Chapter 52 Merchants and intellectual elites "meet" outside the system

The second small climax of the Westernization Movement appeared in 1894. The defeat in the Sino-Japanese War was a great stimulus to all the people. Liang Qichao once said: "Awakening the great dream of our country for four thousand years is actually the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War." The Westernization Movement became the new mainstream of change, and the industrialization movement was promoted by the government and then turned into a rise of the people.According to Wang Jingyu's statistics in "Modern Chinese Economic History", in the four years from 1895 to 1898, a total of 62 factories and mines with a capital of more than 10,000 taels were newly opened in all provinces across the country, with a total capital of 12.465 million taels of silver, far exceeding that of a The total number of more than 20 years before noon, in terms of growth rate, the average annual number of factories is more than 7 times that of the pre-Jiawu period, and the average annual investment is more than 15.5 times.

For the property-owning class among the four major interest groups, the epoch-making change is the emergence of high-level intellectuals collectively doing business, which actually means the official emergence of the Chinese bourgeoisie as a group with independent thinking ability. There are two sexual events. One is Zhang Jian from Nantong who founded Dasheng Sahiro.The Enke champion in 1894 went into business with the courage of "sacrificing his life to feed the tiger", and established more than ten affiliated enterprises in just a few years, becoming the largest spinning factory and private capital group in the country. Its impact on society incalculable.When talking about the "Zhang Jian phenomenon", Fairbank pointed out that at the end of the 19th century, China did not actually have a bourgeoisie. After the Sino-Japanese defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the reason why they suddenly started investing in modern enterprises was mainly due to political and ideological motives. Their actions were caused by changing their beliefs or being infected by other ideas. ... Chinese capitalism has long been has always been characterized by a certain voluntary idealism".

Second, merchants played an important role in "Southeast Mutual Insurance". In 1900, the Boxer Movement against the imperialist powers broke out in the north. Empress Dowager Cixi tried to take advantage of the situation to drive overseas and rashly started war on other countries.In order to prevent the war from spreading southward, the four governors-general of the South, including Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi and Yuan Shikai, proposed to the countries that "self-preservation of the territory, the life and property of foreigners in the Yangtze River and the interior of Suzhou and Hangzhou shall be protected by the governors, and the Chinese in the Shanghai Concession shall be protected." In the "Southeast Mutual Protection" plan, Zhang Jian, Sheng Xuanhuai, Tang Shouqian, and Shen Zengzhen, in their civil capacity, mediated between the four governors-general and the ministers of the eight countries, and finally reached a compromise.In modern history, this is the first time for the emerging entrepreneurial class to participate in politics publicly, demonstrating their wisdom and ability in politics.At the same time, it also means that the supreme authority of the central government has disintegrated, and the fall of imperial power is only a matter of time and method.

After the "Gengzi National Change", the Qing court signed the "Xin Chou Treaty" that humiliated the country and humiliated the country. It paid 450 million taels of silver to the great powers and paid it off in 39 years. The principal and interest totaled 980 million taels. 88 million taels, that is to say, the compensation stipulated in the treaty is equivalent to the sum of the national fiscal revenue for 11 years, and the central finance has been substantially bankrupt.Li Hongzhang, who signed the contract on behalf of the imperial court, was regarded as a "sinner through the ages" by the people of the country. The Westernization School, which has devoted itself to rejuvenating the country through industry for more than 30 years, has lost its credibility among the people.

Since then, Cixi has suddenly "radically" promoted system construction and economic opening. In July 1903, the imperial court established the Ministry of Commerce, which became the main institution for the central government to formulate commercial laws and related laws. In January 1904, it promulgated the "Imperial Commercial Law of the Qing Dynasty", including 9 articles of "General Regulations for Merchants" and "Company Law"131 This is the first company law in the modern sense.Afterwards, the Bankruptcy Law, the Articles of Association of the Trial Bank, and the Articles of Association of Mining Affairs of the Qing Dynasty were successively promulgated.The drafting and promulgation of these laws established the first relatively complete commercial law system, which meant that the franchise doctrine that had been inherited for thousands of years in China was replaced by the normative doctrine of modern business.Driven by the policy, "the people invest in entrepreneurs flocking to them", and the number of companies established exceeds the total amount of state investment in the 30 years of the Westernization Movement.Misao Yasuhara, a Japanese expert on China, concluded that 1905 was a new starting point for the development of China's modern industry, that is, it entered the "era of national prosperity" from the "era of national prosperity".

At the same time, the Ministry of Commerce also imitated the model of chambers of commerce in Western countries and Japan, promulgated and implemented the "Concise Charter of Chambers of Commerce", and advocated businessmen from all over the world to set up chambers of commerce and branches.In the next few years, chambers of commerce around the world were in full swing, controlling industries and public opinion, and even partially assumed the government's economic management functions, becoming an independent force active among the people. In 1907, representatives of 80 important city chambers of commerce across the country gathered in Shanghai and proposed the establishment of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The national chambers of commerce are closely related and united as one.By 1911, there were nearly 2,000 merchant organizations of various kinds across the country, with 23,000 board members and 200,000 members.

While the merchant class grew and became independent, the intellectual elite was also "released" outside the system.In 1905, the most important domestic event was the abolition of the 1,300-year-old imperial examination system. The decision-making process was very hasty. In September, Zhang Zhidong, Yuan Shikai and others would perform the title, and Empress Dowager Cixi issued an order that month.The abolition of the imperial examination system, on the one hand, freed the Chinese elite from the backward and rigid Confucianism of Confucianism, Mencius and Confucianism, and moved closer to modern civilization in terms of knowledge and ideology; Class control.The abolition of the imperial examination system extinguished the last trace of nostalgia for the empire of a generation of educated young people. The elite class overflowed from the established track of the imperial examination system, and soon gave rise to a force of opposition that could not be controlled.A fact that can be compared is that in 1977, at the beginning of China’s reform and opening up, one of the earliest reform measures was to restore the college entrance examination system, bringing potential dissatisfaction and opposition forces into the ruling system.In the sensitive period of social transition, it is quite possible to participate in research.

When businessmen and intellectual elites "join forces" outside the gate of the system, challenges to the existing power structure become inevitable.