Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
Bureaucratic capital—that is, capital accumulated through public office, or state revenue diverted by individual officials for capital investment— has had a long history in China since early Han times. This paper is concerned with the development of bureaucratic capital for ‘modern’ industry during the last forty years of the Ch'ing dynasty.
1 The term ‘modern’ is used broadly throughout this paper to include all enterprises whose organizational structure, mode of production or nature of business followed some Western model. They also appeared to subscribe, at least on paper, to a rationalization of business practices; and practically all the modern industrial enterprises used some form of power-driven machinery for their operation.Google Scholar
2 For a study of this complex economic phenomenon, see Ching-yü, Wang (comp.). Chung-kuo chin-tai kung-yeh shih tzu-liao, ti-erh-chi 1895–1914 nien (Source materials on the history of modern industry in China, 2nd coll. 1895–1914) (Peking, 1957), II: 1011–15 (hereafter as KYSTL-II).Google Scholar
3 Hsien-chang, Meng, Chung-kuo chin-tai ching-chi-shih chiao-ch'eng (A syllabus of modern Chinese economic history) (Shanghai, 1951), p. 97;Google ScholarChung-p'ing, Yen, Chung-kuo chin-tai ching-chi-shih t'ung-chi tzu-liao hsuan-chi (Selected source materials in statistical tables of modern Chinese economic history) (Peking, 1955), pp. 98–9, 154.Google Scholar
4 Ching-yü, Wang, ‘Shih-chiu shih-chi wai-kuo sh'in Hua ch'i-yeh chung ti Hua-shang fu-ku huo-tung’ (Investment by Chinese merchants in the foreign firms which invaded China in the nineteenth century), Li-shihyen-shiu (Historical studies), 4:39–74 (1965);Google ScholarKYSTL-II, II, 1065.Google Scholar
5 For a detailed study of these three companies, see Feuerwerker, Albert, China's Early Industrialization: Sheng Hsuan-huai (1844–1916) and Mandarin Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass., 1958);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Carlson, Ellsworth C., The Kaiping Mines, 1877–1912 (Cambridge, Mass., 1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 Feuerwerker, , Early Industrialization, pp. 124–6.Google Scholar
7 Ibid., pp. 127–8.
8 Ibid., p. 212; Carlson, , Kaiping Mines, pp. 35–9.Google Scholar
9 Feuerwerker, , Early Industrialization, pp. 214–25.Google Scholar
10 Chun, Kung, Chung-kuo hsin kung-yeh fa-chiang-shih ta-kan (An outline history of the Chinese modern industrial development) (Shanghai, 1933), pp. 36–43;Google Scholar also see Ju-lun, Wu (ed.), Li Wen-chung-kung ch'uan-chi (Complete papers of Li Hung-chang) (Shanghai, 1921),Google Scholar‘tsao-kao,’ 69:40–42b for a brief biography of Li Chin-yung.Google Scholar
11 Yang-wu yün-tung (The ‘foreign affairs’ movement), comp. Chung-kuo shih-hsüeh hui (The society for Chinese historical studies) (Shanghai, 1961), 7:169–98.Google Scholar
12 Yü-tang, Sun (comp.), Chung-kuo chin-tai kung-yeh shih lzu-liao, ti-i-chi 1840–1895 nien (Source materials on the history of modern industry in China, 1st coll. 1840–1895) (Peking, 1957), II, 926–36;Google Scholaralso see KYSTL-II, I, 572–82, esp. I, 572 for an account of loans up to probably 1902, when the company was leased out.Google Scholar
13 Yü-tang, Sun, Chung-kuo chin-tai kung-yeh, II, 936–48.Google Scholar
14 For a fuller account, see the revised version of Chan, Wellington K. K., Merchants, Mandarins and Modern Enterprise in Late Ch'ing China (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), pp. 89–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar A recent compilation of the company archives is Heng-feng sha-chang tifa-sheng, fa-chan yu kai-tsao (The establishment, development and reform of the Heng-feng Spinning Mill) (Shanghai, 1958), esp. pp. 1–12.Google Scholar Other sources are Chi-fen, Nieh Tseng, Ch'ung-te lao-jen pa-shih-tzu-ti ngnien-p'u (Chronological autobiography of Ch'ung-te lao-jen at eighty years of age) (Shanghai, 1933), 17:22b–23;Google Scholar and Chung-p'ing, Yen, Chung-kuo mien-fang-chih shih-kao, 1289–1937 (Draft history of the Chinese cotton industry, 1289–1937) (Peking, 1955), pp. 139–40, 328.Google Scholar
15 Chi-fen, Nieh Tseng, Nien-p'u, p. 17a.Google Scholar
16 Bergère, Marie-Claire, Une crise financière à Shanghai à lafin de l'ancien régime (Paris, 1964), p. 10;Google ScholarShang-hai ch'ien-chuang shih-liao (Materials on the history of the local banks in Shanghai) (Shanghai, 1960), pp. 72–82.Google Scholar
17 See Ching-yu's, Wang list in KYSTL-II, II, 1043.Google Scholar
18 KYSTL-II, II, 1046–7.Google Scholar
19 For Chou's biography, see Shu-chen, Chou, Chou Chih-an hsien-sheng pieh-chuan (An unofficial biography of Chou Hsueh-hsi) (Taipai, 1966);Google ScholarBoorman, Howard (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of Republican China (New York, 1967), I, 409–13;Google Scholar and KYSTL-II, II, 102 provides a brief note on his family estate.Google Scholar
20 Carlson, , The Kaiping Mines, pp. 107–17;Google ScholarShu-chen, Chou, Pieh-chuan, pp. 33–40;Google ScholarPei-yang kung-tu lei-tsuan hsu-pien (A continuation of the categorized collection of official documents from the commissioner of trade for the northern ports), ed. Hou-tz'u, Kan (n.p., 1910), 19:29–31 (hereafter as PYKTHP).Google Scholar
21 PYKTHP, 19:39.Google Scholar
22 Ibid. Carlson, in The Kaiping Mines (p. 113), errs in thinking that the requirements were 50 and 500 shares respectively. Art. 5 of the company regulations gives the figures 50 and 500, but they refer to ling-ku or fractional shares, each of which was 1/10 (or 10 taels) of the full share. See PYKTHP, 19:38b.
23 On biographical details, see Feuerwerker, Albert, ‘Industrial Enterprise in Twentieth Century China: The Chee Hsin Cement Company,’ in his, et. al. (eds), Approaches to Modern Chinese History (Berkeley, 1967), pp. 334–5;Google Scholar and Chan, , Merchants, Mandarins and Modern Enterprise, pp. 113–14.Google Scholar
24 The primary source on Chee Hsin is the compilation of the company archives, Ch'i-hsin yang-hui kung-ssu shih-liao (Historical materials on the Chee Hsin Cement Company) (Peking, 1963), and PYKTHP, Ch. 19. A recent study is by A. Feuerwerker, ‘Industrial Enterprise in Twentieth Century China’.Google Scholar
25 Boorman, (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, I, 412.Google Scholar
26 Tse-tung, Mao, Selected Works (London, 1954), IV, 261.Google Scholar
27 KYSTL-II, I, 474.Google Scholar
28 Han-sheng, Ch'uan, ‘Ch'ing-mo Han-yang t'ieh-chang’ (The Hanyang Ironworks during the late Ch'ing), in She-hui k'o-hsüeh lun-ts'ung (Collected studies on the social sciences), I:16 (04 1950).Google Scholar
29 PYKTHP, 19:51b–52b.Google Scholar
30 Ch'i-hsin yang-hui kung-ssu, pp. 90–1, 93–6.Google Scholar