Research On Self-opening Trading Port In The Late Qing Dynasty And Early Republic Of China

Self-opening trading ports are defined as the ports and cities which the Chinesegovernment took the initiative to open, permitting the foreign businessmen to engage intrade here. The self-opening trading port, having no concessions in it, is limited in thescope with the administrative power belonging to the Chinese government.Jiangsu has its subjective and objective conditions in opening the trading ports,including its geographical advantages, the potential advantages of modern traffic andrelatively strong economic foundation as well as the strong self-protection sense of thelocal governors and bourgeois. From the late1890s to the mid1920s, the governors ofJiangsu province completed the establishment of seven self-opening trading ports, i.e.,Wusong, Haizhou, Xiaguan, Tianshenggang, Pukou, Xuzhou, Wuxi.Through the analysis, we can draw a conclusion that despite of many disadvantages inits development due to the limitation of the times, Jiangsu’s self-opening trading ports stillshow their superiority, that is, politically, the leaders carried out a distinct independent portmanagement system in light of the sovereignty-protecting purpose, and economically, theyestablished self-opening trade ports and achieved a remarkable progress, reaching thepurpose of revitalizing economy and expanding profit source to some degree. In addition,Jiangsu boasts of its distinct geographical distribution, diversified types of trading portsand its clear boundary. Therefore, we conclude that the governors self-open the tradingport’s behavier is consistent with the historic trend in the late Qing dynasty and earlyRepublic of China.