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MERCHANTS, MANDARINS, AND THE RAILWAY: INSTITUTIONAL FAILURE AND THE WUSONG RAILWAY, 1874–1877

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2015

Hsien-Chun Wang
Hsien-Chun Wang*
Affiliation:
National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan E-mail wanghc@mx.nthu.edu.tw
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Abstract

This article is an institutional study on the history of the ill-fated Wusong Railway, China's first operational railway. The nine-mile light railway was built by the British firm Jardine, Matheson & Co. without the Qing government's permission. After negotiations with British diplomats, the Qing government agreed to purchase the line but the reformist governor-general Shen Baozhen later ordered it to be removed to Taiwan. Unfortunately funds were never provided for the rebuilding work. This article argues that it was the Qing government's failure to raise funds for capital-intensive projects that led to the railway's final destruction.

Keywords

the Wusong RailwayShanghaiJardine Matheson & Co.Li HongzhangShen BaozhenFeng JunguangThomas WadeWalter Medhurst
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 31 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

REFERENCES

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Lin 1937 Lin, Cheng. The Chinese Railways Past and Present. Shanghai: China United Press, 1937.Google Scholar
Mi 1963 Rucheng, Mi 宓汝成. Zhongguo jindai tielu shi ziliao 中國近代鐵路史資料 (Documents about Railways in Modern China). 2 volumes. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1963.Google Scholar
Patrick 1967 Patrick, Hugh T. “Japan, 1868–1914.” In Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization, eds. Cameron, Rondo, Crisp, Olga, Patrick, Hugh T., and Tilly, Richard, pp. 239–89. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Pong 1973 Pong, David. “Confucian Patriotism and the Destruction of the Woosung Railway.” Modern Asian Studies 7:4 (1973), pp. 647–76.Google Scholar
Rapier 1878 Rapier, Richard. Remunerative Railways for New Countries; with Some Account of the First Railway in China. London: E. & F.N. Spon, 1878.Google Scholar
Rawlinson 1967 Rawlinson, John. China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839–1895. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Schäfer, 2012 Schäfer, Dagmar, ed. Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History. Leiden: Brill, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen Wensu gong duBaozhen, Shen 沈葆楨. Shen Wensu gong du 沈文肅公牘 (Shen Baozhen Correspondence), 3 volumes. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press 2006.Google Scholar
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Sturdevant 1976 Sturdevant, Saundra. “Imperialism, Sovereignty, and Self-strengthening: A Reassessment of the 1870s.” In Reform in Nineteenth-Century China, eds. Cohen, Paul A and Eschrecker, John, pp. 63–70. Cambridge, Mass.: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1976.Google Scholar
Sun 1957 Yutang, Sun 孫毓棠 ed. Zhongguo jindai gongyeshi ziliao, diyi ji 中国近代工业史资料，第一集 volume 2. Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 1957.Google Scholar
Yangwu yundongshixue hui, Zhongguo 中國史學會, ed. Yangwu yundong 洋務運動 (Foreign Matters Movement), 8 volumes. Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1961.Google Scholar
JMA Jardine Matheson Archive, Cambridge University Library.Google Scholar
FO Foreign Office papers, Public Record Office, Kew, UK.Google Scholar
BT Board of Trade papers, Public Record Office, Kew, UK.Google Scholar
Baark 1997 Baark, Erik. Lightning Wires: The Telegraph and China's Technological Modernization, 1860–1890. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Biggerstaff 1950 Biggerstaff, Knight. “The Secret Correspondence of 1867–1868, View of Leading Chinese Statesmen Regarding the Further Opening of China to Western Influence.” Journal of Modern History 22:2 (1950), pp. 122–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bray 2008 Bray, Francesca. “Science, Technique, Technology: Passages between Matter and Knowledge in Imperial Chinese Agriculture.” British Journal for the History of Science 41:3 (2008), pp. 1–26.Google Scholar
Chouban yiwu shimo, Tongzhi reignBaojun, 寶鋆 et al. (comp.). Chouban yiwu shimo 籌辦夷務始末 (Complete Records on Managing Barbarian Affairs), Tongzhi reign 同治朝. Beiping [Beijing]: National Palace Museum, 1930, reprint of 1880 edition.Google Scholar
Cain 1988 Cain, P. J. “Railways 1870–1914: The Maturity of the Private System.” In Transport in Victorian Britain, eds. Michael, J. Freeman and Aldcroft, Derek H., pp. 92–133. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Chouban yiwu shimo, Xianfeng reignJiazhen 賈楨 et al. (comp.). Chouban yiwu shimo 籌辦夷務始末 (Complete Records on Managing Barbarian Affairs), Xianfeng reign 咸豐朝. Beiping [Beijing]: National Palace Museum, 1930, reprint of 1867 edition.Google Scholar
Cameron, Crisp, Patrick, and Tilly 1967 Cameron, Rondo, Crisp, Olga, Patrick, Hugh T. and Tilly, Richard. Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization: A Study in Comparative Economic History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Currie 1966 Currie, Blaire. “The Woosung Railway (1872–1877).” Papers on China 20 (1966), pp. 49–85.Google Scholar
Daito 1989 Daito, Eisuke. “Railways and Scientific Management in Japan, 1907–30.” Business History 31:1 (1989), pp. 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ericson 1989 Ericson, Steven J. “Private Railroads in the Meiji Era: Forerunners of Modern Japanese Management?” In Japanese Management in Historical Perspective, eds. Yui, Tsunehiko and Nakagawa, Keiichiro, pp. 51–77. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Fairbank, Bruner, and Matheson 1975 Fairbank, John King, Frost Bruner, Katherine, and Matheson, Elizabeth MacLeod, eds. The I.G. in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs, 1868–1907. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Faure 2006 Faure, David. China and Capitalism: A History of Business Enterprise in Modern China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Feuerwerker 1980 Feuerwerker, Albert. “Economic Trends in the Late Ch'ing Empire, 1870–1911.” Cambridge History of China, vol. 11, eds. Fairbank, John King and Twitchett, Denis, pp. 1–69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Gourvish 1988 Gourvish, T. R. “Railways 1830–70: The Formative Years.” In Transport in Victorian Britain, eds. Freeman, Michael J. and Aldcroft, Derek H., pp. 57–91. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Hawks 1928 Hawks, Francis Lister Pott. A Short History of Shanghai: Being an Account of the Growth and Development of the International Settlement. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1928.Google Scholar
Hsu 1980 Hsu, Immanuel C. Y. “Late Ch'ing Foreign Relations, 1866–1905.” In Cambridge History of China, vol. 11, eds. Fairbank, John King and Twitchett, Denis, pp. 70–141. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs 1908 Imperial, ChineseMaritime, Customs. Treaties, Conventions, etc. between China and Foreign States. Shanghai: Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs, 1908.Google Scholar
Jami 2001 Jami, Catherine ed. Statecraft and Intellectual Renewal in Late Ming China: The Cross-cultural Synthesis of Xu Guangqi (1562–1633). Leiden: Brill, 2001.Google Scholar
Kent 1907 Kent, Percy H.Railway Enterprise in China: An Account of Its Origin and Development. London: Edward Arnold, 1907.Google Scholar
Kinder 1890/91 Kinder, Claude William. “Railways and Collieries of North China.” Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers vol. CIII (1890/91) Paper No. 2474, pp. 278–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotenev 1968 Kotenev, Anatol. Shanghai: Its Mixed Court and Council: Material Relating to the History of the Shanghai Municipal Council and the History, Practice and Statistics of the International Mixed Court. Chinese Modern Law and Shanghai Municipal Land Regulations and Bye-laws Governing the Life in the Settlement. Taipei: Ch'eng-wen, 1968, Reprint of 1925 edition.Google Scholar
Kuo and Liu 1978 Kuo, Ting-yee and Liu, Kwang-ching. “Self-strengthening: The Pursuit of Western Technology.” In Cambridge History of China, vol. 10, eds. Fairbank, John King and Twitchett, Denis, pp. 491–542. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Li 1961 Guoqi, Li 李國祁. Zhongguo jindai di tielu jinying 中國近代鐵路經營 (The Management of Railways in Modern China). Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1961.Google Scholar
Li Wenzhong gong quanjiHongzhang, Li 李鴻章, Li Wenzhong gong quanji 李文忠公全集 (The Complete Writings of Li Hongzhang). Jinling [Nanjing]: 1905.Google Scholar
Lin 1937 Lin, Cheng. The Chinese Railways Past and Present. Shanghai: China United Press, 1937.Google Scholar
Mi 1963 Rucheng, Mi 宓汝成. Zhongguo jindai tielu shi ziliao 中國近代鐵路史資料 (Documents about Railways in Modern China). 2 volumes. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1963.Google Scholar
Patrick 1967 Patrick, Hugh T. “Japan, 1868–1914.” In Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization, eds. Cameron, Rondo, Crisp, Olga, Patrick, Hugh T., and Tilly, Richard, pp. 239–89. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Pong 1973 Pong, David. “Confucian Patriotism and the Destruction of the Woosung Railway.” Modern Asian Studies 7:4 (1973), pp. 647–76.Google Scholar
Rapier 1878 Rapier, Richard. Remunerative Railways for New Countries; with Some Account of the First Railway in China. London: E. & F.N. Spon, 1878.Google Scholar
Rawlinson 1967 Rawlinson, John. China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839–1895. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Schäfer, 2012 Schäfer, Dagmar, ed. Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History. Leiden: Brill, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen Wensu gong duBaozhen, Shen 沈葆楨. Shen Wensu gong du 沈文肅公牘 (Shen Baozhen Correspondence), 3 volumes. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press 2006.Google Scholar
ShenbaoShenbao 申報.Google Scholar
Sturdevant 1976 Sturdevant, Saundra. “Imperialism, Sovereignty, and Self-strengthening: A Reassessment of the 1870s.” In Reform in Nineteenth-Century China, eds. Cohen, Paul A and Eschrecker, John, pp. 63–70. Cambridge, Mass.: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1976.Google Scholar
Sun 1957 Yutang, Sun 孫毓棠 ed. Zhongguo jindai gongyeshi ziliao, diyi ji 中国近代工业史资料，第一集 volume 2. Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 1957.Google Scholar
Yangwu yundongshixue hui, Zhongguo 中國史學會, ed. Yangwu yundong 洋務運動 (Foreign Matters Movement), 8 volumes. Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1961.Google Scholar