Revolutionary groups - 1911 P2

Question 1

RG 1911 - business class - govt commercial inadequacy

Answer 1

• stringent top-down control of business led to corruption
• Plundering ofbusiness by state functionaries was reported in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhili and Guangxi.
• at the local level entrenched interests ruledand officials used their positions to move in on enterprises.
• weak commercial legislation
• In 1907, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce said the weakness of commercial legislation was ‘enough to make our entire circle of merchants cry’

Question 2

RG 1911 - business class - rights to foreigners

Answer 2

• 93% of China’s railroads foreign dominated by March 1911

- May 9 1911 nationalized railroads

• May 20 1911 pledged the rights to operate Sichuan-Hankou and Hankou-Guangdong railway rights to foreigners in exchange for a £10 million loan (selling rail rights + money to pay debts)
• to be paid in custom duties and salt taxes

Question 3

RG 1911 - business class - Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company development

Answer 3

• established 1905
• sold shares to the public
• special 3% tax levied on population
• land owners got shares
• 2.5 million taels in investment
• much of Sichuan gentry and merchant class became shareholders

Question 4

RG 1911 - business class - Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company ineffectiveness

Answer 4

- 10 miles of track laid by 1911

• corruption and mismanagement by govt. appointed administrators
• Qing govt returned to foreign lenders

Question 5

RG 1911 - business class - Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company discontent after nationalization

Answer 5

• investors only partially compensated; govt bonds rather than silver
• June 17 Sichuan PA organizes the Railway Protection League

Question 6

RG 1911 - business class - protests

Answer 6

• Chengtu*
• August 11-13 10,000 protesters held a rally
• merchant strike

- Sep 7, fired on protesters, 32 deaths

• Sep.08 > Tens of thousands of protesters gather near Chengtu to form the Railway Protection Army
• ~the rural revolts in Szechwan intensify
• September 1, the Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company adopted a shareholders’ resolution calling on the Sichuan public to withhold the payment of grain taxes to the Qing Government.
• govt ordered G-G of Hubei + Hunan to reinforce Sichuan troops from Hubei – weakened defences in Wuhan

Question 7

RG 1911 - peasants - grievances - social status + natural disasters

Answer 7

• young men could only expect to be hired for agri work for 30-40 days a year
• offered services to landlords who could determine how much they were paid
• prace of wheat, barley, sesame oil, wine and pork doubled from 1898 to 1908
• September 12, Lower Yangtze overflowed, 100,000 died, same number starved

Question 8

RG 1911 - peasants - grievances - taxes

Answer 8

• state expenditure was 25% above revenue
• In Sichuan, the governor was forced to raise taxes on tobacco,wine, salt and opium, introduce a lottery and mint coins to pay for reforms
• burden fell disproportionately on the poor
• in Jiangxi in 1904 there was a riot against a new tax on indigo, theoretically intended to finance a new education program; indigo was main industrial crop

Question 9

RG 1911 - peasants - actions

Answer 9

• formed secret societies
• 113 peasant riots in 1909 and 285 in 1910
• caused by increase in the price of salt, the production and distribution of which was a state monopoly
• scarcity of rice; rice riots in Changsha (capital of Hunan) in May 1911
• Layiang, Shantung riots broke out in June 1910 against excessive taxation, and a whole district revolted; troops called in, cost 40,000 lives