The Origins of Chinese Chambers of Commerce in the Lower Yangzi Region

Abstract

Chinese chambers of commerce have long been the focal point of previous studies of guild organizations, the bourgeois class, and government-business relations in the late Qing period (Xu Dingxin, 1986; Zhao Hongbao, 1993). Recently, scholars have also cited them as proof of a public sphere or civil society in late imperial and Republican China (Rankin, 1986; Rowe, 1990; Strand, 1989; Zhu Ying, 1997). Although these mercantile organizations have received much scholarly attention, their origins remain controversial. Because Chinese chambers of commerce (except for the one in the British colony of Hong Kong) first appeared in Shanghai and other Lower Yangzi cities,' their emergence in local society there has been the point at issue in the scholarship of recent decades. Most early Japanese research on Chinese chambers of commerce traces their origins to the organizational confederation of late Qing guilds under Western challenge, and it distinguishes chambers from guilds mainly by their official connections (Negishi Tadashi, 1951: 27-29,355-56; Suda Saburo, 1975: 43-49; Kurahashi Masanao, 1976: 117-21).2 In contrast, Chinese Marxist historiography on chambers of commerce ascribes their rise to the development of the new bourgeoisie, particularly the commercial and industrial entrepreneurs.3 This bourgeois class received official encouragement to organize chambers and promote Chinese business in the face of foreign intrusion (Xu Dingxin and Qian Xiaoming, 1991: 2-24; Ma Min and Zhu Ying,