| This dissertation examines the workings of empire in Xinjiang from the conquest by the Manchu Qing dynasty in 1759 until the Tungan rebellions in Gansu and Xinjiang severed the region from central control in 1864. Through consideration of domestic commerce and ethnic policy, I argue that because of the tenuous fiscal basis of Qing rule in Xinjiang, the Manchu authorities in the region came to rely increasingly upon Chinese (Han and Chinese Muslim, or Tungan) merchants as a source of logistical supply, tax and rent revenue, emergency financing, and even auxiliary forces in wartime. The guarded welcome with which the dynasty in the mid-eighteenth century encouraged Chinese merchants to sojourn in Xinjiang gave way by the 1830s to officially promoted migration and permanent settlement of Chinese throughout the region, including Muslim Altishahr. A pro-Han stance arose, aimed at consolidating the Qing frontier in Xinjiang in the face of East Turkestani unrest and Kokand-sponsored invasion.; Part I focuses on the fiscal underpinnings of Qing rule in Xinjiang, and discusses silk-for-horse trade with the Kazakhs, agricultural development, silver stipends and currency manipulation, official pawnbroking, commissaries and other government investments as well as commercial rents and taxation. Extra-budgetary sources of revenue helped support Manchu garrisons in Xinjiang, but led to government reliance on commerce and the Han merchants in this frontier region.; Part II concerns private merchants and Qing policies toward Chinese mercantile activities in Xinjiang. Aspects examined include improvements in infrastructure and legal measures (which aided and restricted Chinese commercial penetration), the various merchant groups active in the trade between Xinjiang and China proper (East Turkestanis, Tungans and Han), the principal trade routes used, and the important trade in tea and jade. Through an analysis of Manchu, Han and East Turkestani positions and roles during the 1830 Kokand invasion, Part II concludes that Manchu and Han interests in southern Xinjiang had converged: the dynasty reversed its earlier approach to frontier administration and ethnic policy, and lifted its restrictions on permanent settlement in the region by Chinese with their dependents. |
