Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2018

 

The China Merchants Steamship Navigation Bureau’s Change into a Commercial Company in the Late Qing/Early Republican Period and the Game between Merchants and Officials (Abstract)

 

Yu Heping and Wu Pengcheng

 

The China Merchants Steamship Navigation Bureau’s transformation from a “government supervised, commercially operated” body to a “fully commercial” company in the late Qing/early Republican period, was an important example of reform trends in government-run enterprises at the time. The case attracted contemporary attention and has continued to do so. In the course of its transformation, the Bureau experienced three stages: the acquisition of statutory rights as a completely commercial enterprise, the defense of those rights, and the realization of full commercial operations. The process was accompanied by fierce gaming over rights between government and merchants. Ultimately, the favorable political conditions brought about by the Preparatory Constitution and the Revolution of 1911 enabled the full realization of the transfer. On the one hand, the case reflects the difficulty of reforming profitable governmentowned enterprises; on the other, it reflects the changing policies and attitudes of government departments in dealing with commercial assets and commercial rights during this period and demonstrates the actual effect of the reform on the relationship between the government and merchants.