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ABSTRACT
This article discusses the rationale behind British intervention in the Taiping civil war in China and the episode’s wider significance for understanding nineteenth-century British imperial expansion. I argue that the most productive way to understand the shape of the limited British intervention in the war is through analysing the relative strength of distinct bridgeheads of British interest in China. British interests in Shanghai grew rapidly in the Taiping period and helped to draw in intervention against the Taiping armies when they attacked the port in 1860 and 1862. The strict limitation of this intervention, which did not result in any imperial expansion in China, was a result of the consistent underperformance of the wider British trade with China. Without a growth in this trade, the expense of an extensive intervention and its potential consequences could not be justified. The episode suggests that analyses of local conditions and the strength of local ties to metropolitan resources are important for understanding the wider pattern of British imperial expansion.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professor Robert Bickers and the China research seminar group at Bristol University for their comments on drafts of the article. I am also grateful for the advice received from Dr Julia Lovell and Dr Tehyun Ma during the initial stages of research.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Wade to Bruce, no. 14, 20 Jan. 1861, FO 228/302, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA).
2. Medhurst to Bruce, Shanghai, no. 108, 28 July 1861, FO 228/312, TNA.
3. Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy, 125.
4. Graham, China Station, 276; Jen, Taiping Revolutionary Movement, 272.
5. Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, 185.
6. Jen, Taiping Revolutionary Movement, 460.
7. Michael and Chang, Taiping Rebellion, 177.
8. Gallagher and Robinson, ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, 13.
9. Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 24–25, 43–47.
10. Ibid., 363–64.
11. S. Y. Teng, Han Ming and Cui Zhiqing have all suggested that the Taiping prohibition on opium provoked metropolitan concerns about Britain’s balance of trade with China. See Têng, The Taiping Rebellion, 312; Han, ‘Shilun xifang lieqiang dui Taiping tianguo’, 392–93; Cui, ‘Lieqiang guanyuan yu taiping tianguo’, 472–73. John Gregory and Stephen Platt, without highlighting opium, have argued that metropolitan officials’ actions were motivated by fears that the rebellion was dampening demand for British goods in China. See Gregory, Great Britain and the Taipings, 164–15; Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, 359.
12. Meng, Shanghai and the Edges of Empires, xvi–xix.
13. Jen, Taiping Revolutionary Movement, 449.
14. See, for example Akita, ‘Introduction’.
15. Darwin, ‘Imperialism and the Victorians’, 629. The flexibility of the concept has been underlined by recent scholarship with moneyed interests in Queensland, new Christian evangelists in Nigeria and even the entire continent of Australasia being identified as imperial bridgeheads. See Attard, ‘Bridgeheads, “Colonial Places”’, 12; Everill, ‘Bridgeheads of Empire?’, 790; Smithies, ‘The Trans-Tasman Cable’, 697.
16. Lester, ‘Imperial Circuits and Networks’, 129–33.
17. Robert Bickers has already stressed the importance of Shanghai as an imperial bridgehead in the twentieth century. See Bickers, ‘Shanghailanders’, 202.
18. Wasserstrom, Global Shanghai, 28.
19. Bruce to Medhurst, no. 123, 8 Sept. 1862, FO 17/373, TNA.
20. Bonham to Clarendon, no. 82, 4 Aug. 1853, FO 17/204, TNA; Bourboulon to Lhuys, directions politique no. 34, 30 June 1853, 25CP/14, Archives Diplomatique, La Courneuve, Paris.
21. For example Hobson to Venn, 31 May 1853, CMS/B/OMS/C CH O49, Church Missionary Society Archive, Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.
22. Bowring to Clarendon, no. 18, 9 Jan. 1855, FO 17/226, TNA.
23. Clarendon to Bowring (draft), no. 23, 24 Jan. 1855, FO 17/224, TNA.
24. Goodman, Native Place, City and Nation, 63.
25. Johnson, Shanghai, 248–49. Johnson states that the foreign population in Shanghai was 210 residents by 1850, while the Shanghai almanac for 1854 lists 276 residents.
26. North China Herald, 10 Sept. 1853.
27. Perry, ‘Tax Revolt in Late Qing China’, 94.
28. Bickers, Scramble for China, 130.
29. Maybon and Fredet, La Concession Française, 109.
30. Johnson, Shanghai, 268; Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, 70. Johnson and Platt respectively provide population figures for 1852 and 1862.
31. Bickers, ‘Ordering Shanghai’, 178–79.
32. Bergère, Shanghai, 45.
33. Bickers, ‘Shanghailanders’, 166.
34. Bickers, ‘Ordering Shanghai’, 179–82.
35. Johnson, Shanghai, 343–44.
36. Although Chinese junks were not counted in the first set of figures, there was a more than threefold increase in British shipping alone visiting the port in the period. ‘Harbour Master’s Report of the Total Amount of Tonnage in Shanghai from Jan 1 to Dec 31 1852’, North China Herald, 1 Jan. 1853; ‘Return of Shipping for the Half-Year Ended 30 June 1861’ and ‘Return of Shipping for the Half-Year Ended 31 Dec 1861’, North China Herald, 5 July 1862.
37. Commercial Reports from Her Majesty’s Consuls in China. 1862–1864. 1865 (3489), LIII.1. 61, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
38. Fairbank, ‘Creation of the Foreign Inspectorate’, 42–70.
39. Wei, ‘Qingdai houqi zhongyang’, 227.
40. Prince Gong to Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, 1st year of Tongzhi reign, month 1, day 4 (2 Feb. 1862), juan 4, memorial 94, 117, Chouban Yiwu Shimo Tongzhi Chao.
41. The Times, 16 Nov. 1860, cited in Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, 151.
42. Jack Beeching suggests the British used the Arrow incident as an excuse to press their demands for trade whereas John Wong has claimed that the British government may have advised local officials to devise a pretext for renewed conflict. Beeching, Chinese Opium Wars, 232; Wong, Deadly Dreams, 26–29.
43. Herbert to Hope Grant, 9 Jan. 1860, enclosed in Russell to Bruce, no. 11, 10 Jan. 1860, FO 228/278, TNA.
44. Ibid.
45. Wong, Deadly Dreams, 351–52.
46. Bruce to Jones, 28 May 1860, FO 228/282, 53– 54, TNA.
47. Leung, Shanghai Taotai, 60.
48. He Guiqing and Wang Youling’s memorial to the emperor and Imperial response, 10th year of the Xianfeng reign, month 5, day 8 (26 June, 1860), juan 4, memorials 1979 and 1980, 1946–49, Chouban Yiwu Shimo Xianfeng Chao.
49. Bickers, Scramble for China, 177.
50. Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, 186.
51. Bruce to Russell, no. 161, 12 Nov. 1861, FO 17/356, TNA; Russell to Bruce, no. 10, 17 Jan. 1862, FO 228/318, TNA.
52. Russell to Bruce, no. 49, 12 March 1862, FO 228/318, TNA.
53. Carroll, Between Heaven and Modernity, 4; Yu, Shanghai, 1862 Nian, 13.
54. Medhurst to Hope, 19 Feb. 1862, enc. in Medhurst to Bruce, Shanghai no. 38, 21 Feb. 1862, FO 17/377, TNA.
55. The Battle of ‘Muddy Flat,’ 1854, 4.
56. Beeching, Chinese Opium Wars, 280.
57. Journal of the Quartermaster General’s Department, 25 Feb. 1862, WO 107/5, TNA; Bruce to Hay (draft), 5 Feb. 1861, and Bruce to Hay (draft), 13 March 1861, FO 228/300, TNA.
58. Bruce to John Michele, 30 Dec. 1861, enc. in Bruce to Russell, no. 201, 31 Dec. 1861, FO 17/357, TNA.
59. Spectator, 21 June 1862, cited in Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, 291.
60. Medhurst to Hope, Shanghai no. 80, 19 Feb. 1862, FO 17/377, TNA; John Michele to Bruce, 28 Feb. 1862, FO 17/381, 251–62, TNA; Staveley to Secretary of State for War, no. 27, 25 April 1862, FO 17/383, TNA.
61. North China Herald, 18 Jan. 1862.
62. Letter from ‘One of Many’, North China Herald, 21 Dec. 1861.
63. Minutes of a Meeting of the Shanghai Land Renters, 12 Jan. 1862, North China Herald, 25 Jan. 1862.
64. Hope Grant to Herbert, 18 Jan. 1861, enclosed in Russell to Bruce, no. 68, 25 April 1861, FO 228/297, TNA.
65. Wade to Bruce, 26 Feb. 1861, FO 228/302, 66–69, TNA.
66. Hope to Paget, no. 385, 7 Dec. 1861, ADM 1/5790, TNA.
67. Statistical Tables Relating to Foreign Countries. Compiled from the Official Returns of the Respective Countries. Part VIII. (Continuing the statements, for the respective countries, from parts IV. V. and VI.). 332–37. 1862 (3067), LVII.495, House of Commons Papers (HCP).
68. Bruce to Hope, 23 Dec. 1860, FO 228/282, 23–24, TNA.
69. Bruce to Russell, no. 29, 18 April 1862, FO 17/371, TNA.
70. There have been suggestions that Hope manufactured this dispute as a pretext for attacking the Taiping. See Uhalley, ‘The Taipings at Ningpo’.
71. Harvey to Bruce, Ningpo no. 91. 26 Nov. 1861, FO 228/309, TNA.
72. Leibo, ‘Introduction’, 23.
73. HL Deb, 28 July 1862, vol. 168, c. 895, Hansard.
74. HC Deb, 28 July 1862, vol. 168, c. 914, Hansard.
75. Russell to Bruce, no. 188, 26 Nov. 1862, FO 228/319, TNA; Lagard to Staveley, 9 Sept. 1862, enc. 1 in Lagard to Secretary of the Admiralty, n. 83, 9 Sept. 1862, ADM 1/5800, TNA.
76. HC Deb, 6 July 1863, vol. 172, c. 308, Hansard.
77. The total value of UK manufacturing exports for 1862 was £123,789,261, see The finance accounts I.–VII. of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the financial year 1862–63, ended 31st March 1863, 86, 1863 (330), XXIX.1, HCP. The total value of those exports to China was £2,024,118, see Annual statement of the trade and navigation of the United Kingdom with foreign countries and British possessions in the year 1862, 293, 1863 (3218), LXV.1, HCP. The value of UK manufacturing exports for 1853 was £77,780,591, see The finance accounts I.–VIII. of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the year 1853, ended fifth January 1854, 118, 1854 (123), XXXIX.1, HCP. The value of those exports to China was £1,749,597, see India and China (exports and imports). Returns relating to the trade of India and China, from 1814 to 1858, 3, 1859 (38), XXIII.313, HCP.
78. Pelcovits, Old China Hands, 18–27.
79. Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, xxiv.
80. Osterhammel, ‘Semi-Colonialism and Informal Empire’, 295–96.
81. Wang, ‘China’s Use of Foreign Assistance’, 582.
82. Newsinger, ‘Liberal Imperialism and the Occupation of Egypt’, 58–62.
83. Robinson, Gallagher and Denny, Africa and the Victorians, 464–67.
84. Hopkins, ‘The Victorians and Africa’, 379–84.
85. Ibid., 388.
86. Phimister, ‘Empire, Imperialism and the Partition of Africa’, 67.
87. Fairbank, Reischauer and Craig, East Asia, 216.
88. Daniels, ‘The British Role’, 292.
89. Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions in the Year 1865, 2–3, 1866 (3723), LXVIII.1, HCP.