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Salt and Warlordism in Szechwan 1914–1922

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

S. A. M. Adshead
S. A. M. Adshead
Affiliation:
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
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Extract

In recent studies of warlordism, one source has not, to my knowledge, been used. This is the collection of reports of the Sino-foreign salt inspectorate held in the Toyo Bunko. Of all the institutions of the China coast, the salt inspectorate, its offices deep in the interior, its revenues a magnet for predatory armies, was perhaps in closest touch with warlordism. This paper studies the relationship of salt and warlordism in Szechwan between 1914 and 1922. Szechwan in this period has been selected for 3 reasons. First, the reports from the inspectorates of Ch'uan-nan and Ch'uan-pei, which together covered not only Szechwan but also Yunnan, Kweichow and Hupei as supplied by its salt, are unusually informative on politics. Second, between 1914 and 1922, Szechwan, a border province both northern and southern or neither, ran a full gamut of warlordism: regional, provincial, subprovincial and stabilized. It also attracted the attention of ‘guest armies’ from outside. Third, 1914–1922 has coherence; 1914 saw Yüan Shih-k'ai ascendant and the inspectorate established in Szechwan; 1922 saw Yüan's legatee Hsü Shih-ch'ang descendant, and Liu Hsiang, the embodiment of stabilized warlordism in Szechwan, ascendant.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 729 - 743
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 The Chief Inspectorate of the Central Salt Administration, Peking, Reports by the District Inspectors, Auditors and Collectors on the Reorganization of the Salt Revenue Administration in China 1913–1917, 1918, 1919–1921, 1922, cited hereafter as District Reports; Report by Sir Richard Dane on the Reorganization of the Salt Revenue Administration in China 1913–1917, cited hereafter as Dane Report.

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4 Dane Report, p. 149. The words are not those of Dane but of Von Strauch, the foreign deputy chief inspector who made a survey of conditions in Szechwan.

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11 Ibid.

12 Ibid., p. 85.

13 Ibid., p. 87.

14 Ibid., p. 89.

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16 Ibid., p. 60.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid., p. 134.

20 Ibid., p. 137.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid., pp. 220–1.

23 District Reports 1922, p. 63.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., p. 57.

25 Ibid., p. 71.

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29 Ibid., p. 256.

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