This article is an institutional study on the history of the ill-fated Wusong Railway, China's first operational railway. The nine-mile light railway was built by the British firm Jardine, Matheson & Co. without the Qing government's permission. After negotiations with British diplomats, the Qing government agreed to purchase the line but the reformist governor-general Shen Baozhen later ordered it to be removed to Taiwan. Unfortunately funds were never provided for the rebuilding work. This article argues that it was the Qing government's failure to raise funds for capital-intensive projects that led to the railway's final destruction.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1479591414000205

Imperialism, Sovereignty, and Self-Strengthening: A Reassessment of the 1870s

Citations

Merchants, mandarins, and the railway: institutional failure and the wusong railway, 1874–1877