Conflict and Cooperation in Sino-british Business, 1860-1911: The Impact of Pro-british Commercial Network in Shanghai

The well-known reorganisation of Chinese merchants' guilds into the chambers of commerce in the early twentieth century did not indicate progress in the development of Chinese capitalism. Instead, it merely signed the collapse of the traditional commercial order, which started with the birth of pro-British commercial networks in the 1880s.

New research by the author reveals the origination of such a commercial network and its historical preconditions. The book reveals why Qing government officials could not prevent the ascendancy of the pro-British commercial networks and how this led eventually to the birth of the Chinese bourgeoisie.
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This study not only casts new light on unknown aspects of the Chinese commercial order but also deepens our understanding of the role of the Treaty Port system in the collapse of the Chinese social order.