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WELLINGTON K. K. CHAN
community in the major commercial centres helped the regional governments to become more independent of, and ultimately even more powerful than, the central government. In this way, merchant organisations helped the growth of political regionalism even as they advanced the cause of social and economic integration.
We began this study of Chinese merchant organisations on the premise that they reflected not only great resilience as institutions, but also the flexibility of their organisers in adopting changes consistent with changing values and changing times. To synchronise values and the environmental conditions, however, proved to be highly intractable. In late imperial China, as society made fast and momentous changes towards regionalism, warlordism and political illegitimacy, merchant organisations adjusted admirably, but somehow failed to keep pace with the rapidly changing environment. Our conclusion then is to suggest that indeed both men and institutions showed great resilience, but that in times of great social and political stress, there were limits as to what they could accomplish.
NOTES
1 See, e.g. Thomas A. Metzger's "The Organizational Capabilities of the Ch'ing State in the Field of Commerce: The Liang-huai Salt Monopoly, 1740-1840," in W. E. Willmott, ed., Economic Organization in Chinese Society (Stanford, 1972), pp. 9-45, showing how the organizational flexibility of the Liang-huai salt administration was matched by the manipulative skills and non-conformist behavior of its administrators; and John E. Schrecker, Imperialism and Chinese Nationalism: Germany in Shantung (Cambridge, Mass., 1971) for emphasizing comparable success by late Ch'ing foreign policy institutions and officials.
2 Ch'üan Han-sheng, Chung-kuo hang-hui chih-tu shih (An institutional history of the Chinese guilds) (Shanghai, 1934), pp. 29-36.
3 H. B. Morse, The Gilds of China (London, 1909), pp. 35-48; Ho Ping-ti, Chung-kuo hui-kuan shih-lun (A historical survey of Landsmannschaften in China) (Taipei, 1966). The German term "Landsmannschaft" used by Professor Ho for "hui-kuan" was first suggested by D. J. MacGowan in his "Chinese Guilds or Chambers of Commerce and Trade Unions," Journal of North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 21 (1888-89).
4 Chung-hsü Hsi-hsien hui-kuan lu (A repeat edition of the continuation to the records of the Hsi-hsien Landsmannschaft) (n.p., 1834), “hsü-lu hou-chi,” pp. 13a, 16b, 19a, 22b; "hsin-chi," pp. 3b-5b, 12a.