no seiji to Sou Kyoujin [Politics in the First Year of the Republic and Song Jiaoren]’, Rekishigaku kenkyuu, 615, 1991, pp. 1–15, 30Google Scholar; Hiroaki, Yokoyama, Chuuka minkoku shi: sensei to minshu no soukoku [History of Republican China: Contest Between Despotism and Democracy] (Tokyo: Sanichi shobou, 1996), pp. 11–53Google Scholar; , YokoyamaChuugoku no seiji kiki to dentouteki shihai [Political Crisis and Traditional Rule in China] (Tokyo: Kenbun shuppan, 1996), pp. 323–44Google Scholar.

91 Minister in Beijing to the Foreign Minister, 1 June 1912, Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya v epokhu imperializma, 20-1, pp. 106–07.

92 Jordan to Langley, 4 May 1912, Private, Jordan Papers, TNA, FO 350/8.

93 Telegram from Ziqi, Zhou and Shiyi, Liang in Beijing, 16 April 1912, Xiong Xiling xiansheng yigao [Papers of the Late Mr Xiong Xiling], five volumes (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 1998), Vol. 1, p. 265Google Scholar.

94 Minlibao, 27 May 1912; Telegram to provincial governors, 24 May 1912, in weiyuanhui, Zhongguo guomindang zhongyang weiyuanhui dangshi (ed.), Huang Keqiang xiansheng quanji [Completed Work of Mr Huang Xing] (Taibei: zhongyang wenwu gongyingshe, 1973), pp. 241–43Google Scholar.

95 ‘Dazongtong pi caizheng zongzhang Xiong Xiling zaiqing cizhi cheng [President's Comments on Finance Minister Xiong Xiling's Second Request for Resignation]’, Zhengfu gongbao, 16 July 1912.

96 Telegram to Finance Minister Zhou, 12 September 1912, Xiong Xiling xiansheng yigao, Vol. 5, p. 4321.

97 Minlibao, 19 September 1912.

98 Li, Zhongguo jinbainian zhengzhishi, p. 381.

99 Minlibao, 7 October 1912.

100 Letter to Finance Minister Zhou, 12 September 1912, Xiong Xiling xiansheng yigao, Vol. 5, p. 4321; Letter to Finance Ministry, 22 September 1912, Xiong Xiling xiansheng yigao, Vol. 5, p. 4327.

101 Ijuin to Uchida, 11 September 1912, Nihon Gaikou monjo, Vol. 45-2, pp. 466–67.

102 Notes of Mr Chou Hsueh His's interview with Mr Hillier and Mr Mayers, 14 November 1912, TNA, FO 228/2351.

103 ‘Linshi dazongtong ling [Ordinance by Provisional President]’, 30 November 1912, Zhengfu gongbao, 1 December 1912.

104 Liang Qichao, ‘Yanzheng zazhi xu [Foreword to Yanzheng zazhi]’, Yanzheng zazhi, 1 January 1913. Talk at the Yanzheng taolunhui [Society for the Discussion of Salt Policy], 12 December 1912, in Xiong Xiling ji [Works of Xiong Xiling], three volumes (Changsha: Hunan chubanshe, 1996), Vol. 2, pp. 591–92. Also see Jun, Watanabe, ‘Shingai kakumei ki ni okeru ensei kaikaku undou (II): kaikakuha to hoshuha no tairitsu wo chuushin toshite [Salt Reform Movement During the Period of the 1911 Revolution (II): Rivalry Between the Reformists and the Conservatives]’, Kumamoto daigaku kyoiku gakubu kiyou: jinbun kagaku, 28, 1979, pp. 33–74Google Scholar.

105 Minlibao, 20 and 23 September 1912.

106 Ijuin to Uchida, 9 October 1912, Nihon gaikou monjo, Vol. 45-2, pp. 526–28.

107 Lu, Zou, Zhongguo guomindang shi gao [Manuscript of the History of the Guomingdang] (Shanghai: Minzhi shuju, 1929), p. 957Google Scholar.

108 Calhoun to Knox, 15 July 1912, US Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1912, pp. 146–47.

109 Dialogue between the president and British Minister Jordan, 25 September 1912, Archives of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Beiyang zhengfu waijiaobu dang'an, 03-20-010-01.

110 Wilkinson to Jordan, 26 July 1912, TNA, FO 228/2349.

111 Maze to Aglen, 24 June 1912, Archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs, the Second Historical Archives, Nanjing, 679(1)/32385.

112 Hillier to Addis, 29 June 1912, in Addis to Foreign Office, 13 July 1912, TNA, FO 371/1320.

113 Jordan to Grey, 29 April 1912, TNA, FO 371/1318.

114 Conty to Poincaré, 9 October 1912, Documents Diplomatiques Français, 3-IV, pp. 92–93.

115 Jordan to Langley, 6 April 1913, Alston Papers, TNA, FO 800/246.

116 Conty to Pichon, 22 April 1913, Documents Diplomatiques Français, 3-VI, pp. 408–09.

117 Ariyoshi to Makino, Telegram, 1 April 1913, Diplomatic Record Office, Tokyo, 5-3-2-135-1.

118 Hillier to the representatives of the German, French, Russian, and Japanese groups, 16 April 1913, Confidential, TNA, FO 228/2355.

119 Ijuin to Makino, 18 April 1913, Diplomatic Record Office, Tokyo, 1-7-1-22.

120 Telegram from Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Shanghai, to Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Peking, 25 April 1913, TNA, FO 228/2355.

121 Telegram from Hillier to Stephen, 25 April 1913, TNA, FO 228/2355.

122 Jordan to Hillier, 25 April 1913, HSBC Group Archives, London, SHGI 0302/001; Ijuin to Makino, 25 April 1913, Diplomatic Record Office, Tokyo, 1-7-1-22.

123 Conty to Pichon, 28 April 1913, Archives Diplomatiques (la Courneuve, France), Correspondance Politique et Commerciale: 1897 à 1918, Nouvelle Série, Chine, NS367. Zhang and Wang were educated in France and the United States respectively.

124 Yaxiya ribao, 30 April 1913, cited in yanjiushi, Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan jindaishi yanjiusuo Zhonghua minguo shi (ed.), Minchu zhengzheng yu erci geming [Political Rivalry in the Early Republic and the Second Revolution], two volumes (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1983), Vol. 1, p. 255Google Scholar.

125 Conty to Pichon, 28 April 1913, Archives Diplomatiques (la Courneuve, France), Correspondance Politique et Commerciale: 1897 à 1918, Nouvelle Série, Chine, NS367.

126 Telegram for Paris, 27 April 1913, TNA, FO 228/2355.

127 Fraser to Jordan, 25 April 1913, Private, TNA, FO 228/2355.

128 ‘The Loan Once More’, 22 April 1913, NCH, 26 April 1913, pp. 234–35. Also see Edw. F. Mackay to T. Raaschou, 5 June 1914, in Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce to W. E. Leveson, Records of Shanghai Municipal Council, Shanghai Municipal Archives, Shanghai, U1-1-734; Maze to Bowra, 24 July 1913, Archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs, the Second Historical Archives, Nanjing, 679(1)/32385.

129 Chan, Anglo-Chinese Diplomacy, pp. 72–74.

130 Maze to Aglen, 24 April 1913, the Second Historical Archives, Nanjing, Archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs, 679(1)/32386. Also, upon the request of the foreign consuls-general in Shanghai, the Shanghai Municipal Council notified a Guomindang leader that ‘. . . you are not permitted to remain in or enter the Foreign Settlement of Shanghai. If found within the limits of the Settlement after receipt of this notice you will render yourself liable to arrest [sic] by the Police.’ D. Siffert to E. C. Pearce, 11 August 1913; Shanghai Municipal Council to Chen Chi Mei [Chen Qimei], Shanghai Municipal Archives, Shanghai, Records of Shanghai Municipal Council, U1-1-734.

131 French Consul General in Shanghai to Pichon, 27 Juily 1913, Archives Diplomatiques (la Courneuve, France), Correspondance Politique et Commerciale: 1897 à 1918, Nouvelle Série, Chine, NS52.

132 Ijuin to Makino, 29 April 1913, Diplomatic Record Office, Tokyo, 1-7-1-22.

133 The Chinese chief inspector's function was rather nominal.

134 Alston to Grey, 2 November 1913, TNA, FO 371/1595; Note by R. M. Dane, 25 October 1913, Copy, HSBC Group Archives, London, SHGI 0302/001.

135 Dianqing, Zhang, ‘Beijing guomin zhengfu zhongyang caizheng zhong de yanshui [The Role of Salt Tax in the Central Revenue of the Beijing and Nationalist Government]’, Lishi jiaoxue, 2, 2006, pp. 22–26Google Scholar (especially p. 23).

136 For Dane's salt reform, see Adshead, S. A. M., The Modernization of the Chinese Salt Administration, 1900–1920 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Changshan, Liu, Qingdai houqi zhi minguo chunian yanwu de biange, 1830–1918 [Transformation of Salt Policy from late Qing to early Republic, 1830–1918] (Taibei: Wenshizhe chubanshe, 2006), pp. 19–120Google Scholar.

137 Yanzheng zazhi, 18 May 1915.

138 Jordan to Langley, 24 November 1914, Private, Jordan Papers, TNA, FO 350/12.

139 See Takashi, Okamoto, ‘Shinmatsu minkoku to enzei [Late Qing and Early Republican China and Salt Tax]’, Touyoshi kenkyuu, 58 (1) 1999, pp. 84–117Google Scholar.

140 The Chief Inspectorate of the Central Salt Administration, Report by Sir Richard Dane, K.C.I.E., on the Reorganisation of the Salt Revenue Administration in China, 1913–1917 (Peking: Chief Inspectorate of the Central Salt Administration, 1918), pp. 6–7, 38–39.

141 Van de Ven, ‘Military and Financial Reform’, pp. 75, 79–90.

142 Conty to Pichon, 7 Octobre 1913, Archives Diplomatiques (la Courneuve, France), Correspondance Politique et Commerciale: 1897 à 1918, Nouvelle Série, Chine, NS53.

143 Gallagher, John and Robinson, Ronald, ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, The Economic History Review, Second Series, 6 (1) 1953, pp. 1–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Osterhammel, Jürgen, ‘Britain and China, 1842–1914’, in Porter, Andrew (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)Google Scholar, Vol. III, pp. 146–69; Turnball, C. M., ‘Formal and Informal Empire in East Asia’, in Winks, Robin W. (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), Vol. V, pp. 379–402Google Scholar.

144 Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, Chapter 13. Also see Akita, ‘Introduction: From Imperial History to Global History,’ in Akita, Shigeru (ed.), Gentlemanly Capitalism, Imperialism and Global History (London: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

145 Niels Petersson, ‘Gentlemanly and Not-So-Gentlemanly Imperialism in China before the First World War’, in Akita (ed.), Gentlemanly Capitalism, Imperialism and Global History, pp. 103–22; Phimister, Ian, ‘Foreign Devils, Finance and Informal Empire: Britain and China c. 1900–1912,’ Modern Asian Studies, 40 (3) 2006, pp. 737–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

146 Kirby, William C., ‘The Internationalization of China: Foreign Relations at Home and Abroad in the Republican Era’, The China Quarterly, 150, 1997, pp. 433–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar (citation from p. 442).

147 ‘Sir John Jordan: Yuan's Services to China’, NCH, 22 November 1913, pp. 568–69.

148 Nish, Ian, The Anglo-Japanese Alliance: the Diplomacy of Two Island Empires, 1894–1907 (London: Athlone Press, 1966)Google Scholar; Nish, Ian, Alliance in Decline: A Study in Anglo-Japanese Relations, 1908–23 (London: Athlone Press, 1972)Google Scholar.

149 Fogel, Joshua A., The Literature of Travel in the Japanese Rediscovery of China, 1862–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), especially p. 44Google Scholar; Hikotarou, Andou, Chuugokugo to kindai Nihon [The Chinese Language and Modern Japan] (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1988)Google Scholar.

150 Proposal dated April 1883, Diplomatic Record Office, Tokyo, 6-1-7-1.

151 An-sok, Son, ‘Senzen no gaimushou no chuugoku he no ryugakusei haken ni tsuite: meiji taishou ki wo chuushin ni [On the Pre-war Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Policy of Sending Students to China: Meiji and Taisho Eras]’, Chugoku kenkyuu geppou, 61 (9) 2007, pp. 1–16Google Scholar.

152 See Kitaoka, Shin'ichi, ‘China Experts in the Army,’ in Duus, Peter, Myers, Ramon H. and Peattie, Mark R. (eds), The Japanese Informal Empire in China, 1895–1937 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1989), pp. 330–68Google Scholar; Ryoichi, Tobe, Nihon rikugun to chuugoku: ‘Shinatsuu’ ni miru yume to zasetsu [Japanese Army and China: Dreams and Setbacks of the ‘Chinahands’]’ (Tokyo: Koudansha, 1999)Google Scholar.

153 For example, see shireibu, Shinkoku chuutongun (ed.), Pekin shi [Description of Beijing] (Tokyo: Hakubun kan, 1908)Google Scholar.

154 For the massive use of the sources by the Japanese Army, see Köll, Elisabeth, ‘Chinese Railroads, Local Society, and Foreign Presence: The Tianjin-Pukou Line in pre-1949 Shandong’, in Elleman, Bruce A. and Kotkin, Stephen (eds), Manchurian Railways and the Opening of China: An International History (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2009), pp. 123–48Google Scholar.

155 French Consul General in Shanghai to Pichon, 27 Juily 1913, Archives Diplomatiques (la Courneuve, France), Correspondance Politique et Commerciale: 1897 à 1918, Nouvelle Série, Chine, NS52. Also see Bickers, The Scramble for China, Chapter 11.

156 Yoshizawa to Makino, 2 August 1913; Ijuin to Makino, telegram, 30 June 1913; Ministry of War to General Yokura in China, 10 July; Makino to consuls in China, draft telegram (no date), Diplomatic Record Office, Tokyo, 5-3-2-137.

157 Yamagata Hatsuo to Fukuda Masatarou, 19 January 1916, in Toshiaki, Yamaguchi (ed.), ‘Hama Omote Yasuke Bunsho [Papers of Hamaomote Matasuke]’, kenkyuukai, Kindainihon (ed.), Nenpou kindai Nihon kenkyuu [Annals of Modern Japanese Studies No. 2] (Tokyo: Yamakawa shuppansha, 1980), pp. 205–70Google Scholar (citation from pp. 223–24).

158 Cabinet resolution, 7 March 1916, Nihon gaikou monjo, the 5 year of Taisho, Vol. 2, pp. 45–46.

159 Kitaoka, Nihon rikugun to tairiku seisaku, pp. 181–95.

160 Jordan to Langley, 29 February 1916, Private, Jordan Papers, TNA, FO 350/15.

161 Jordan to Langley, 13 June 1916, Private, Jordan Papers, TNA, FO 350/15.