As the most progressive means of transportation in history, the railway has played a very important role in China's modern history. Mainly manifested in the fact that the railway can accelerate the economic development of the areas along the line and promote the urbanization of rural areas. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the views of the Chinese people on the construction of railways were not consistent. People's acceptance of such a new thing as the railway has also undergone a process. What's going on?
First, the special era background and railways of the late Qing Dynasty
China was the third Asian country to build a railway after Japan and India since the 19th century, and it is also the country in Asia that has received the most "road money" from the West. After the Opium War at the end of the Qing Dynasty, what came to Chinese was not only the guns and guns of foreigners and how strong their military capabilities were. News such as "advanced economic laws and artifact systems in Western countries" did not go away, and spread widely among the courts and alleys.
In 1865, the British merchant Durand preached to the Qing government the benefits of building a railway. A one-mile-long "mini railway" was specially built at his own expense outside the Xuanwu Gate in Beijing for the Qing court to visit. The "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" records, "
In July, the British Durand and Tongzhi Yi ugly, with a small railway in Changkelixu, were laid on the flat ground outside the Yongning Gate of the Beijing Division, and a small car drove on it, as fast as a flight.
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People are very interested in fresh trains
Such novelty did arouse the curiosity of the ministers and the neighbors, but in the context of the country's internal and external troubles at that time, the people showed their suspicion and surprise at the emergence of the railway in a sensitive manner. Literature records that when the Qing people were on the train"
Surprised as a demon, as if it were a snake
And set off a lot of social commotion. In this way, the imperial court hurriedly sent Yamen to dismantle the railway, which finally calmed down the storm.
Second, the development of railways and the collateral effects caused by them
The first truly operational railway in China was the Wusong Railway, which passed in Shanghai in the second year of Guangxu (1876). Although this railway was indeed laid by the British Jardine Matheson Commercial Bank without the approval of the central government, the feedback it aroused in the government and the public really stimulated the development of China's railway industry.
Style painting: The opening of the Wusong Railway
As the name suggests, the Wusong Railway is a short-distance railway from Shanghai to Wusong, with a total length of only 14 kilometers. After learning the reality of the opening and operation of the Wusong Railway, Qing government officials immediately formed two opposing forces. One of them advocates accepting railway construction, and even further introduces Western factories and machinery to expand cooperation with foreigners. Most people in the DPRK, for different reasons, choose to join the conservative camp to resist the occurrence of new things.
In 1881, under the insistence of Li Hongzhang, who pursued the principle of "mastering the art of mastery and self-improvement", the Qing court finally gave in. In this year, the Tangxu Railway from Tangshan in Hebei Province to Xu gezhuang was officially laid. In order to obtain the economic benefits of the Tangshan coal mine, the Qing court allowed Li Hongzhang to hire the British engineer Jindal as the chief engineer responsible for supervising the construction of the railway, and the general contractor for the project task chose the Kaiping Mining Bureau controlled by the Qing court.
Workers work at the Kaiping Mining Bureau
At first, during the trial operation of the railway, the trains running on the Tangxu Railway were pulled by livestock such as horses and mules. This is a compromise measure adopted by Li Hongzhang to avoid causing "official anger and resentment." Later, when the capital of Britain, France, Russia, Japan and other countries penetrated into China, "accelerating the construction of railways that meet the requirements of modernity" was put on the agenda.
The use of foreign capital to build railways is certainly a very favorable and good thing. Because these advanced countries not only have valuable experience accumulated after decades of development of railways, but also have a large number of relevant talents who are proficient in professional skills. By hiring or borrowing foreign capital, the Qing government was saved from the old path of the Western world, which was a "stopgap measure" that helped China move toward modernization.
Workers in the construction of the Henan Fenluo Railway
However, in the process of foreign capital inflows into China, many unpleasant things have also happened. For example, in the 1898 lease contract with Germany, it was stipulated that Germany would be allowed to build the Jiaoji Railway in Shandong Province. However, mining rights within 30 miles of the railway line were thus attributed to foreigners. Similarly, China's lease agreements with Russia, France and other countries urged France to build the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway linking Yunnan and Indochina, while also giving the right to own the resources and land development rights along the line to foreigners.
The old site along the Jiaoji Railway
Third, the impact of the call for "taking back the right of way" on the development of railways
After the Invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance, from the upper echelons of officials and eunuchs to the gentry and commoners, more and more people saw the corruption of the imperial court and the backwardness and conservatism of the Qing government. The proposal to lay a railway, which was not widely accepted by society at the beginning, was transformed into a fashion that people were chasing. Generally speaking, after the Sino-Japanese War, the new railway policy at the end of the Qing Dynasty went through three major stages: "joint shareholding and official camp, full commercial office and road right state-owned".
The first stage, which we have just mentioned, is to attract foreign investors to jointly build railways in the name of the government. This phase began to be conceived in the 1860s and was flattened around the beginning of the 20th century. Some students have to ask, since there is a possibility of commercial railways, why not allow foreigners to help us build railways in our country at the beginning? Just like today, we hire foreign companies to build buildings for us.
Hankou Dazhimen Station of the Beijing-Hankou Railway
The problems of railway operation are no more than ordinary buildings. The operation of the railway not only means that the economy of the whole country will be revitalized, but also that the country's national defense and military strategy will all be changed as a result, so it is impossible to entrust all the projects to outsiders. The joint venture was already a huge concession to foreign businessmen under the condition that the Qing government "had more than enough power."
The second stage is represented by the Edict of the Qing Government in 1904 calling on civil society organizations to fund the construction of railways. Soon after the edict was introduced, it immediately attracted the attention of the gentry and local chaebols. However, this means of "decentralization" and absorption of capital suffered a huge blow soon after its implementation.
Old photo: Railway traffic in China in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty
Chinese society was still an agriculture-based society at that time, and wealth and capital did not flow in large numbers among the few enthusiastic commoners. For them, the construction of the railway is a major event that is "easy to say and unattainable". Therefore, when the government really entrusts the hope of handling this matter to the society, it sees the powerlessness of the society and the people.
The third phase of adherence to the policy of reclaiming the right of way and the state-owned railway was what happened in the last years of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing government believed that it was no longer possible to rely on civilians for the construction of railways, but should take back the construction rights delegated to various localities and hire Western engineers to continue construction.
After the eight-power alliance invaded China, the resentment of the whole people against foreigners and foreign goods has reached its extreme. Therefore, the Qing government was unable to carry out his plan, and even the spontaneous rise of the "road protection movement" by the people also stimulated the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution to some extent.
The road protection movement is huge
Wen Shijun said:
As an important part of the modern state's mode of transportation, railways were once called "the most revolutionary tool in history". Because it can give people direct audiovisual stimulation and sensory stimulation, but also greatly changed the way agricultural society settles. The railway construction in the Republic of China at the end of the Qing Dynasty was the same for our country. Porcelain still believes that no matter how great the differences in the debate over railway construction in modern times are, and how difficult the expenditure and use are, the sooner the railway construction, the better. Railway construction is very much in line with the capitalist development model and commercial laws, because it can play a role in communicating the overall situation on land. Today, China's "high-speed rail speed" has become a world leader. Compared with our poverty and weakness in the late Qing Dynasty, China's strength and prosperity are worthy of everyone's pride!
bibliography:
Ge Yuhong, "Railways in the Late Qing Dynasty: The Propeller of Social Transmutation", Journal of Jiangsu University (Social Science Edition), No. 6, 2008
Xiao Gongqin, "Rethinking the "Road Preservation Movement" in the Late Qing Dynasty", Strategy and Management, December 1996
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Porcelain Country Garbage Dump)
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