France and the Exploitation of China: A Study in Economic Imperialism, 1885-1901

372 Pages·1990·5.822 MB·English

by  Robert Lee

FRANCE AND THE EXPLOITATION OF CHINA
1885-1901
A STUDY IN ECONOMIC IMPERALISM

FRANCE
AND THE
EXPLOITATION
OF
CHINA
1885-1901
A Study in Economic Imperialism
ROBERT LEE
HONG KONG
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD NEW YORK
1989
Oxford University Press
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© Oxford University Press 1989
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First published 1989
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press, Inc., New York
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lee, Robert, 1952-
France and the exploitation of China, 1885-1901: a study in
economic imperialism.
1. China, 1644-1912
1. Title
95V.03
ISBN 0-19-582708-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee, Robert S. (Robert Stuart), 1952-
France and the exploitation of China: a study in economic
imperialism, 1885-1901 / Robert S. Lee.
p. cm. — (East Asian historical monographs)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-19-582708-2
1. Investments, French — China — History —
19th century. 2. China —
Economic conditions, 1644-1912. 3. France — Colonies —
Asia.
1. Title. II. Series.
HG5472.L44 1989
332.6*7344051 —dc20
89-23196
CIP
Printed in Hong Kong by Liang Yu Printing Factory Ltd.
Published by Oxford University Press, Warwick House, Hong Kong
To Ceridwen
‘l’heure était venue de substituer aux gén­
éraux et aux amiraux, l’ingénieur et le
banquier qui sont aujourd’hui les vrais
conquérants de la Chine.’
Auguste Gérard, 1897
Preface
Imperialism remains a lively historiographical issue a generation
after the dissolution of the European territorial empires in Africa
and Asia. Most of this English-language historiography draws its
empirical evidence from the British imperial experience and
emphasizes formal territorial empires, that is the vast number of
relatively undeveloped states which were either conquered or
obliged to acknowledge European suzerainty, mostly during the
nineteenth century.
Yet France was, after Britain, the world’s second greatest
imperial power, and, together with her ally Russia was Britain’s
only serious rival in formal empire-building on the Asian main­
land. Moreover imperialism was not confined to formal empire;
and Latin America, the Ottoman empire, and China, all of which
preserved their political integrity and sovereignty during the
period of the territorially acquisitive ‘new imperialism’, were
deeply affected by the aggressive aspirations of the industrialized
Western world.
This book, then, is an attempt to correct two imbalances in the
English-language historiography of imperialism, and so concen­
trates on France, the second imperial nation, and China, then as
now the world’s most populous state, then as now perceived in the
West as a potentially vast market, and then perceived by some in
the West as a potential field for further territorial conquest.
France, whose domestic economy was very different from that of
Britain, naturally had different imperial aspirations and different
means of achieving them. Hence the interaction between France
and China differed greatly from that of Britain and China, and this
book seeks to illuminate some of those differences.
I wrote the book using mostly French archival sources, although
I also consulted British archives. A study of imperialism is almost
by definition Eurocentric, since it was the European powers which
constantly took the initiative in attempting to resolve their
economic and social tensions through the domination of weaker
societies. Nevertheless I have sought to give some consideration to
Chinese responses and so owe a great debt to a large historio-
viii PREFACE
graphy on Chinese affairs, much of which has been produced by
the Harvard school.
The sources consulted have used a wide variety of systems of
transliteration of Chinese names. Most English-language sources
have used a combination of Wade-Giles and Post Office forms.
Late nineteenth-century French documents sometimes used these
forms, sometimes standard French orthography, or a variant
thereon, often a combination of all three. In this book pinyin
forms have been used throughout, including quotations. All
French quotations have been translated into English and their
Chinese names rendered in pinyin. However in titles, both in the
notes and bibliography, the original forms have been maintained.
A list of Chinese names, listing pinyin, Wade-Giles or Post Office,
and French forms is included in a glossary and should resolve any
difficulties.
A less troublesome problem has been the changes in some
geographical names over the last century. The rule I have followed
is that purely geographical names have been rendered in their
modem forms, whereas names with a political content have
retained their contemporary forms. Thus the metropolitan prov­
ince of China appears as Zhili, its name prior to 1912, not Hebei,
its present name, while the capital of Yunnan is always Kunming,
its modern name, not Yunnanfu. There are a few exceptions to
this rule: Annam is offensive to modem Vietnamese, so Vietnam
is substituted; the Chang Jiang is here described as the Yangzi
Jiang in the interests of easy recognition; and for the same reason
the Namti River retains its French and Vietnamese rather than any
Chinese name. The Hong Ha always appears with its Vietnamese
name, even though in China it is called the Yuan Jiang and it is
more familiar to English-language readers as the Red River. ‘Our
Hong Ha’ unfortunately lacks the imperial resonance of ‘notre
fleuve Rouge’, but is more appropriate in a modem translation.
The book had its origins as a doctoral thesis written at the
University of Sydney. I was then the recipient of an Australian
Commonwealth Government Postgraduate Award. I am indebted
both to the Commonwealth Department of Education and to the
University, in particular the History Department’s Postgraduate
Studies Committee, for their support in undertaking the research,
especially in enabling me to spend a year in Paris. The trans­
formation of the thesis into a book was mostly done while I was on
study leave from my teaching at what was then the Macarthur
PREFACE ix
Institute of Higher Education and I am grateful to my colleagues
at the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur for their support
and encouragement with the project. While on study leave in Paris
I was able to stay at the premises of the Institut francophone de
Paris, and I wish to express my gratitude to M. Michel Fleury,
Mme Françoise Auffray, and the staff of the Institut for their
warm welcome, support, and assistance. M. Michel Bruguière,
whose pioneering research on the Chemin de fer du Yunnan
deserves wider recognition in the anglophone world, was most
generous with his time and was a source of much information on
the topic. The assistance and unfailing good humour of the
archival staff in the French Ministries of Finance, Foreign Affairs,
and Overseas France, as well as in the Archives Nationales are
also gratefully acknowledged.
Special thanks are due to a few people whose involvement with
the book has been more intimate. Dr Bruce Fulton of the
University of Sydney supervised the original thesis on which it is
based. My mother has been a marvellous typist and both my father
and my wife, Ceridwen, have provided helpful and learned crit­
ical comments. This book would not have been written without
these people’s support, but its failings are certainly my own
responsibility.
Robert Lee
Sydney
December 1988