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5 - The State and Enterprises in Late Qing China

from Part I - 1800–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2022

By
Chi-kong Lai
Edited by
Debin Ma  and
Richard von Glahn
Debin Ma
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Richard von Glahn
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

This chapter focuses on the so-called Self-Strengthening era during the second half of the nineteenth century when the Qing empire was expanding state involvement in industry and technology from its traditional ideology. The origin and motivation of state involvement in the private market during this era is different from that in the early twentieth century, which began to take lessons from Meiji Japan and the ideology of modernization (see Bian’s chapter in this volume). There were some elements of continuity here – in remnants of “Self-Strengthening” through the state efforts both to build up modern enterprises and develop to science and technology. This chapter explains the impact of the state sector’s emergence that was manifested in the development and expansion of state arsenals and modern enterprises.

Keywords

Self Strengthening movementstate–business relationsLi Hongzhangthe China Merchants Steam Navigation Companyguandu shangban (official supervision with merchant management)industriesthe Hanyeping Company
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of China , pp. 167 - 183
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Bickers, R., and Jackson, L. (eds.), Treaty Ports in Modern China: Law, Land and Power (London, Routledge, 2016).Google Scholar
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Chu, S.C., and K.-C., Liu, (eds.), Li Hung-chang and China’s Early Modernization (Armonk, M.E. Sharpe, 1994).Google Scholar
Faure, D., China and Capitalism: A History of Business Enterprise in Modern China (Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Feng, Tianyu 冯天瑜 and Feng, Chen 陈锋 (eds.), 张之洞与中国近代化 (Zhang Zhidong and China’s Modernization) (Beijing, Shehui kexue chubanshe, 2010).Google ScholarPubMed
Feuerwerker, A., China’s Early Industrialization: Shen Hsuan-huai (1844–1916) and Mandarin Enterprise (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1958).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Kirby, W.C., “China Unincorporated: Company Law and Business Enterprise in Twentieth-Century China,” Journal of Asian Studies 54.1 (February 1995), 43–63.Google Scholar
Leonard, J.K., and Watt, J.R. (eds.), To Achieve Security and Wealth: The Qing Imperial State and the Economy, 1644–1911 (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1992).Google Scholar
Li, Xizhu 李细珠, 张之洞与清未新政硏究 (The Study of Zhang Zhidong and Late Qing Reform) (Beijing, Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2015).Google Scholar
Pong, D., Shen Pao-chen and China’s Modernization in the Nineteenth Century (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1994).Google Scholar
Quan, Hansheng 全汉昇, 汉冶萍公司史略 (A Brief History of the Hanyeping Iron and Coal Mining and Smelting Company, 1890–1926) (Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 1972).Google Scholar
Reinhardt, A., Navigating Semi-colonialism: Shipping, Sovereignty, and Nation-Building in China, 1860–1937 (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2018).Google Scholar
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Zhongmin, Zhang 张忠民, 艰难的变迁:近代中国公司制度硏究 (The Difficulty of Change: The Study of the Institution of the Modern Corporation in Modern China (Shanghai, Shanghai Shehui kexue chubanshe, 2002).Google Scholar

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