Joint Actions in the Constitutional and Revolutionary Movements

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the political activism of the Lower Yangzi chambers of commerce. In alliance with other constitutional organizations, these chambers repeatedly pressed the Qing government for more radical reforms, and significantly changed the power structures ranging from commercial legislation to local administration. Many chamber leaders in the Lower Yangzi region eventually endorsed the 1911 Revolution by joining revolutionary parties in military uprisings or by pushing the Qing officials to seek peaceful independence from the Qing court. While these elite merchants helped lead the revolutionary movement to success, their chamber networks also provided various types of support, especially social legitimization, for the newly formed political powers.