The reform was carried out for a period of time, and the Westerners realized that they could not unilaterally strengthen armaments with public funds alone, but also needed to extensively strengthen the industrial base and develop civilian industry in the form of government supervision and commercial offices. Therefore, the later period of the Western Affairs Movement was launched with the purpose of "self-enrichment", such as:
Development of land and sea transportation: set up a steamship promotion bureau in Shanghai to operate inland river and ocean shipping business, tried to build a railway with foreign investment in Beijing and Shanghai (unsuccessful), and then built a short-distance railway from Tangshan to Xugezhuang.
Improving postal telecommunications: A trial telegraph was set up between the Haikou Fort in Beitang, Dagu and Tianjin, and the General Telegraph Bureau (with seven sub-bureaus) was established in Tianjin.
Established mineral mining: Kaiping Mining Bureau was established in Zhizhi, Mohe Gold Mining Bureau was established in Heilongjiang, and Hanyang Iron Works was established in Hubei.
Establishment of civilian enterprises: the establishment of the Gansu Weaving General Bureau, the preparation of the construction of machine weaving layout, the establishment of weaving, spinning, linen, silk reeling, needle nails, felt and other factories. These enterprises are all produced by Western technology and equipment, and belong to modern new enterprises.
The industry developed by the Western-style movement gave shape to modern industry and commerce in China.
Located in Tianjin, the steamship China Merchants Terminal. In the later period of the foreign affairs movement, emphasis was placed on economic self-prosperity, with emphasis on the development of industry and commerce, shipping and communications. In January 1873, the steamship China Merchants Bureau was officially established in Shanghai, operating in the form of government supervision and commercial office, operating inland and ocean shipping business, and its wharves were located in many coastal and riverine cities.
Official supervision and commercial office refers to the organizational form of an enterprise in which businessmen contribute to subscribe to shares and the government appoints officials to manage them. In the seventies of the nineteenth century, the Westerners gradually paid attention to the need to create wealth and began to set up civilian enterprises other than the military industry. However, the Qing government lacked financial resources and was afraid of bearing losses, so it encouraged businessmen to undertake the business. However, the official is not worried about the full commission of business, and secondly, the conservative force is strong, and the new enterprise needs the support of powerful foreign officials, so the organizational form of such a business as official supervision and commerce has emerged. Taking the first government-supervised commercial enterprise Steamship Merchants Bureau as an example, the initial shares were 100,000 taels of official shares, 100,000 taels each for the brothers Zhu Qianang and Zhu Qishao, and 50,000 taels for Li Hongzhang. The government-supervised commercial office was more popular in the seventies and eighties of the nineteenth century, and played a certain role in driving the development of modern enterprises. With the socio-economic development and the accumulation of experience of private entrepreneurs, the model of government-supervised commercial office has become increasingly out of date due to excessive official power in enterprises, and has gradually declined since the nineteens and nineties, while private enterprises wholly owned and operated by businessmen have become increasingly numerous.
In addition to water transportation, Westerners also attach importance to railway transportation. In 1881, China's first self-built railway, the Tangxu Railway, was opened, connecting Tangshan and Xugezhuang, which became a milestone in the history of Chinese transportation. The picture shows the opening ceremony.
The mine of Daye iron ore. In 1890, Daye Iron Mine in Hubei was founded. Iron ore mining is of great importance to military and other heavy industries.
Exploited iron ore needs to be smelted. Founded by Zhang Zhidong, then governor of Huguang, Hubei Hanyang Iron Works was built in 1891 and put into operation in 1894, making it the earliest government-run steel enterprise in modern China, and the scale at that time was second to none in Asia.
Production site of Kaiping Coal Mine. Coal was the main fuel for industrial production and transportation at that time, and was a key strategic resource. Kaiping Mining Bureau was established in 1878 and was fully put into operation three years later, which is a large-scale new coal mining enterprise.
Lee Kim Yong inspects the gold mine relief. In 1888, Li Jinyong founded the Mohe Gold Mining Bureau in Mohe, near the Sino-Russian border in Heilongjiang, and began production the following year, becoming one of the few enterprises that mined gold during the foreign affairs movement.
In addition to heavy industries such as military and mining affairs, the foreign affairs movement also developed civilian light industries, among which the development of light industry in Shanghai was particularly eye-catching. In 1879, Shanghai Machine Weaving Merchants Bureau was established, and the articles of association (left) were published in the "Declaration", with the words "A total of 2,000 shares are collected and 2,000 shares remaining" and "Shanghai Machine Weaving Merchants Bureau is the same as the same person". In 1891, Huaxin Textile New Bureau was officially put into operation in Shanghai, and later renamed Hengfeng Textile New Bureau (right), which is a government-commercial joint venture.
During the period of the Western Affairs Movement, light industry also developed in inland cities. From 1893 to 1894, Wuchang, Hubei Province set up four factories for weaving, spinning, reeling and making rice, and announced the prospectus.
Tianjin Telegraph General Administration Building. The Westernization Movement opened up modern China's telecommunications industry. In 1880, the General Telegraph Bureau was established in Tianjin, and then gradually increased the laying of lines to connect to many parts of the country.
Modern Chinese entrepreneurs, from left: Sheng Xuanhuai, Zheng Guanying. The foreign affairs movement cultivated the first entrepreneurs in modern China. In addition to their achievements in the establishment and operation of businesses, they have made significant contributions in many fields such as culture, education and charity. The foreign affairs movement gave shape to modern Chinese industry and commerce.
During the Western Affairs Movement, how was the construction of the short-distance railway from Tangshan to Xugezhuang? It turned out that the railway was originally tried to build in Beijing and Shanghai, why did only Tang Xu Road remain?
The 9.3-kilometer-long section of the Tangshan-Xugezhuang section is the first railway built by China, starting from Tangshan and ending at Xugezhuang (present-day Fengnan District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province), and is now a section of the Beijing-Shenyang railway. Construction began in May 1881 and was completed in November, when only mules and horses were allowed to guide vehicles, and the following year it was switched to locomotive traction. In fact, the earliest planned places to build railways were in Beijing and Shanghai. As early as 1862, Jardine Matheson and other British and American foreign companies proposed to build a railway from Suzhou to Shanghai, but they were rejected. In 1865, American businessmen built a railway more than a mile long outside Xuanwumen in Beijing, but it was immediately demolished by the infantry commander Yamen. In 1880, Jardine Matheson built a railway from Shanghai to Wusong, which was finally demolished and thrown into the sea due to the opposition of the people along the way and crushing a soldier to death. However, most of the two originally planned railways were built by foreign capital, and only the Tangshan to Xugezhuang Road was built by China.