LIST OF MAPS MAP ILLUSTRATING IMPERIAL RAILWAYS OF NORTH CHINA, THE MAP ILLUSTRATING THE SHANGHAI-NANKING RAILWAY. MAP ILLUSTRATING GERMAN RAILWAY RIGHTS IN SHANTUNG MAP ILLUSTRATING FRENCH RAILWAY RIGHTS IN SOUTH CHINA. GENERAL MAP ILLUSTRATING RAILWAYS IN CHINA AND MAN CHURIA Facing p. 37 127 RAILWAY ENTERPRISE IN CHINA CHAPTER I SIR MACDONALD STEPHENSON THE history of railway enterprise in China covers a period of rather more than forty years. It reflects at once the main characteristics of the Chinese official classes, and the tendency of the Far Eastern policy of foreign powers. Broadly speaking, the history falls into three stages. Of these the first is that of foreign attempts to persuade the Chinese to allow the introduction of railways. The next development is a progressive movement emanating from the Chinese themselves. Lastly comes the era of concessions in which the dominant feature is foreign control. Chronologically these several stages may be considered as roughly corresponding to the periods between 1863 and 1878, 1879 and the outbreak of the Chino-Japanese War in 1894, and thereafter to the present time. Of the future it is wisest not to prophesy. But it may at least be remarked that the tendency at the moment is towards the elimination of foreign control. In the present chapter and the chapter on the Woosung Road 1 we shall see what measure of success attended the efforts of foreigners to urge upon the Chinese the adoption of modern means of communication before they were prepared to accept them. Subsequently the history of the later phases will be developed. 1 Chapter II. The first attempt to introduce railways into China was made on the 20th of July in the year 1863, when a petition was presented to "His Excellency Li,1 Imperial Commissioner and Governor of the Province of Keang Soo for the sole Concession of the Right to Establish a line of Railway between Shanghai and Soochow." The signatories of the petition were twenty-seven foreign firms, mostly British, "all being merchants resident at the port of Shanghai in the Empire of China." 2 Soochow is situated inland not far from the eastern shore of the Taihu or "Great Lake," and lies almost directly west of Shanghai, from which it is distant some eighty miles. At that time Soochow was occupied by the Taipings, but the rebellion was drawing to its close, and the "petitioners being impressed with the idea of the early probability of the recapture of the city from the rebels by the forces of His Imperial Majesty, and of the restoration of peace in the surrounding country, considered that the present time was a fit occasion for applying for the concession of the right to establish a line of railway between Soochow and Shanghai, of a construction similar to those in existence in foreign countries, to be worked by a company then in course of formation, to be styled the 'Shanghai and Soochow Railway Company." " 3 Unfortunately in this expression of view Li Hung Chang, who at a later period of his career took an active part in fostering railway enterprise, was unable to concur. Indeed, "although backed by the advocacy of the leading members of the consular body, the scheme was received with decided disapprobation. The Governor distinctly informed the Consuls that railways would only be beneficial to China when undertaken by the Chinese themselves, and conducted under their own management; that grave objections existed to the employment of numerous foreigners in the interior; and that the people would evince great opposition to being deprived of their land for that purpose. He also distinctly refused to be the medium of conveying any proposal of the kind to the Supreme Government at Peking; and even added that he should consider it his duty to oppose the attempt on the part of foreigners to gain such an undue degree of influence in the country as the concession sought for would confer upon them." 4 The blow was crushing and caused the scheme to be abandoned, 1 Li Hung Chang. 3 Ibid. Letter from Sir Harry Parkes to Sir MacDonald Stephenson, 8th March 1864. 2 Extract from petition. its authors realising that their proposals were at least somewhat premature. At this point Sir MacDonald Stephenson, a distinguished engineer, who just twenty years previously had projected the first railway for India and had been subsequently prominently connected with the development of the Indian system, appeared upon the scene. In the spring of 1863 his attention had been drawn to China by a retired partner of the house of Jardine, Matheson & Company, and, impressed by the possibilities of the rapid development in all directions that would follow the introduction of railways, he determined in the following autumn to visit the country. At the same time he formed the ambition to save China from what he believed to be the evils of haphazard development. His view was that "a comprehensive system decided on at the outset, and all lines made in conformity with it, would avert the evils of the English want of such a system, where in many cases double capital has been laid out to perform work which one expenditure could have adequately provided for, seriously prejudicing the prospects of the shareholders on both lines, and depriving the public of the full economical advantage which under a sound organised system would have been obtained." 1 This conviction will be found impressed upon and indeed to have been the main feature of Sir MacDonald's proposals. On his arrival in the Far East he embarked hopefully on his self-imposed task. Doubtless, however, he found the difficulties in his path very much greater on closer acquaintance than he had supposed. The fate of the Shanghai petitioners had given a sufficiently clear indication of the Chinese official view, and notwithstanding the optimistic tone of the report which he subsequently issued he can scarcely have failed to realise that the time. had not arrived for the introduction of a system entailing such far-reaching changes. As yet the Chinese were not prepared for the reception of foreign ideas. They had hardly begun to modify the old contemptuous estimate in which the foreigner and all things foreign had from time immemorial been held, while the prejudice and hostility which in time past had characterised the Chinese official relations with foreigners was as deep-seated and bitter as in the earliest days of foreign intercourse. The attitude of the Chinese is intelligible. Scarcely twenty 1 Railways in China, by Sir MacDonald Stephenson (1864), p. 21. |