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This study examines the development of labour organisation and industrial action among workers in government enterprises in the late Qing (1860‐1912). Because these were the largest industrial enterprises using the most advanced machinery, one expects that the workers in them would play the leading role in labour organisation. Further, during the centuries‐long gestation period, the period of embryonic capitalism, workers in traditional enterprises had already developed a tradition of industrial action. Yet this tradition of protest did not appear to have contributed much to labour activism in the modern government works. Quite the contrary, it was in private industries, whether Chinese‐ or foreign‐owned, that we find a higher level of labour organisation and activism. This is an unexpected discovery, for which an explanation is attempted.

This study examines the development of labor organization & industrial action among workers in government enterprises in the late Qing (1860-1912). Because these were the largest industrial enterprises using the most advanced machinery, one expects that the workers in them would play the leading role in labor organization. Further, during the centuries-long gestation period, the period of embryonic capitalism, workers in traditional enterprises had already developed a tradition of industrial action. Yet this tradition of protest did not appear to have contributed much to labor activism in the modern government works. Quite the contrary, it was in private industries, whether Chinese- or foreign-owned, that we find a higher level of labor organization & activism. This is an unexpected discovery, for which an explanation is attempted. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractThe Foochow Navy Yard was founded in 1866 by Tso Tsung-t'ang with the assistance of two French naval officers. In their opinion, they had provided ample funding for the enterprise, which was to construct a modern naval dockyard and academy, to build sixteen gunboats, and to train the Chinese in all aspects of naval construction, marine engineering, navigation and command of the small squadron, all within a five-year period. By a liberal interpretation of the contract, Tso managed to commit the government to funding the project for a total of seven years, up to early 1874. Since the objectives were by and large attained by that date, one could say that the Navy Yard was a success.

The slow growth of railways is undoubtedly one of the most astonishing features of the history of modernization in China. The Chinese government often gave as its reasons for opposition to railway development the fact that improved communications would facilitate foreign military expansion, that railways obstructed thefeng-shui, that mandarin and peasant alike were opposed to the railway, and that railways destroyed the livelihood of the common people. But, until recently, these explanations have never been given serious consideration, despite the fact that Ch'ing officials discussed railway-policy in these terms in a major debate in 1866–67. This is partly because historians have found it difficult to accept Chinese objections to railway development at their face-value, and partly because Chinese officials themselves, seeing that foreigners were unimpressed by Chinese arguments against railway construction, offered others which they thought would be more acceptable to the Western mind. This essay, however, tries to analyse Chinese objections as a coherent body of thought that might be said to xpress 'Confucian Patriotism'. It considers in detail the events surround-ing the destruction of the Woosung railway.