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Bureaucratic Capitalists in Operation: Ts'ao Ju-lin and His New Communications Clique, 1916–1919

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Madeleine Chi
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Extract

In describing the failures of the old society, Chinese communist writers have frequently condemned the evils of bureaucratic capitalism. It is not easy to extract a clear definition of this term from their polemic literature, but I shall attempt to construct a preliminary working proposition.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , May 1975 , pp. 675 - 688
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1975

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References

1 These communist writers use the word “comprador” in its broadest sense. To them a comprador is anyone who has any contact with the imperialists.

2 Ch'en Po-ta, Chung-kuo ssu-ta-chia-tsu (The four great families of China, Hong Kong, 1947), pp. 4–5.Google ScholarHsu Ti-hsin, Kuan-liao tzu-pen lun (On bureaucratic capitalism, Shanghai, 1958), passim, especially pp. 4, 8, 12, 36–37, and 89–90.Google ScholarSee also Tse-tung, Mao, “On coalition government,” in Selected worlds, vol. 4 (New York, 1956), pp.Google Scholar 264 and 274; Feuerwerker, Albert, “China's modern economic history in communist China historiography,” China Quarterly, no. 22 (April-June, 1965), p. 52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Three works on late Ch'ing modernizes, Shcng Hsuan-huai, Chang Ch'ien, and Nieh Chi-kuei, may be cited: Feuerwerker, Albert, China's early industrialization: Sheng Hsuan-huai (1844–1916) and mandarin enterprise (Cambridge, Mass., 1958).CrossRefGoogle ScholarChu, Samuel C., Reformer in modern China: Chang Chien, 1853–1926 (New York, 1965).Google Scholar Nieh Chi-kuei was the son-in-law of Tseng Kuo-fan. Nieh managed the Hwa-hsin textile mill for the government when he was intendant of Shanghai in the 1890s. Gradually the mill passed into private hands and was owned solely by the Nieh family during the last decade of the Manchu rule. There is no evidence that Nieh paid for it at its market value. Nieh reorganized the mill, and renamed it the Heng-feng Textile Company; it was one of the larger mills in pre-1949 China. See Heng-feng sha-chang ft fa-sheng, fa-chan yū kai-tsao (The establishment, development, and reform of the Heng-feng Textile Company, Shanghai, 1958), pp. 1–23.Google Scholar

4 Students of factionalism in early republican China well know that it is extremely difficult to assemble an accurate list of a clique or faction. The main reasons are: (i) the shifts in groupings were constant; (2) politicians were reluctant to reveal their associations in order to maximize the benefits of their political maneuvers; (3) there was overlapping membership in factions and parties. The composition of the New Communications Clique presented here is derived from numerous references in biographical dictionaries, Japanese foreign ministry documents, and the memoirs of Ts'ao Ju-lin, l-sheng chih hui-i (Reminiscences of my life, Hong Kong, 1966). The following two works are also helpful: Pin, Hsieh, Min-kuo cheng-tang shih (A history of the political parties of the Republic, reprint, Taipei, 1962),Google Scholar pp. 53 and 69; Mantetsu Sōmubu Chōsaka (Research Section, General Affairs Department, South Manchuria Railway), Shina seitō no genkyō (The present state of Chinese political parties, Dairen, 1919), pp. 16–20.Google Scholar

5 Biographical information regarding Ts'ao Ju-lin is more abundant as Ts'ao composed an autobiography, I-sheng chih hui-i, shortly before his death. The work, however, has to be used with caution; precise dating is lacking throughout the volume- For Chang Tsung-hsiang, see Biographical dictionary of republican China, 4 vols. (New York, 1967–1971), I, 127“–129.Google ScholarFor Lu Tsung-yü, see Toa dobunkai (comp.), Shina nenkan, vol. II (China yearbook, Tokyo, 1917), P. 995.Google Scholar

6 Ts'ao, Reminiscences, p. 348.

7 Ibid., p. 101.

8 The diplomatic negotiations of the Twenty-one Demands are treated in Chi, Madeleine, China diplomacy, 1914–1918 (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), pp. 28–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Chu-yin, T'ao, Pei-yang chiin-ja t'ung-chih shih-ch'i shih-hua (A history of Peiyang warlord rule, 6 vols., Peking, 1957–1958), III, 78–81.Google Scholar

10 Telegram from Hioki Eki, Japanese minister in Peking, to Ishii Kikujiro, Japanese foreign minister, Feb. 29, 1916, in Nippon gaiko bunsho for the year 1916 (Japanese diplomatic documents, compiled by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo, 1967), II, 41–42. Hereafter this work will be cited as Gaikoōbunsho.Google Scholar

11 The K'u-p'ing tael was the official currency of the Ch'ing dynasty treasury for all its domestic financial transactions. It also served as a fictitious medium of exchange from one local currency to another. The normal standard k'u-p'ing tael was 575.8 grains of silver 1,000 fine. Its exchange rate with the official currency for the maritime customs, the Haikwan tael, was 101.642335 K'-p'ing tael to 100 Haikwan tael. Therefore the capital of the Bank of Communications was about 9,838,500 Haikwan taels, or about U. S. $6,722,500 in 1907. Morse, Cf. Hosea B., The trade and administration of the Chinese empire (New York, 1908), pp. 153–154.Google Scholar

12 A brief account of the early history of the Bank of Communications is found in Yü-tso, T'an, Chung-kuo chung-yao yin-hang ja-chan shih (History of the development of important banks in China, Taipei, 1961), pp. 227–229.Google Scholar

13 Hioki-to Ishii, May 22, 1916, Gaikō bunsho, 1916, II, 455.

14 See Mackinnon, Stephen R., “Liang Shih-i and the Communications Clique,” Journal of Asian Studies, 29:3 (May 1970), 581–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Ching-chung, Fei, Tuan Ch'i-jui (in Chinese, Shanghai, 1921), pp. 52–53.Google ScholarAn, Ch'ang, Min-liu-hou chih ts'ai-cheng yü chün-fa (Finance and warlords since 1917, Peking, 1922), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

16 Tung-fang tsa-chih (Eastern Miscellany), 13:6 (June 1916), section on major events in China, pp. 5–6.

17 Hioki to Ishii, May 22, 19x6, Gaikō bunsho, 1916, II, 454–457.

18 A summary of these two loan negotiations is found in Suzuki Takeo (comp.), Nishihara shak-kan shiryō kenkyū (Research materials related to the Nishihara loans, Tokyo, 1972), pp. 167–168.Google Scholar The loan agreements in Japanese are published in Gaikō bunsho, 1917 (Tokyo, 1968), II, 246–249,Google Scholar and 276–277. English translation of the texts is in MacMurray, John V. A. (comp.), Treaties and agreements with and concerning China, 1894–1929, 2 vols. (New York, 1921),II, 1345–46, and 1387–88.Google Scholar

19 p., Suzuki 493. See also Kenkichi, Kodera, Terauchi naikaku no taiShi gaikō no shippai (The failure of the Terauchi cabinet's China diplomacy, Tokyo, 1918), pp. 14–17.Google Scholar

20 Paul Reinsch to Secretary of State Robert Lansing, Feb. 7, 1917, in U.S.A., Department of State, Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1917, supp. 1 (Washington, D. C., 1931), pp. 403–404.Google Scholar Americans did make some private industrial loans to the Chinese. See Tien-yi, Li, Woodrow Wilson's China policy, 1913–1917 (New York, 1952), pp. 163–202.Google Scholar

21 Nishihara Kamczd to Terauchi Masatake, Dec. 24, 1916, Papers of Terauchi Masatake, Diet Library, Tokyo. Ch'en Chin-tao was forced to resign his post, Shun-tien shih-pao, (an. 17, 1917, p. 2.

22 English translation of the text is published in MacMurray, II, 1382–87.

23 There are several recent studies on the Nishihara loans in Japanese. For an analysis of the economic theory and Nishihara's place in Japanese politics, see Yoshihiro, Hatano, “Nishihara shakkan no kihon koso (The basic concepts of the Nishihara loans),” Tenth Anniversary Commemorative Essays of the Nagoya University (Nagoya, 1958), PP. 393–416. For a collection of documents, in addition to the 1917 and 1918 volumes of the Gaikō bunsho, there is Suzuki Takeo's work mentioned in note 18. Shōda Kazue's son also made a study: Shōda Tatsuo, Ckūgoku shakkan to Shŋda Kazue (Shōda Kazue and the loans to China, Tokyo, 1972).Google Scholar

24 Shōda Kazue wrote a pamphlet to expound a similar theory of economic expansion in China. Picturesquely, its title is Kiku no wakene (The spreading roots of the chrysanthemum, privately published, 1918), reprinted in Suzuki, pp. 285–341.

25 Kamezō, Nishihara, Yume no shichi-jū-yo-nen. Nishihara Kamezo jiden (More than seventy dream like years: the autobiography of Nishihara Kamezo, Tokyo, 1965), p. 76.Google Scholar

26 All seven loan agreements are found in Suzuki, pp. 141–165. English translations are in MacMurray, II, 1345–46, 1387–88, 1424–28, 1430–32, 1434–40, and 1446–52. The number of the Nishihara loans has been given differently by various authors. Shoda Tatsuo gives nine, counting the loans of the Bank of Communications as two and adding one arms loan. A table of the name, amount, interest rate, security, and the date of conclusion of each loan is in Shōda Tatsuo, pp. 178–180.

27 Suzuki, p. 505.

28 In several documents Japanese diplomats in Peking complained to Tokyo about Nishihara's unorthodox activities. The one from Acting Minister Yoshizawa to Foreign Minister Uchida, Oct. 10, 1918, is revealing. Among other things Yoshizawa calls Uchida's attention to the fact that Ts'ao Ju-lin was but the leader of a very small clique (Gaikō bunsho, 1918, II, pt. 2, 934–939).

29 Ts'ao Ju-lin borrowed one million yen for Tuan from the Mitsubishi Company in Tientsin (Ts'ao, Reminiscences), pp. 163–174; Foreign Minister Motono, Tokyo, to Consul General Matsudaira in Tientsin, July n, 1917, in Gaikō bunsho, 1917, II, 80–81.

30 Nishihara, p. 183.

31 Hayashi Gosuke, Japanese minister in Peking, to Motono, July 28, 1917, in Japanese Foreign Ministry documents microfilmed by the Library of Congress, MT 1.6.1.4, Kakkoku naisei kankei zassen: Shina no bu (Miscellaneous documents relating to internal political conditions in various countries: China), Reel 8r, pp. 6703–5. Hayashi to Motono, Mar. 27, 1918, Gaikkō bunsho, 1918, II, pt. 2, 1010–11.

32 The fact that Peking politics was extremely corrupt is mentioned by many contemporaries as well as by later writers. To list but a few sources: Shun-tien shih-pao, Feb. 2 and 7, 1917; Yoshizawa to Motono, Mar. 15, 1918, Gaikō bunsho, 1918, II, pt. 2, 997–998; T'ao Chü-yin, IV, 143–144; Banzai to Chief of Staff Uchara, May 14, 1918, most secret, Papers of Shōda Kazue, Diet Library, Tokyo.

33 Okabe Saburd, “Nishihara shakkan o ronsu (On the Nishihara loans),” in Suzuki, p. 490. Okabe had access to the files of the Chinese foreign ministry. The South Manchuria Railway Company compiled a very detailed, itemized account: Nishihara shal^kan shito ichiranhyō (A table of uses of die Nishihara loans, n.p., 1932).

34 “Chuka Kaigyd Ginkō teikan (Bylaws of the Exchange Bank of China), April 1916,” in Japanese Foreign Ministry documents microfilmed by the Library of Congress, MT 3.3.3.33, NisShi gōben ginkō kankei zakken (Miscellaneous documents relating to banks under joint Sino-Japancse management), Reel 631, pp. 195–206.

35 “Chūka Kaigyō Ginkō kabu-nushi meibo (List of the shareholders of the Exchange Bank of China),” Feb. 28, 1923 ibid., pp. 301–311.

36 Chūka Kaigyō Ginkō no genjō oyobi shōrai no h“shin (The present state and future direction of the Exchange Bank of China), 1924,” Japanese Foreign Ministry documents microfilmed by the Library of Congress, S5.2.3.2–1, NisShi gōben ginkō kankei zakken. Kaigyō Ginkō kankei (Miscellaneous documents relating to banks under joint Sino-Japanese management: the Exchange Bank of China), Reel 8265, p. 1238.

37 Ibid., pp. 1432–40.

38 Ibid., p. 332.

39 Chiao-tung yin-hang yueh-k'an (The Bank of Communications Monthly), 3:5 (May 1925), pp. 1–2.

40 Ts'ao, Reminiscences, p. 400.

41 Ibid., pp. 341–342.

42 Hopei k'uang-wu hui-k'an (Collected report; of the mines in Hopei, n.p., 1930), pp. 11–15.

43 Ts'ao, Reminiscences, pp. 202–203, 235, 337, 341–342.

44 Ibid., pp. 248 and 250.

45 Ibid., pp. 150, 211–212, and 260.

46 Ibid., pp. 230–231, 243, 255, 261–262, and 462–463.

47 Suzuki, pp. 493–496.

48 For a sketch of the Tuan Ch'i-jui faction and a study of its role in 1918–1920, see Nathan, Andrew J., Peking politics, 1918–1923: factionalism and the failure of constitutionalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49 A careful search of works on mines in north China in the Tōyō Bunko, Tokyo, failed to uncover any more evidence on the Lin-ch'eng mine. Moreover, this writer interviewed Ts'ao's agent for the Lu-han Trading Company in Hong Kong in July 1972, but he refused to admit even any knowledge of that mine.

50 See the entry for Chou Tso-min, founder of the Kin-cheng Banking Corporation, Biographical dictionary, I, 427–429.