6 Projects of the Self-Strengthening Movement

In the 1860s with the country facing imminent collapse, the Tongzhi Restoration gave a sigh of relief for the ailing Qing Dynasty. After the Second Opium War and gains against numerous rebellions, prominent officials started the Self-Strengthening Movement aimed at developing the economy and modernizing the military. The Movement established several projects aimed to contribute to the country’s modernization.

1. Kiangnan (Jiangnan) Arsenal

Gun transportation in Jiangnan Arsenal

The Self-Strengthening Movement aimed to strengthen the military and promote the defense of national sovereignty against foreign incursions. Moreover, the promoters of the movement saw the effectiveness of modern weapons for fighting rebellions. Thus, many arsenals went up with the biggest and well knew being the Kiangnan or Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai.

The Jiangnan arsenal composed of a weapons manufacturing complex, translation institute, and western subject schools. Its productions lasted from the 1860s up to the 1930s.

Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan established the Jiangnan Arsenal in 1865 to produce weapons for the fight against the Taiping Rebellion. From an iron mill, it acquired machines from the nearby Suzhou Arsenal as well as new modern equipment bought from the United States. The facility also employed foreign technical experts to provide the necessary know-how. After the Taiping Rebellion ended, Jiangnan continued to operate and went into the forefront of the Self-Strengthening movement embodying its objectives – education and military modernization.

Jiangnan became the largest arsenal in China and one of the biggest in the world. At its peak, it employed 3,000 Chinese and paid 8 times higher than an average Chinese farmer or coolie.

From weapons manufacturing, the military-industrial complex successfully expanded to shipbuilding in 1865 with the launching from its facility the 1st modern Chinese steamship, the Huiji. By 1872, the Jiangnan shipyard finished 6 ships armed with 24-pounder howitzers. From 1865 to 1904, Jiangnan successfully launched 25 ships. The facility only experienced slow production of ships from 1875 to 1885 after concentrating resources in weapons manufacturing rather than shipbuilding which the Fuzhou Shipyard took over.

Besides its military purposes, the arsenal also hosted a translation center. Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan hired John Fryer from the Tongwen Guan to direct the translation office. In its course, the center translated around 160 works from the west and Japan into the Chinese language.

The early 1900s spelled the decline of the Jiangnan Arsenal. In 1905, the shipyard became a separate body from the main arsenal. Jiangnan changed its name to Shanghai Arsenal and remain in operation until the 1930s.

2. Fuzhou Shipyard

Fuzhou Arsenal

Fuzhou Navy Yard or Shipyard went into the forefront of Chinese navy modernization. Organized by Zuo Zongtang in 1866, it began to produce ships with French technology provided by Prosper Giquiel and Paul D’Aiguebelle who fought alongside government forces during the Taiping Rebellion. In 1867, the shipyard received orders to produce 16 ships with the first coming out in 1869, the Wan Nian Qing (“Ten Thousand-year Qing Dynasty). By 1873, it already produced 11 warships of different classes and sizes, from corvette to gunboats. In the next decade, from 1874 to 1885, it delivered 7 more ships.

By the 1880s, the shipyard faced financial difficulties stemming from unstable capital. Under General Zuo, the shipyard obtained capital from contributions from different provinces. However, with the death of Zuo, the steady stream of contributions ended and balance sheets tipped towards losses. Furthermore, officials of the shipyard failed to recognize the high maintenance cost of steamships that strained the budget. Corruption and bureaucratic red tape exacerbated the Shipyard’s condition.

The Fuzhou Shipyard’s facility went up in flames during the Battle of Fuzhou during the Sino-French War that put an end to Zuo Zongtang’s contribution to the Self-Strengthening Movement.

3. China Merchants’ Steam Navigation Company

Li Hongzhang

Established on December 16, 1872, Li Hongzhang established the China Merchant’s Steam Navigation Company to embody his idea of Fuqiang or “wealth and power” establishing profitable industries to finance the “Self-Strengthening” initiatives.  It meant to reintroduce Chinese competition in the foreign-dominated domestic coastal and riverine trade. The company also became an example of a pattern of business management known as guandu shangban or “official supervision, merchant management” where an official takes the executive role while providing guidelines to the merchant tasked to oversee daily operations.

To truly represent China, 80% ownership of the company came from Chinese investment. Affluent wealthy businessmen from Shanghai and Canton invested so as Li Hongzhang himself. While Li took the position of official supervisor, the position of merchant fell to Tang Tishu (Tong King-sing) whose leadership saw the company’s rapid expansion from 1872 to 1884. Under the duo, the company exploited Li’s positions as Superintendent of Northern Trade and gained a monopoly in the shipping along the Grand Canal. It also enjoyed a monopoly in riverine and coastal transport of annual grain tribute from the Yangtze valley to Beijing.

For all the monopolies and efforts, the company soon expanded its routes to reach Japan and Southeast Asia. In 1876, it already owned a mercantile fleet of 12 ships manned by British and American captains. In 1877, it further expanded its shipping assets three-fold when it absorbed ships from the defunct American Shanghai Steam Navigation Company.

The 1880s, however, witnessed the Company spiraling downwards. Mismanagement of profits resulted in its bankruptcy in 1883. Moreover, its driver Tong King-sing transferred to the Kaiping Mining Company. In 1885, Sheng Xuanhuai succeeded Tong King-sing as the general manager of the company leading its reorganization. However, under his watch, the company continued to decline as corruption flourished. The company continued to operate as a virtual state-owned enterprise until 1911 when it decided to sever ties with the government and become a private entity.

4. Kaiping Coal Mine

Beiyang Fleet in Wiehaiwei

Coal powered the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, and in an effort to develop modern industries, China looked towards the Kaiping Mines. Coal mining already began in Kaiping during the 16th century. However, it grew to a massive scale after Tong King-sing, a Cantonese businessman and general manager of the China Merchant’s Steam Navigation Company worked with Li Hongzhang to develop China’s coal industry with the establishment of the Kaiping Mining Administration, and later Kaiping Coal Mining Company. In 1877, the coal mining project received funding from Beijing worth 800,000 Taels. The Kaiping Mines became China’s first modern mine utilizing British and Australian mining industry practices and technology. From 100-ton output in its first year, it grew to a staggering 732,000 tons in 1898.

The company, like the China Merchant’s Steam Navigation Company, also operated as a guandu shangban. Li Hongzhang took the position of a government official while Tong King-sing serving as general manager. With close ties to the government, the Company easily supplied coals to the ports of northern China, to the Chinese navy’s Beiyang Fleet, as well as Shanghai.

In 1882, the Company faced a logistical challenge brought by increasing demand. Initially, coals went from Tangshan to Xueguezhuang (Fengnan) by horse, then to Nighe (Lutai) by a canal, before going to Tianjin by the Jiyun River. Li then planned a railroad to Tanggu, in the outskirts of Tianjin, to make the transport of coal efficient and fast. Local opposition furthered from arguments on the mines’ disrespect of feng shui to the railroad's potential impact on local employment. Despite criticism, Li proceeded with the railroad construction from 1882 to 1888 and utilized China’s first domestically built locomotive.

In 1895, Li hired Gustav Detring as a consultant for the Kaiping Mines and in 1900 Chang Yenmao took over as General Manager. Together they contributed to the survival of the company during the Boxer War when Russian forces occupied Kaiping’s facilities and threatened to take over. In 1901, the company negotiated with the future American President Herbert Hoover who represented the British company Bewick, Morein, & Co. to form the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company, an Anglo-Chinese joint-stock company with 2 boards of directors with 1 in China and another in England. However, Bewick, Morein, & Co. dominated the company after owning 625,000 shares out of a million becoming the majority shareholder and owner of the company.

5. Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill

Nanjing Road, Shanghai, 1930s

Industrialization led to the mass production of textile and the same happened to China. In a quest for profitable business, in 1877, Zheng Guanying formulated a plan to develop a cotton mill in Shanghai. Thus, the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill represented Chinese competition in the production of cheap cotton products dominated by industrialized products of foreign powers.

Li Hongzhang noticed and supported the plan. He then teamed up to develop the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill initially founded by Peng Ruzong and expanded as a joint-stock company. Thus, it raised capital of 500,000 taels from various wealthy Chinese businessmen besides the 325,000 taels personal investment from Zheng Guanying. The company hired the American A.W. Danforth to assist in formulating a modern business plan incorporating the latest business practices. Soon the mill began to produce cloth in small quantities. It also received a lucrative 10-year monopoly in cotton milling in the region. However, a conflict with the United States prevented the realization of the mill’s potential throughout the 1880s worsen by the break out of the Sino-French War of 1884 and 1885. It failed to reach full capacity until December 24, 1889. By then, the company also saw leadership changes, from Zheng Guanying who served as general manager from 1882 to 1884, to the famous Qing industrialist Sheng Xuanhuai.

Sheng oversaw the exponential growth of the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill. Under him, the company’s annual production reached a peak of 4 million yards by 1892. Tragically, a fire broke out in the mill in 1893 destroying much of its facilities. In its place, the Huasheng Cotton Mill rose, but it failed to reach the same success as the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill as the 1897 Shimonoseki Treaty opened the region for foreign direct investments translating to tough competition.

6. Han-Ye-Ping Iron and Coal Company

Location of the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works, 1930s

Han-Ye-Ping Iron and Coal Company represented one of the largest industrial projects of the Self-Strengthening Movement. The brainchild of the Viceroy of Huguang Zhang Zhidong, it began as the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works and the Daye Iron Mines founded in 1889.

Both projects aimed to support the construction of the Hankow-Beijing Railroad Line, supervised by Zhang Zhidong. Its capital stood at 5.6 million Taels and hired Gustav Toppe to provide technical advice for the company.

The facilities in Hanyang laid in a strategic location where the Han and the Yangtze Rivers meet providing it with convenient means of transportation and logistics. Furthermore, the facility also hosted ports, railroads, and an arsenal, the oldest modern of its kind in China, making Hanyang an industrial hub.

The iron and steelworks, however, suffered from tremendous problems. First, it faced a shortage of coke need for the processing of steel. Second, financial problems from astronomical operation cost confronted the company. It even had to take bailouts from the government and profits from other profitable government companies reaching 4 million Taels just to survive. This led to the privatization of the ironworks in 1895 and Sheng Xuanhuai once again took the position of general manager.

Under Sheng, the company forged a 15-year agreement with the Yawata Works of Japan for a trade of 50,000 tons of iron ore from Daye for 40,000 tons of Japanese coke. Entanglement with the Japanese furthered in the 1910s. In 1908, the Hanyang Iron Works, Daye Iron Ore Mines, and the Pingxiang Coal Mines reorganized to form the Han-Ye-Ping Iron and Coal Company. It, however, continued to face financial difficulty as well as corruption and by 1913, Japanese creditors took over the company.

See also:

Self-Strengthening Movement

Bibliography:

Books:

Andrade, Tonio. The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History. Woodstock, Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press, 2016.

Beckert, Sven. Empire of Cotton: A Global History. New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.

Cowan, C.D. The Economic Development of China and Japan. London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1964.

Koll, Elisabeth. From Cotton Mill to Business Empire: The Emergence of Regional Enterprises in Modern China. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Roberts, J.A.G. A History of China. New York, New York: A Concise History of China, 1999.

Yonekura, Seiichiro. The Japanese Iron and Steel Industry, 1850 – 1990: Continuity and Discontinuity. New York, New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., 1994.

General References:
"China Merchants Steam Navigation Company." Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. Encyclopedia.com. Accessed on October 16, 2020. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/china-merchants-steam-navigation-company

“Fuzhou Dockyard.” Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Military History. Edited by Larry Wortzel. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

“Jiangnan Arsenal.”  Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Military History. Edited by Larry Wortzel. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Corfield, Justin. “China Merchants’ Steam Navigation Company.” The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History. Edited by Kenneth Hendrickson et. al. New York, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

_____________. “Kaiping Mining Company.” The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History. Edited by Kenneth Hendrickson et. al. New York, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

____________. “Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill.” The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History. Edited by Kenneth Hendrickson et. al. New York, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Jiangnan Arsenal.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on October 25, 2020. URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jiangnan-Arsenal    

___________________________. “Tangshan.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on October 25, 2020. URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Tangshan#ref1001034