Chan TK (2022)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Conference contribution, Conference Contribution
Publication year: 2022
Conference Proceedings Title: Dynamics and Experiences of Globalization – Global Crises, Deviance, and Threats
Event location: Neudietendorf
As the Treaty of Tientsin concluded in 1858 as an outcome of the Qing Empire’s defeat in the Second Opium War, a treaty port system was established, allowing British subjects to carry out commercial activities in the name of “free trade.” However, since the Qing and British delegates were communicating and operating on distinctive political and economic frameworks, the foundation of this treaty port system left out plenty of zones of ambiguity, which state actors and merchants on both sides constantly maneuvered in the coming decades. As a result, when incidents of commercial disputes unfolded, they were not merely about money but also power, statecraft, and principles.
Against this background, this research selects and focuses on the commercial disputes between foreign enterprises, native compradors, and domestic merchants in Suzhou in the 1910s, one of the wealthiest regions in China that produced most of the empire’s commercial levies. Specifically, it looks at how two foreign enterprises, namely Asiatic Petroleum (the former body of Royal Dutch Shell) and Standard Oil, challenged the public finance of the regional government on their pathway to maximize profits in the framework of treaty stipulations. Interestingly, because of the nuanced relationship between central and regional finance, even ordinary business operations (i.e., avoiding duplicated levies and setting up warehouses) could already cause unintended consequences that exerted fiscal pressure on local governments. Collective actions like protests for tax discretion and tax strikes became more frequent. Meanwhile, news about these incidents got disseminated by the burgeoning Chinese newspapers, which increasingly took the vantage point of native merchants and national interests. A new political and economic discourse started articulating due to the existence of foreign enterprises in China.
In a brushstroke, this research points to some inevitable problems local governments and native merchants encountered in economic globalization. Furthermore, with the spotlight tilted towards the emerging Chinese Chambers of Commerce at the time, this research also provides a descriptive account of how merchants developed a primordial sense of solidarity and self-consciousness out of the challenges posed by globalization. In this sense, it hopes to resonate the 20th International Summer School of the Graduate School Global and Area Studies in 2022
APA:
Chan, T.K. (2022). How Foreign Enterprises Challenged Chinese Regional Finance: A Case Study of the Operation of Asiatic Petroleum and Standard Oil in Suzhou in the 1910s. In Dynamics and Experiences of Globalization – Global Crises, Deviance, and Threats. Neudietendorf.
MLA:
Chan, Tsz Kit. "How Foreign Enterprises Challenged Chinese Regional Finance: A Case Study of the Operation of Asiatic Petroleum and Standard Oil in Suzhou in the 1910s." Proceedings of the 20th International Summer School of the Graduate School Global and Area Studies, Leipzig University in cooperation with the Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, Neudietendorf 2022.
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