Coal mining industry in the process of Chinese industrialization (1840 - 1949)

• In Event: Infrastructure, Worlding and Knowledge

Abstract

It is widely accepted that the Opium War that broke out in 1840 was the turning point of China from the ancient times into the modern times. Coal mine industry played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in the UK and so did in China's industrialization, and then in China's social transformation.
Twenty years after the Opium War, Westernization Movement or Self-Strengthening Movement rose in China, which marks the beginning of China's industrialization. In the process of China’s industrialization, some modern coal mines were established.
There are two main differences between modern coal mines and ancient coal mines. Firstly, in terms of coal mine technology, modern coal mines used steam engines to hoist, drain water and ventilate. Secondly, in terms of economic and management systems, modern coal mines established modern economic and management institutions, which are different from ancient institutions.
The development of China’s coal mine industry from 1840 to 1949 can be divided into three stages.
The first stage is the beginning period (1840-1911). In 1875, the first China’s modern coal mine was established in Keelung in order to supply coal for steamships and modern industries. At the same time or later, several other coal mines were built, among which the most successful one was the Kaiping coal mine. According to the data of coal mine exploration by Morris, a famous politician Li Hongzhang and a famous entrepreneur Tang Tingshu decided to establish the Kaiping coal mine. The output of Kaiping coal mines reached 25 thousand tons per day in 1897. In 1899, as a young mining engineer, Herbert Clark Hoover came to China, who later became the thirty-first president of the United States. Hoover made money up to four million dollars in the Kaiping coal mine in an unjustified way.
The second stage is the developing period (1912-1937) and the third stage is period of the rapid increase in output (1937 - 1949).
Modern coal mines need a lot of investment. In terms of investors, there were four types of coal mining companies, state-owned companies, foreign-capital companies, private Chinese companies, and Sino-foreign joint ventures.
The history of China's coal mines from 1840 to 1949 shows us that many factors, including geological, technical, economic, political and cultural factors, Influenced the development of coal mines. On the other hand, the development of the coal mine industry also brought about the social transformation. It is worth our special attention that some coal mining cities, such as Fushun, Datong and Pingxiang, had sprung up and experienced a special fate in the process of China’s modernization.

Authors

• Bocong Li, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Peiqiong Wang, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences