On The National Steamship Industry In Late Qing And Early Republic Of China

Chinese streamship industry rised during the period of Late Qing and Early Republic of China. After the Opium War, Chinese streamship industry began to emerge because of many foreign steamships'arrival, the development of national economy in modern times, the changement of Qing government's water transportation policy, the 1911 Revolution and the break-out of the World WarⅠ.Then it played a more and more important role in the national economy. The article tries to describe the general developing situation of streamship industry all over China and sum up its characteristics: It experienced the three stages––perimit; development, and golden age; There are contrastive results between official and commercial industry; The imbalancement of development; At the early stage, most enterprises rised and appeared both quickly; The early shipping failed to change the foreign shipping's monopolization. According to its general developing situation and characteristics, I come to some conclusions: The industry rised in Late Qing and Early Republic of China and promoted modernization of Chinese transportation and trade prosperity; It resisted the foreign ships invasion to some degree; And it did good to the development of other trades and occupations, to the liberation of people's thinking and to culturing social conventions. However there was a weak foundation and old system constraints in industry during the period of Late Qing and Early Republic of China. So there was a long way for Chinese shipping to walk.