A Study Of The Guangdong Canton-HanKou Private Railway Enterprise (1906-1929)

In the early of 20th century, there's an upsurge that private railway enterprises set up railways in China. Under the deep national crisis, the enterprises raised the flag of nationalism highly, which made them get a wide support. But after the enterprises' foundation, they met a number of problems that caused them fail just like flash in the pen. What're their failure true reasons? So 1 choose one of the typical issues- The Guangdong Canton-Hankou Private Railway Enterprise to study and hope it can help us to further learn the whole campaign of private railways.The Guangdong Canton-Hankou Private Railway Enterprise was founded on the basis of the abolishment of Sino-Us treaty and the conflicts between officials and squires. Because of its initial management defects, the company didn't form a unified and orderly management system, which led to a series of troubles, such as personal differences, low efficiency and financial tensions etc. Furthermore, after the foundation of The Republic of China, the turbulence of political situation in Guangdong added a fatal blow to it. All led to the Guangdong Canton-Hankou Private Railway Enterprise was in dilemma. The Qing government was forced to approval the set-up of enterprise. Therefore after the company's troubles explored, different political forces used them as excuses and interfered the company. Besides, during the process of the company's development, the conflict that the railway's state-own or private was never resolved. At last, the Guangdong Canton-Hankou Railway was in the possession of The Nanjing National Government completely and the Private Enterprise disappeared inevitably.The failure of the company shows that under the economic situation of modern times, it is difficult for a private enterprise to run the railway successfully; in the centralized management system, the railway, as a country's lifeline, no regimes would allow the private company to own the right of it.