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Organizational Improvisation, Architectural “Piggybacking,” and Masonic Networking in the International Settlement, Shanghai: Building an Anglican Cathedral, 1864–1869
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2024
Abstract
This study provides a business history of the construction project to build a large Anglican church in colonial Shanghai in the 1860s. Employing three theoretical lenses, it focusses on the project’s management, setting it in its social, political, economic and architectural contexts. As well as analysing the project’s progress in detail, the paper discloses circumstances that were being faced more generally by resident British and international traders in Shanghai at this unsettled time. It also identifies forces which would in due course influence the long process of change leading to the eventual transformation both of Shanghai and of China itself, enhancing our understanding of the region’s economic history.
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- © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Business History Conference
References
Bibliography of Works Cited
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Shu, Changxue. “Towards Western Construction in China: Shanghai Brickwork and Printed Technical Resources, 1843-1936,” Construction History 33 (2018): 83–110.Google Scholar
Terpstra, V., and Chwo-Ming, J. Yu “Piggybacking: A Quick Road to Internationalisation,” International Marketing Review 7 (1990): 52–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Google Scholar
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Grace’s Guide To British Industrial History, Farnham and Boyd, Shanghai.Google Scholar
Grace’s Guide To British Industrial History, S.C. Farnham & Co, Shanghai.Google Scholar
Port Catalogues of the Chinese Customs collection at the Austro-Hungarian Universal Exhibition, Vienna, 1873, China.Google Scholar
Kidner, Simon, and James Kidner. An Architect in Shanghai. The letters of William Kidner, ARIBA and James Kidner, 1864-1874.Google Scholar
North China Herald and Market Report, November 4, 1867. William Kidner’s progress report to the Trustees of the Shanghai Holy Trinity Church.Google Scholar
North China Herald and Market Report, February 9, 1867. William Kidner’s progress report to the Trustees of the Shanghai Holy Trinity Church.Google Scholar
Bickers, R. Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination, London: Allen Lane, 2017.Google Scholar
Bickers, R. The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914, London: Allen Lane/Penguin, 2011.Google Scholar
Bremner, G.A. Imperial Gothic: Religious Architecture and High Anglican Culture in the British Empire c. 1840-1870, New Haven, CT, and London: Paul Mellon Centre, Cambridge University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Brown, Stuart. Providence and Empire: Religion, Politics and Society in the United Kingdom 1813-1914, London: Routledge, 2008.Google Scholar
Darwent, Charles. Shanghai: A Handbook for Travellers and Residents, 2nd ed, Tientsin, China: n.p., 1920.Google Scholar
Denison, Edward, and Ren, Guang Yu. Building Shanghai: The Story of China’s Gateway, London: Wiley-Academy, 2006.Google Scholar
Friar, Stephen. A Companion to the English Parish Church, Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing, 1996.Google Scholar
Gratton, Frederick M. Freemasonry in Shanghai and Northern China, 2nd ed, Shanghai: North-China Herald, 1900.Google Scholar
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. Builders of Empire: Freemasonry and British Imperialism, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Jackson, Basil H, ed., Recollections of Thomas Graham Jackson, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1950, 59–61.Google Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey. Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mintzberg, Henry. The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, New York: Free Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Muhlhann, Klaus. Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping, Cambridge, MA, and London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rappaport, Amos. The Meaning of the Built Environment: A Nonverbal Communication Approach, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Rawski, Thomas, and Li, Lillian, eds. Chinese History in Economic Perspective, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Rich, Paul. Elixir of Empire: English Public Schools, Ritualism, Freemasonry and Imperialism, London: Regency Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Roskam, Cole. Improvised City: Architecture and Governance in Shanghai, 1843-1937, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1980. First published 1776.Google Scholar
Stamp, Gavin, ed., Personal and Professional Recollections: The Autobiography of the Victorian Architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, Stamford, UK: Paul Watkins, 1995.Google Scholar
Stamp, Gavin. Gothic for the Steam Age: An Illustrated Biography of George Gilbert Scott, London: Aurum Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Van de Ven, H. Breaking with the Past: The Maritime Customs Service and the Global Origins of Modernity in China, New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Willis, C. Form Follows Finance; Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago, New York: Springer, 1995.Google Scholar
Wright, Arnold. Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Other Treaty Ports of China, London: Lloyds Greater Britain Publishing, 1908.Google Scholar
Wu, Jiang. A History of Shanghai Architecture 1840-1949, Shanghai: Tongji University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Barnes, V., and Newton, L.. “Symbolism in Bank Marketing and Architecture: The Headquarters of National Provincial Bank of England,” Management and Organizational History 14 (2019): 213–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burt, Roger. “Freemasonry and Business Networking During the Victorian Period,” Economic History Review 56 (2003): 657–688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chelariu, Cristian, Johnston, Wesley, and Young, Louise. “Learning to Improvise, Improvising to Learn: A Process Responding to Complex Environments,” Journal of Business Research 55 (2002): 141–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griggs, Clive. “The Influence of British Public Schools on British Imperialism,” British Journal of Sociology of Education 15 (1994): 129–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drew, Edward. “Sir Robert Hart and His Life Work in China,” The Journal of Race Development, 4 (1913): 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamzeh, Farook, Faek, Farah, and Al Hussein, Hasnaa. “Understanding Improvisation in Construction Through Antecedents, Behaviours and Consequences,” Construction Management and Economics 37 (2019): 61–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Izumeda, Hideo. “Scottish Architects in the Far East 1840-1870,” Architectural Heritage 2, (1991): 93–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, R., Robinson, S.K., and Elliott, C.. “Modernism, Postmodernism and Corporate Power: Historicizing the Architectural Typology of the Corporate Campus,” Management and Organizational History 11 (2016): 123–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leybourne, Stephen. “Managing Change by Abandoning Planning and Embracing Improvisation,” Journal of General Management 31 (2006): 11–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinstry, S., and Wallace, K.. “Cullen, Lochhead and Brown, Architects: The Business, Financial and Accounting History of a Non-Profit Maximising Firm,” Accounting, Business and Financial History 20 (2004): 183–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinstry, Sam, and Ding, Ying Yong. “’Hybridised’ Financial Control in the Victorian Construction industry: George Gilbert Scott’s Rebuilding of Glasgow University, 1864–1872,” Accounting History 20 (2015): 206–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinstry, Sam, and Ding, Ying Yong. “Business Success and the Architectural Practice of Sir George Gilbert Scott, c.1845-1878: A Study in Hard Work, Sound Management and Networks of Trust,” Business History 59 (2017): 928–950.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinstry, Sam, and Ding, Ying Yong. “The Making of a Victorian Clerk of Works: William Conradi and the Rebuilding of Glasgow University, 1866-72,” Scottish Business and Industrial History 30 (2015): 4–27.Google Scholar
McKinstry, Sam. “Re-framing a ‘Subfusc’ Institute: Building on the Past for the Present at Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London,1965-1970,” Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 19 (2008): 1384–1413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinstry, Sam. “Status Building: Some Reflections on the Architectural History of Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London, 1889-1893,” Accounting, Organizations and Society 22 (1997): 779–798.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutch, A. “Modernist Architecture and Scientific Management: Owen Williams, the Boots ‘Wets’ Building and the Importance of Practice,” Management and Organizational History 6 (2011): 328–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pressing, Jeff. “Improvisation, Methods and Models,” in Generative Processes in Music: The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation and Composition, ed. John Sloboda, Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1988, 129–156.Google Scholar
Rawski, Thomas. “Chinese dominance of treaty port commerce and its implications, 1860-1875,” Explorations in Economic History 7 (1969): 451–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, Alan. “The Contribution of Freemasons to Social and Economic Development in North Worcestershire c 1760-1824,” Midland History 45 (2020): 55–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ronen, Boaz. “The Complete Kit Concept,” International Journal of Production Research 30 (1992): 2457–2466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selden, Mark. “Labour Unrest in China, 1831-1990,” Review (Fernand Braudel Center) 18 (1995): 69–86.Google Scholar
Shu, C. X., Cantisani, E., Fratini, F., Rasmussen, K.L., Rovero, L., Stipo, G., and Vettori, S.. “China’s Brick History and Conservation: Laboratory Results of Shanghai Samples from 19th to 20th Century,” Construction and Building Materials 151 (2017): 789–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, Changxue. “Towards Western Construction in China: Shanghai Brickwork and Printed Technical Resources, 1843-1936,” Construction History 33 (2018): 83–110.Google Scholar
Terpstra, V., and Chwo-Ming, J. Yu “Piggybacking: A Quick Road to Internationalisation,” International Marketing Review 7 (1990): 52–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Los Angeles Times.
Google Scholar
Dictionary of Scottish Architects, Edinburgh, Scotland.Google Scholar
Grace’s Guide To British Industrial History, Boyd and Company of Shanghai.Google Scholar
Grace’s Guide To British Industrial History, Farnham and Boyd, Shanghai.Google Scholar
Grace’s Guide To British Industrial History, S.C. Farnham & Co, Shanghai.Google Scholar
Port Catalogues of the Chinese Customs collection at the Austro-Hungarian Universal Exhibition, Vienna, 1873, China.Google Scholar
Kidner, Simon, and James Kidner. An Architect in Shanghai. The letters of William Kidner, ARIBA and James Kidner, 1864-1874.Google Scholar
North China Herald and Market Report, November 4, 1867. William Kidner’s progress report to the Trustees of the Shanghai Holy Trinity Church.Google Scholar
North China Herald and Market Report, February 9, 1867. William Kidner’s progress report to the Trustees of the Shanghai Holy Trinity Church.Google Scholar