The Exploitation,Transportation And Sale Of Coal In Southern Hubei During China’ Modern History From 1875 To 1937

Enterprises serve as a main part of market activities, and the majority of enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises, which have the function of livening the market. In general, small and medium-sized enterprises have characteristics that they are short of investment and small-scaled. Just like the present enterprises, the small and medium-sized enterprises in China’s modern history had to face the problems of how they could deal with competition and survive in the market. In this thesis, the author intends to take the coal mine enterprises in southeastern Hubei as an example, so as to display these enterprises’coal production, management as well as coal marketing and transportation with the aim of providing some enlightenment to present modern enterprises.During China’s modern history, in southeastern Hubei, there were large scales of coal-producing enterprises surrounding Daye. In this thesis, the author wants to probe the following aspects.1. The background of exploiting coal. In the southeastern Hubei, coal reserves were not rich, and the quality of coal was average. However, lying beside the Changjiang River and the opportunity of opening Hankou as a commercial port counteracted the disadvantages which might result from poor transportation and sale of the coal. What’s more, stimulated by the Yangwu Movement and the Hubei New Policy, the modern coal mines in southeastern Hubei appeared earlier.2. The production of coal enterprises. First, the author analyzes the reasons why the scale of coal mines in this area was mostly small from the aspects of coal mines’ location, coal reserves and funds for exploitation. Then, from the relationship between the productivity and production relations, the author indicates the problems in management of coal-mine workers, dual qualities of production techniques. The author concludes the coal output in this area and the status of this coal producing area in the whole country so as to show although these coal mine enterprises were small, they still had unusual development in China’s modern history.3. The operating forms of these coal mine enterprises. The author analyzes the origin of every coal mine enterprises’ capital and focuses the research on the relationship between Lihua Coal Mine and Yu Dahua Capital Group. In addition, the author takes the personnel management of Guangji Coal Mine as an example, pointing out that bureaucratic performance of official-owned coal mines and irregular system were the fundamental problems for their failure.4. The coal transportation and sale of mine enterprises. This chapter is the key of the thesis. The author points out that cooperating with coal selling organizations was the particular selling methods for these small coal mines. At the same time, the author analyses the situation of the competitions among different coal mines. The local coal drove the coal produced in Hunan away from Wuhan’s coal market. Every coal mine put an end to low-price competition in selling coal with each other and they began selling their coal together after separately producing the coal, which avoided the vicious competition between them. Moreover, every local coal mine must deal with the tough problem that the coal produced in other areas was dumped into Hubei. However, affected by the treaty reached by China, France and Vietnam, each coal mine was unable to compete against Hongji coal.5. The disadvantages of coal mine enterprises’ development. High mine-exploiting tax and other harsh taxes were universal problems that the coal enterprises faced. In China’s modern history, disordered battles between different warlords and unstable society made it more difficult to produce coal. The scale of coal mines were small and they could not afford their owe vessels so it was hard for them to transport their coal to different markets. Besides, although modern coal mine enterprises made great progress in producing techniques, they still suffered from mine disasters which had an adverse effect on coal production.After analyzing all the above aspects, in the author’s view, several factors may facilitate development of the small and medium-sized enterprises:the first one is advancing the coal mine enterprises’productivity, the second one is predominant developing environment offered by the government, in which the enterprises are guided to avoid insignificant competition.