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The Haiphong Shipping Boycotts of 1907 and 1909–10: Business interactions in the Haiphong-Hong Kong rice shipping trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2019

BERT BECKER*
Affiliation:
Department of History, The University of Hong Kong Email: becker@hku.hk

Abstract

The main focus of this article is the Haiphong shipping boycotts of 1907 and 1909–10, which were conflicts over freight rates on rice which arose between several Chinese rice hongs in Haiphong (Hải Phòng), the main port in northeastern French Indochina, and three European tramp shipping companies. When these companies set up a joint agreement in 1907 unilaterally increasing the freight rates for shipping rice to Hong Kong, the affected merchants felt unfairly treated and boycotted the companies’ ships. Furthermore, in 1909, they formed a rival charter syndicate and set up a steamship company chartering the vessels of other companies to apply additional pressure on the firms to return to the previous rate. Although the Chinese suffered direct financial losses due to their insufficient expertise in this business, they were successful in achieving a considerable decrease in the freight rate on rice, which shows that boycotting, even when costly, proved to be an effective means to push for reductions and better arrangements with shipping companies. In contrast to a similar incident in the same trade—the shipping boycott of 1895–96 when the French government intervened with the Chinese government on behalf of a French shipping company—the later boycotts did not provoke the intervention of Western powers. This case suggests that growing anti-imperialism and nationalism in China, expressed in public discourses on shipping rights recovery and in the use of economic instead of political means, had an impact on the boycotts. Economic, not imperial, power determined the outcome of this struggle.

Type
Forum Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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References

1 The bulk of material used for this article is derived from the Political Archives of the German Foreign Office and the German Federal Archives, both in Berlin; the Diplomatic Archives of the French Foreign Ministry in Paris; the French National Archives of Overseas Territories in Aix-en-Provence; the Vietnamese National Archives Centre No. 1 in Hanoi, and the private Jebsen and Jessen Historical Archives in Aabenraa. Contemporary French and British newspapers shed further light on the case.

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11 The M. [Michael] Jebsen Shipping Company (Reederei M. Jebsen) was founded in 1878 in Apenrade, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, by Michael Jebsen (1835–99) and successively transferred its modern fleet of medium-sized merchant steamships to the Far East, where the ships were chartered by Chinese and European merchants to transport all sorts of cargo and passengers between coastal ports in East Asia. The Jebsen steam tramps were specially equipped for shipping bulk goods (rice, coal, wood, vegetables, and cattle), with a low draught capable of entering the typically very shallow Chinese ports. In 1885, after all ships had been transferred to Hong Kong, its steamer fleet numbered eight; in 1903–04, the company reached its peak with 17 ships, and by 1913, the company had 11 ships. Starting in March 1895, the principal agent of the M. Jebsen Shipping Company was Jebsen and Co. Ltd. in Hong Kong, owned by Jacob Jebsen (1870–1941, son of Michael Jebsen) and his business associate Johann Heinrich Jessen (1865–1931). Jebsen and Co. Ltd., having started in 1895 as a shipping agency and general trading company, soon occupied a leading position in foreign trade in China and Hong Kong. The early years of the M. Jebsen Shipping Company are dealt with in Hieke, E., Die Reederei M. Jebsen A.G. Apenrade, Hamburgische Bücherei, Hamburg, 1953Google Scholar; von Hänisch, A., Jebsen and Co. Hongkong: China-Handel im Wechsel der Zeiten 1895–1945, Private Print, Apenrade, 1970, pp. 2541Google Scholar; Miller, L. and Wasmuth, A. C., Three Mackerels: The Story of the Jebsen and Jessen Family Enterprise, Hongkongnow.com, Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 821Google Scholar; Becker, B., ‘Coastal Shipping in East Asia in the Late Nineteenth Century’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, vol. 50, 2010, pp. 245302Google Scholar; Becker, B., Michael Jebsen: Reeder und Politiker, 1835–1899: Eine Biographie, Ludwig, Kiel, 2012, pp. 165370Google Scholar.

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18 Ibid., pp. 136–137 (the quote: p. 137).

19 Amer, R., The Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and Sino-Vietnamese Relations, Forum, Kuala Lumpur, 1991, pp. 59Google Scholar; Dubreuil, R., De la Condition des Chinois et de leur Rôle économique en Indo-Chine, Saillard, Bar-sur-Seine, 1910, pp. 1–20, 111112Google Scholar (the quote: p. 111).

20 Robequain, The Economic Development, pp. 3–13; Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 1, pp. 158–190; Brocheux and Hémery, Indochina, pp. 76–80.

21 The Chinese congregations in Vietnam originated from the system of self-administered ‘bangs’ created in 1787 to allow the Vietnamese emperors to directly and indirectly control Chinese settlers. Chinese officers, called ‘bang truong’, chosen by members of the ‘bang’, were held responsible by the Vietnamese authorities for the good behaviour of their ‘bang’ members and for the payment of taxes. The French, renaming ‘bangs’ to ‘congrégations’, maintained the system; in Hanoi and Haiphong, two Chinese congregations, Canton and Fukien, were legally recognized by the French authorities. The heads of the congregations played a central role in the fields of public order and taxation, and in social and cultural activities. However, congregations were not permitted to engage in commercial activities. Dubreuil, De la Condition des Chinois et de leur Rôle économique en Indo-Chine, pp. 27–30, 33–40; Nguyen, Q. D., Les Congrégations Chinoises en Indochine Française, Recueil Sirey, Paris, 1941Google Scholar; Marsot, The Chinese Community, pp. 104–111, 114; Amer, R., ‘French Policies towards the Chinese in Vietnam: A Study of Migration and Colonial Responses’, Moussons: Social Science Research on Southeast Asia, vol. 16, 2010–12, pp. 57–62, 6871Google Scholar.

22 Amer, ‘French Policies’, p. 62, Table 3: Number of Chinese in Vietnam 1879 to 1937 by regions, and p. 65, Table 6: Number of Minh-Huong/métis in Vietnam 1908 to 1944.

23 After the creation of the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin, Haiphong saw a steady rise in population, mainly of Vietnamese people. Haiphong's total population was 15,100 in 1890, 18,325 in 1902, and 55,811 in 1913. While from 1890 to 1902, the percentage of the Vietnamese inhabitants rose from 58 per cent to 65 per cent, the percentage of Chinese fell from 37 per cent to 29 per cent, and the percentage of Europeans rose from 4 per cent to 5 per cent. In 1913, the Vietnamese constituted 81 per cent of the local population, the Chinese 15 per cent, and the Europeans 3 per cent. There was also a very marginal group consisting of only 72 people in 1913 who may have been Minh-Huong not born in Haiphong, Hanoi, or Tourane: see Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 2, p. 338, Table 15: Population of Haiphong 1890–1929; the latter group is listed as ‘diverse’. Minh-Huong born in these cities had the nationality of their fathers according to the decree of 1883 issued by the governor-general of Indochina: see Amer, ‘French Policies’, pp. 64–65.

24 In Annam and Tonkin, there were usually two rice harvests per year (in June and November), but due to the overpopulation of these regions and changing weather conditions, the rice supply varied, with the result that only the autumn harvest was suitable for exportation. G. Dauphinot, ‘Le Tonkin en 1909’, Bulletin Économique de l'Indochine, vol. 79, July–August 1909, p. 268; Inspection Générale des Mines et de l'Industrie, L'Indochine Économique, Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, Hanoi, 1931, p. 19.

25 Infrastructural measures aimed at supporting large-scale trading included the construction of a three-kilometre-long canal cutting through the town, an exclusively European port situated on the Song Cua Cam and a Chinese port on the Song Tam Bac. Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 1, pp. 163–169, 173, 182–220; Martinez, ‘Chinese Rice Trade’, p. 87; Tran, ‘L'industrialisation’, pp. 85–133.

26 In 1898, the total number of ocean-going ships entering the port of Tonkin was 297, at 328,467 net register tons; in the same year, Saigon counted 458 vessels, at almost 1.2 million tons, and Hong Kong 11,058, at more than 13 million tons. In 1913, Hong Kong counted almost 21,867 vessels accounting for almost 23 million tons, while Saigon's number of vessels had increased to 583, at 1.7 million tons, and Haiphong's to 377 ships, at 487,139 tons. These figures demonstrate that despite Haiphong's economic development, it did not reach the levels of Hong Kong and Saigon, its neighbouring port cities in South China and Indochina. Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 2, pp. 494–496.

27 The Chinese in French Indochina were prohibited from engaging in any industry that directly competed with French investments. Therefore, they mainly engaged in the fishing sector, in trade, and in industries related to rice. In 1905 in Haiphong, 270 Chinese and 147 Europeans held ‘patents’ (trading licences); of the 1,657 licences issued to Vietnamese, most were in retail trades. Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 2, p. 337; Martinez, ‘Chinese Rice Trade’, p. 89; Amer, ‘French Policies’, p. 72. For general aspects of Chinese rice trading, see Field, F. V. (ed.), Economic Handbook of the Pacific Area, Doubleday, Doran, New York, 1934, pp. 548549Google Scholar; Purcell, V., The Chinese in Southeast Asia, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1965, 2nd edn, pp. 190199Google Scholar; Latham, A. J. H., ‘From Competition to Constraint: The International Rice Trade in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, Business and Economic History, second series, vol. 17, 1988, pp. 91102Google Scholar; Elson, R. E., ‘International Commerce, the State and Society: Economic and Social Change’, in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Vol. 3, Part 1: From c. 1800 to the 1930s, Tarling, N. (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007, pp. 119, 169171Google Scholar. Recent works on rice exportation from French Indochina and the important functions of various Chinese merchant houses and their cooperative and competitive business relations with French colonial enterprises include Vorapheth, K., Commerce et Colonisation en Indochine (1860–1945): Les Maisons de Commerce Françaises, un Siècle d'Aventure Humaine, Les Indes Savantes, Paris, 2004, pp. 8494Google Scholar; Brocheux, P., Une Histoire Économique du Viet Nam 1850–2007: la Palance et le Camion, Les Indes Savantes, Paris, 2009, pp. 7981Google Scholar; Sasges, G., ‘Scaling the Commanding Heights: The Colonial Conglomerates and the Changing Political Economy of French Indochina’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 49, no. 5, 2015, pp. 1487–1489, 14941501CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Goscha, C., The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam, Penguin, Milton Keynes, 2017, pp. 162164Google Scholar. For the Hong Kong rice merchants, see Faure, D., ‘The Rice Trade in Hong Kong before the Second World War’, in Between East and West: Aspects of Social and Political Development in Hong Kong, Sinn, E. (ed.), Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 216225Google Scholar.

28 ‘The Chinese in Tongking’, The Hongkong Telegraph, 3 January 1903; republished and translated in French as ‘Les Chinois au Tonkin’, Revue Indo–Chinoise, 16 February 1903, pp. 143–144.

29 Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 2, pp. 334–335, 604, 633; Fourniau, C., Vietnam: Domination Colonial et Résistance Nationale (1858–1914), Les Indes Savantes, Paris, 2002, pp. 646647Google Scholar; Brocheux, Une Histoire Économique du Viet Nam, p. 79.

30 Miller, Europe and the Maritime World, p. 90.

31 In 1902, a total of 336 vessels called at the port of Haiphong, of which 156 flew the French flag; 97, the German flag; and 27, the British flag; the 56 remaining vessels were unidentified and probably consisted of local junks and other small carriers. In 1905, German ships, with 92 calls, dominated the port of Haiphong, compared to 86 French and 29 British calls. Even in the following year, when rice exports reached their ten-year low, the German flag again had the upper hand with 105 calls, while the French fell back to 84 ships calling; only 19 ships British ships called at Haiphong. Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 2, pp. 456, 603.

32 Diplomatic Archives of the Foreign Ministry [Affaires Étrangères Archives Diplomatiques, Paris, France]: AEAD, Correspondance politique et commerciale, 1896–1918, Nouvelle Série: Chine, vol. 548: René Teissier-Soulange (in charge of the French Consulate in Hong Kong) to Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon (Paris), 24 April 1907. The Hong Kong Telegraph, 17 April 1909, reported on this agreement as follows: ‘It is a matter of little moment to the ordinary reader whether a written compact was entered into between the two foreign firms as to the freight rate to be maintained. To the shipper and the consignee, however, it was well-known that such an understanding existed and for the three years that the French and German firms ran steamers in friendly rivalry their uniform charge was one of 25 cents per picul.’

33 J. Armstrong, ‘Conferences in British Nineteenth-Century Coastal Shipping’, in his The Vital Spark, p. 77.

34 In 1872, Butterfield and Swire, a well-established British trading house in China, founded the China Navigation Company, which soon became the major shipping company in Far Eastern waters. On its history, see S. Marriner and Hyde, F. E., The Senior John Samuel Swire, 1825–1898: Management in Far Eastern Shipping Trades, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 1967Google Scholar; Miller, Europe and the Maritime World, pp. 88–93. In the consulted French, German, and British consular files, the shipping company is exclusively referred to as Butterfield and Swire or only as Butterfield, a modus operandi that is also used in this article.

35 The Swire Archives, kept by SOAS, University of London, do not contain any relevant papers on such aspects.

36 Wray, W. D., Mitsubishi and the N.Y.K., 1870–1914: Business Strategies in the Japanese Shipping Industry, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1984, pp. 378, 388394CrossRefGoogle Scholar (the quote: p. 393); Gregg, E. S., ‘Vicissitudes in the Shipping Trade 1870–1920’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 34, no. 4, 1921, p. 613Google Scholar.

37 Federal Archives, Berlin [Bundesarchiv, Berlin, Germany]: BAB, Auswärtiges Amt (AA), R901-12970: Consul Hans von Varchmin (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 18 June 1906; BAB, AA, R901-17970: Consul Hans von Varchmin (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 3 November 1906; AEAD, Chine, vol. 548: René Teissier-Soulange (in charge of the French Consulate in Hong Kong) to Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon (Paris), 24 April 1907; BAB, AA, R901-17972: Johann Heinrich Jessen, Bericht über den Stand der südchinesischen Küstenfahrt [Report on the situation of coastal shipping in South China], 3 October 1907.

38 The National Archives, Kew, UK: TNA, Foreign Office: FO 228-1729: G. W. Pearson, Acting Consul (Kiungchow), to Sir John Jordan, British Minister (Peking), 13 May 1909.

39 Such hopes were indeed expressed in an article titled ‘Against the Germans’ published in June 1907 in the Haiphong press. Referring expressively to the ‘Entente Cordiale’—the Anglo-French entente of 8 April 1904—the writer stated that, thanks to this agreement, France in the Far East had the least to fear from Britain, whose successful struggle with Germany would also be beneficial and helpful for France. ‘Lettre d'Hoihow: Contre Les Allemands’, Le Courrier d'Haiphong, 5 June 1907. This newspaper, of which Marty was one of the founders in 1886, was the mouthpiece of the French community of Haiphong, representing its members’ specific views and opinions, with an emphasis on promoting local business interests. One of its frequently repeated issues was the fight against the project to replace Haiphong as the main port hub of Tonkin with another nearby location. G. de Gantès, ‘Coloniaux, gouverneurs et ministres: L'influence des Français du Viet-Nam sur l’évolution du pays à l’époque coloniale 1902–1914’, PhD thesis, 2 vols, Université de Paris VII Denis Diderot, 1994, Vol. 2, pp. 271–273.

40 AEAD, Chine, vol. 548: French Minister Edmon Bapst (Peking) to Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon (Paris), 10 June 1907.

41 Political Archives of the Foreign Office [Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts, Berlin, Germany]: PAAA, Deutsche Botschaft in China (Peking II), Peking II-1174: Consul Dr Rudolf Walter (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 25 June 1907; Jacob Jebsen (Hong Kong) to Consul Hans von Varchmin (Pakhoi), 13 February 1908.

42 ‘Hong Kong Shipping Firms Boycotted: Steamers Tied up at Haiphong: Rice Import Retarded’, The Hong Kong Telegraph, 28 November 1907.

43 Norway, an independent European state after the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian union in 1905, by 1880 possessed a merchant marine with the third greatest tonnage in the world, a position that was narrowly maintained for a hundred years. By 1902, most Norwegian ships calling at Asian ports were steamers in intra-Asian trades, which developed into the most important sector. The most visited ports were Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai, Singapore, and Saigon, all of them situated on the South China Sea. In 1907, Norwegian steamers were predominantly present in Bangkok, where they came second after the German flag. E. von Mende, ‘Die wirtschaftlichen und konsulären Beziehungen Norwegens zu China von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zum 1. Weltkrieg’, PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln, 1971, pp. 218–219. Hsiao, China's Foreign Trade Statistics, pp. 239–261, has the number and tonnage of Norwegian vessels operating in intra-Asian trades from 1872 to 1946. Tenold, S., ‘Norwegian Shipping in the Twentieth Century’, in International Merchant Shipping in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Comparative Dimension, Fischer, L. R. and Lange, E. (eds), International Maritime Economic History Association, St. John's, Newfoundland, 2008, pp. 5960Google Scholar; Brautaset, C. and Tenold, S., ‘Lost in Calculation? Norwegian Merchant Shipping in Asia, 1870–1914’, in Maritime History as Global History, Fusaro, M. and Polónia, A. (eds), International Maritime Economic History Association, St. John's, Newfoundland, 2010, pp. 207, 217221Google Scholar.

44 The Hong Kong Telegraph, 28 November 1907; AEAD, Chine, vol. 548: René Teissier-Soulange (in charge of the French Consulate at Hong Kong) to Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon (Paris), 2 December 1907.

45 National Archives of Overseas Territories [Archives Nationales d'Outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence, France]: ANOM, Gouvernement-Général de l'Indochine (GGI), vol. 19298: Report of Administrative Mayor P. Tournois (Haiphong), 13 October 1909.

46 Wray, Mitsubishi and the N.Y.K., pp. 379–380.

47 ‘Haiphong Shipping Boycott: Probable Compromise: Conference of Owners and Shippers’, The Hong Kong Telegraph, 9 December 1907; AEAD, Chine, vol. 548: Vice-Consul Joseph Beauvais (Hoihow) to Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon (Paris), 26 December 1907. French export statistics at the end of 1907 show that this year was a turning point after a series of bad harvests and low export numbers in previous years. With 165,956 tons of rice shipped from Haiphong, it signalled the beginning of a period of good—even very good—harvests. The French flag, with 170 calls, again dominated the port of Haiphong, with the German flag registering 123 calls. The first appearance of Butterfield in the market was reflected in 58 ships flying the British flag, compared to a mere 19 vessels the year before. Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 2, pp. 456, 602, 604, 633.

48 Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 2, pp. 456, 602.

49 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 27 April 1909.

50 These Chinese emigrants (‘coolies’) were mostly free migrants leaving voluntarily for Dutch East India to work on the tobacco plantations of northern Sumatra. For the distinction between ‘coolie trading’ and the free emigration of Chinese labourers, see Sinn, E., Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 2013, pp. 5053CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 27 April 1909.

52 ‘Hong Kong Shipping Firms Boycotted: The Haiphong Rice Trade: Grain Importers Fight Shipowners’, The Hong Kong Telegraph, 17 April 1909.

53 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 27 April 1909; Consul Dr Ernst Arthur Voretzsch (Hong Kong) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 11 May 1909.

54 ‘Le Boycottage des Chinois’, L'Avenir du Tonkin, 14 April 1909. This newspaper, sold in Hanoi and in Haiphong, was the mouthpiece of the French rural settlers (in French: colons) in Indochina, carried ‘racist aspersions on the indigenous peoples, impractical suggestions designed to forward the interests of their readers, and castigations, justified or not, of metropolitan and colonial policies and personalities’. Laffey, J. F., ‘Imperialists Divided: The Views of Tonkin's Colons before 1914’, Histoire Social/Social History, vol. 10, no. 19, 1977, p. 93Google Scholar.

55 Tam Sec Sam (譚植三) came from Sunwei, Kwantung Province, in southeastern China, a mainly agricultural region. Later, relatives brought him to Macao, the Portuguese territory in the Pearl River delta, where he made a living for many years by selling rice and grains. When travelling overseas, Tam also visited Indochina and Siam to study rice production in these regions. He later moved to Haiphong to engage in the Tonkin rice trading industry, which provided him with sufficient funds to purchase large tracts of land. After Haiphong was made a French concession (1874), Tam profited from increasing land prices and became wealthy, which gave him a leading position in the business sector of the rising port town. When increasing numbers of Chinese immigrants from Sunwei, Kwangtung Province, moved to Haiphong, Tam was supportive of their integration and initiated the local Chinese Chamber of Commerce for that purpose. It provided material support to Chinese immigrants along with funding for medical services; he was therefore thrice elected as its president. A capable leader of the Chinese community in Haiphong, Tam was apparently very popular among Chinese residents in Haiphong and enjoyed a good reputation. His Shun-Tai rice company (順泰) was headquartered in Hong Kong. From there, it exported at least 1.5 million rice bags, mainly to Japan. Wen Xiongfei 溫雄飛, Nanyang huaqiao tungshi 南洋華僑通史 [A Complete History of Chinese Immigrants in Nanyang], Dongfang yinshuguan 東方印書館, Shanghai, 1929, pp. 261–262; Yan Qu 嚴璩, ‘Yuenan youliji’ 越南遊歷記 [Travel Notes in Vietnam, 1905], in Wanqing haiwai bijixuan 晚清海外筆記選 [The Selection of Overseas Journals in the Late Qing Dynasty], Fujian shifan daxue lishixi huaquiaohsi ziliao xuanjizu 福建師範大學歷史系 (The History Department of Fujian Normal University) (eds), Haiyang chubanshe 海洋出版社, Beijing, 1983, p. 58.

56 ‘Chronique de Haiphong: La Boycottage des Chinois’, L'Avenir du Tonkin, 9 May 1909.

57 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 27 April 1909; ‘The Shipping Boycott: Serious Situation at Haiphong’, The Hong Kong Weekly Press, 10 May 1909.

58 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 27 April 1909; ‘The Hong Kong-Haiphong Rice Shipping Trade’, The Hong Kong Telegraph, 23 April 1909; PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Ernst Arthur Voretzsch (Hong Kong) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 11 May 1909.

59 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Bernhard Prince von Bülow (Berlin), 21 June 1909.

60 ’Chronique de Haiphong: La Boycottage des Chinois’, L'Avenir du Tonkin, 9 May 1909.

61 ANOM, GGI, vol. 19298: Translation of an anonymous letter received by Shun-Tai, August 1909; Auguste Raphael Marty (Haiphong) to Governor-General Antony W. Klobukowski (Hanoi), 7 September 1909.

62 National Archives Centre No. 1 [Centre des Archives Nationales No. 1, Hanoi, Vietnam]: VNA1, Résidence Supérieure au Tonkin, vol. 22476: Resident Superior p. i. Jules Simoni (Hanoi) to Prosecutor-General (Hanoi), 18 September 1909, and to Administrative Mayor (Haiphong), 18 September 1909.

63 ANOM, GGI, vol. 19298: Report of Administrative Mayor P. Tournois (Haiphong), 13 October 1909.

64 ANOM, GGI, vol. 19298: Resident Superior p. i. Jules Simoni (Hanoi) to Governor-General Antony W. Klobukowski (Saigon), 18 October 1909; VNA1, Résidence Supérieure au Tonkin, vol. 22476: Resident Superior p. i. Jules Simoni (Hanoi) to Prosecutor-General (Hanoi), 3 November 1909.

65 The legalistic position of the French authorities towards Marty's solicitation, which helped them to avoid making any further investigation into the actions of the Chinese rice merchants, should also be seen in the context of the earlier attempt of Marty to win the support of the government-general against the alleged intrigues of Chinese merchants in Haiphong. Nine years before, in November 1900, the shipowner sent a long declaration to Governor-General Paul Doumer complaining about unfair competition and generally accusing Chinese merchants in Tonkin of frequently operating ‘secret coalitions and societies’ with the goal of ruining ‘the well-established companies which since long assisted our country [Tonkin] in its commercial expansion’. Explicitly referring to the incident of 1895–96 when Chinese shippers in Hoihow and Pakhoi boycotted his ships after setting up a charter syndicate, in his letter to Doumer, Marty strongly urged him ‘to take necessary measures to block their attempts’. The expert report on the issue was issued by M. A. Frézoule, director of customs and public companies (French: Douanes et Régies). It stated that there was indeed a Chinese coalition aiming ‘to exploit an entire trading sector to the exclusive profit of their congregation’. However, he regarded this combination as ‘a purely commercial operation’. Therefore, Frézoule was against restrictive measures, calling them ‘a constraint to the development of trade’, and recommended only that Marty be assisted by granting to his ships ‘all favours compatible with the regulations’. Since the file does not contain a reply from Doumer, Frézoule's verdict certainly settled the case. VNA1, Gouvernement-Général de l'Indochine, vol. 3158: Auguste Raphael Marty (Haiphong) to Governor-General Paul Doumer (Saigon), 20 November 1900; M. A. Frézoule, Director of Customs and Public Companies of Indochina (Hanoi), to Governor-General Paul Doumer (Hanoi), 10 December 1900.

66 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (Berlin), 21 September 1909 and 26 January 1910.

67 Jebsen and Jessen Historical Archives, Aabenraa, Denmark: JJHA, PS 1502: Michael Jebsen [called ‘Magge’, the younger brother of Jacob Jebsen] (Hong Kong) to Jacob Jebsen (Apenrade), 27 October 1909.

68 JJHA, PS 1502: Michael Jebsen (Hong Kong) to Jacob Jebsen (Apenrade), 9 October 1909. Chau Yue Teng (周雨亭) (1872–1933), son of Jacob Jebsen's business associate Chau Kwang Cheong (周昆章) (–1908), was born on Hainan Island and, from about 1882, he was educated in an English school, the Diocesan Boys’ School in Hong Kong. He later joined his father's shipping company, Yuen Cheong Lee and Co. (源昌利), in Hong Kong, and in 1901 became the first comprador of Jebsen and Co. before the company was wound up during the First World War. Chau Yue Teng (1872–1933), in Wenchangshi difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui 文昌市地方志编纂委员会编, Gazetteer of Wenchang. Vol. 30: Biographies 文昌縣志, Fangzhi chubanshe, Beijing, 2000, p. 956; Becker, B., ‘Western Firms and their Chinese Compradors: The Case of the Jebsen and Chau Families’, in Meeting Place: Encounters across Cultures in Hong Kong, 1841–1984, Sinn, E. and Munn, C. (eds), Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 2017, pp. 106130Google Scholar.

69 ‘Items from Tonkin Papers’, South China Morning Post, 1 September 1909.

70 The Haiphong port statistics for 1909 clearly reflected the boycott, especially of the British and German ships. They show the relatively low total number of 333 ships entering the harbour, of which 146 were French (a slight increase from the year before); 75, German (the lowest number since 1896); and 43, British (almost half the number from the year before). Rice exports had dropped considerably to a total amount of 175,225 tons (of which 53,585 tons were exported to France and her colonies), compared to the 250,359 tons shipped the previous year (of which 29,665 went to France and her colonies). Raffi, ‘Haiphong’, Vol. 2, pp. 602, 633.

71 JJHA, PS 1502: Michael Jebsen (Hong Kong) to Jacob Jebsen (Apenrade), 27 October 1909.

72 Ibid.; PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (Berlin), 26 January 1910.

73 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (Berlin), 6 June 1910.

74 JJHA, A01-01-300: Jacob Jebsen (Apenrade) to Johann Heinrich Jessen (Hong Kong), 28 April 1910; PAAA, Peking II-1175: Johann Heinrich Jessen (Hong Kong) to German Minister Arthur Count von Rex (Peking), 30 May 1910.

75 JJHA, B10-02-0086: Memorandum of Agreement, issued in Haiphong, 10 May 1910 (copy of translation). This document seems to be the only remaining evidence of the agreement. The last sentence states that the ‘agreement is made and signed by either party in four copies, one copy for each of the THREE COMPANIES and another one copy for the Rice Hongs’.

76 PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (Berlin), 6 June 1910.

77 ‘Hong Kong Shipping Firms Boycotted: The Haiphong Rice Trade’, The Hong Kong Telegraph, 17 April 1909.

78 JJHA, PS 1502: Michael Jebsen (Hong Kong) to Jacob Jebsen (Apenrade), 9 October 1909; PAAA, Peking II-1175: Consul Dr Peter Merklinghaus (Pakhoi) to Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (Berlin), 23 August 1909.

79 JJHA, A01-01-301: Jacob Jebsen (Apenrade) to Gustav Diederichsen (Hamburg), 20 November 1912.

80 Reinhardt, Navigating Semi-Colonialism, pp. 16–19, 183–187.