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 Oxford New York Toronto PetalingJaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan © Oxford University Press 1989 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press ' Oxford* is a trade mark of Oxford University Press 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