The Making of the Modern Chinese State

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: China, Cement and Corporations

   • Humphrey Ko

   Pages 1-20

3. Analysing the Challenges to the Ancient Empire

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-22

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   2. The Imperial System: Durable and Resilient

      • Humphrey Ko

      Pages 23-40

4. Transplanting the Corporate Idea into Imperial China

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 41-43

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   2. New Corporate Powers: The Accelerator of Imperial Malfunction

      • Humphrey Ko

      Pages 45-65

   3. Yuan Shikai and His Cement Corporation: The Flight of State Power

      • Humphrey Ko

      Pages 67-93

5. The Making of a Modern Incorporated Government

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-97

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   2. Sun Yat-sen and His Unincorporated Cement Works: Revolutionaries in Business

      • Humphrey Ko

      Pages 99-137

   3. The Pearl River Bridge: Recovering State Power

      • Humphrey Ko

      Pages 139-169

6. The Making of Modern Incorporated Companies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 171-172

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   2. Chiang Kai-shek and Corporations: A Holistic Strategy

      • Humphrey Ko

      Pages 173-200

   3. Conclusion: State Power, Corporations and the Cement Industry

      • Humphrey Ko

      Pages 201-208

7. Back Matter

   Pages 209-258

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This text addresses the corporate causes of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the emergence of modern Republican China. Weaving together political, legal and business histories, it focuses on the key relationship between China, cement and corporations, and demonstrates how the particular circumstances of cement manufacturing in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China serve to illuminate key aspects of Chinese political economy and illustrate the importance of legal frameworks in the emergence of industrial enterprises. Examining the centrality of legal personality in China’s historical story, seen from the angle of cement manufacturing corporations, it offers an alternative historical perspective on the making of the modern Chinese States and delves into the involvement of larger-than-life historical figures of modern China such as Yuan Shikai, Chiang Kai-shek and the revolutionary and the father of modern China, Sun Yat-sen, in the unfolding of these events.

• Western concept of legal personality
• development of early Chinese corporations
• early cement producing businesses in China
• evolutionary study of legal or corporate personality in China
• History of China's Modern Industry
• emergence of modern Republican China

• University China Centre, Oxford, United Kingdom

  Humphrey Ko

Humphrey Ko is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong and an Associate at the University of Oxford China Centre. With a DPhil in Modern Chinese History from University of Oxford, UK, he has lectured in Chinese studies at the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Leeds, UK and taught Chinese history in the Institute for Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford.

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