19世纪改制运动中的难题:1879年招商汕头分局公私混淆案研究

The Dilemma in the 19th Century Institutional Reforms: An Examination of the Corruption Case in the Steamship Bureau Shantou Branch

1879年发生在轮船招商局汕头分局公私混淆案的前因后果显示,在清朝的公共体系之外还有另一个“非正式财政体系”;这后一体系虽然无法发展成为独立的参天大树,其能量释放却往往使公共体系的运转打上很大的折扣,并使19世纪的改制运动陷入一种两难的境地。

This paper studies the dilemma of the institutional reforms in the 19th-century China.By examining a corruption case in the Shantou branch of the Steamship Bureau.This study demonstrates that concurrently working with the public power structure in the Qing political world was an 'informal network of finance'.This network,although never outgrew the publicstructure and replaced it,nonetheless often distorted its normal function,and thus tied up the institutional reforms in a dilemma.