Contrary to the significance that HSBC and its comprador office made on
the modernisation in China at the turn of the 19th and the 20th Century, studies
about the Bank’s expansion in the Beijing-Tianjin area were exceptionally limited.
In this research, the importance of HSBC’s expansion to North China in the 1880s
will be primarily examined by the Bank and its comprador office’s roles in the
railways development in North China.
During this process, Wu Jim-pah, as the first comprador of HSBC in
Tianjin, offered significant aids in establishing HSBC’s collaboration with the
Qing Court and the influential Bei-yang Ministry under Li Hong-zhang’s
administration. This research is going to examine Wu Jim-pah’s career and
personal development in late Qing Huizhou, Suzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and
Beijing, so as to answer a series of questions related to China’s social-economic
reforms and its earliest capitalists’ formation at the turn of the centuries.
Moreover, acts as the first academic study focusing on Wu Jim-pah’s
participation in the early modernisation projects of late Qing China, this research
put the collection and classification of historical materials in the central place. The
findings of primary resources from the archives in China and overseas, namely,
the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica in Taipei, the National
Library of China, the Shanghai Library, the Southwest Jiao-tong University, the
Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences (TASS), the HSBC Group Archives, London
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), as well as the Public Record
Office at Kew, London, could be regarded as the most valuable part of this
research. / published_or_final_version / Humanities and Social Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/207899 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Hui, Ching, 許楨 |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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