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⁴ SSLNP, I, 43–44.Google Scholar

⁵ SSLNP, I, 45–55Google Scholar. Teng Chih-ch'eng has insisted, without documentation, that Liang Shih-i was Yüan Shih-k'ai's most dependable contact with the Japanese—Teng Chih-ch'eng, “Review” of SSLNP, Yen-Ching hsüeh-pao (Yenching Journal Chinese Studies), no. 33 (1947), p. 294.Google Scholar

⁶ LCP, VII, 145.Google Scholar

⁷ LCP, VII, 171.Google Scholar

⁸ LCP, VIII, 863Google Scholar; XI, 3080.

⁹ SSLNP, I, 53–54Google Scholar; Feuerwerker, Albert, China's Early Industrialization (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), pp. 77–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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¹¹ LCP, I, 109, 111–14.Google Scholar

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¹⁴ The British controlled the Nanking-Shanghai and Taokouchen-Ch'inghua railways; see Sun, , Chinese Railways and British Interests, pp. 9, 39–60, 70–72Google Scholar and LCP, XIII, 4773–80, 4837Google Scholar. The French controlled the Chengting-Taiyuan and Kaifeng-Loyang railways; see China Yearbook, 1912, pp. 175–76Google Scholar and Chia-ao, Chang, op. cit., p. 28Google Scholar. A railway over which control was nominally with the ministry but actually lay in Chinese hands other than the ministry's was the Pinghsiang-Chuchow line. Chang Chih-tung and Sheng Hsuan-huai retained control of this railway through Pi Hungnien, who was their appointee as its managing director from 1903 to 1912; see Sun, , Chinese Railways and British InterestsGoogle Scholar, chapters III, IV and LCP, XI, 3474.

¹⁵ Tisler, R., “Le Chemin de Fer Pekin-Hankéou”, Questions Diplomatiques Et Coloniales, 1909, p. 39Google Scholar; LCP, VIII, 660–67Google Scholar; and Sun, , Chinese Railways and British Interests, p. 138Google Scholar. Sheng Hsuan-huai and T'ang Shao-i submitted the first memorial about redemption of the railway in Nov., 1905—Sheng Hsuan-huai, Yü-chai ts'un kao [Collected Papers of Sheng Hsuan-huai], (Wuchin, 1939), chüan 12: 10–12.Google Scholar

¹⁶ SSLNP, I, 74–78Google Scholar; LCP, VIII, 667.Google Scholar

¹⁷ SSLNP, I, 65–67.Google Scholar

¹⁸ YCPTI, I, 147–62Google Scholar; LCP, VIII, 668–70.Google Scholar

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²⁰ LCP, VIII, 672–84Google Scholar and Sun, , Chinese Railways and British Interests, pp. 138–41Google Scholar. The banks were Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Banque de L'Indo-Chine.

²¹ Times (London), 12 16, 1908, p. 7 and 12 29, pp. 3–4Google Scholar and Sun, , Chinese Railways and British Interests, pp. 140–41.Google Scholar

²² LCP, VIII, 668–70.Google Scholar

²³ LCP, VIII, 685–86.Google Scholar

²⁴ As a money maker, the Peking-Hankow Railway matched the Peking-Mukden Railway—LCP, 3405–09.Google Scholar

²⁵ Tung-fang tsa-chih (The Eastern Miscellany), Jan.-Feb., 1909Google Scholar (Hsuan-t'ung 1/1), “Ta shih-chi” [Important Events], pp. 3–4; Kuo-feng pao, vol. 1, no. 29, p. 85Google Scholar; Times (London), 12 1, 1908, p. 6 and 12 16, p. 7Google Scholar; Hsin-ch'eng, Chang, Chung-kuo hsien-tai chiao-t'ung shih (A History of Modern Communications in China), (Shanghai, 1931), p. 57.Google Scholar

²⁶ Chinese Public Opinion (Peking), 01 14, 1909, p. 4Google Scholar; Bland, J. O. P. in Recent Events and Present Policies in China (London, 1912)Google Scholar frequently cited the patriotism of the Cantonese bureaucrats in the Ministry of Posts and Communications.

²⁷ Hall, R. O., Chapters and Documents on Chinese National Banking (Shanghai, 1920), p. 19, 49Google Scholar. Discussion of the size and importance of the ministry's revenues is forthcoming.

²⁸ North-China Herald, 05 1, 1908, p. 282Google Scholar; Yu-tso, Tan, Chung-kuo Chung-yao yin-hang fa-chan shih [History of the Development of Important Banks in China], (Taipei, 1961), pp, 227–30Google Scholar; and Hall, R. O., op. cit.Google Scholar, chapter V.

²⁹ SSLNP, I, 78.Google Scholar

³⁰ SSLNP, I, 80.Google Scholar

³¹ YCPTI, III, 1087–91.Google Scholar

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³³ SSLNP, I, 73Google Scholar; YCPTI, I, 210–11.Google Scholar

³⁴ SSLNP, I, 73.Google Scholar

³⁵ SSLNP, I, 58, 68–69, 85Google Scholar; Shun-sheng, Tso, Chung-kuo hsien-tai ming-jen i-shih [Anecdotes About Famous Modern Chinese], (Hong Kong, 1959), p. 76.Google Scholar

³⁶ This definition roughly follows Simon, Herbert A., Administrative behavior (New York, 1949)Google Scholar, Dep. 161 and Riggs, Fred W., Administration in Developing Countries (Boston, 1964), pp. 170–71, 275.Google Scholar

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⁴⁴ The one railway over which the clique accumulated little influence was the Tientsin-Pukou line. This railway, begun in 1907 on the initiative of Yüan Shih-k'ai and completed in 1911, was administered by the ministry but was separate jurisdictionally from the General Railway Bureau and Liang Shih-i. First Lü Hai-huan and then Hsü Shih-ch'ang, who both outranked Liang, directed the railway's construction as controller-general (tu-pan ch'en) of an Office for Railways (T'ieh-lu kung-so) which was administratively independent of the General Railway Bureau and dealt solely with the Tientsin-Pukou line. LCP, X, 2306, 2384Google Scholar and Sun, , Chinese Railways and British Interests, pp. 129–37.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ LCP, VIII, 863, 868–69Google Scholar; YCPTI, III, 1091–92.Google Scholar

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⁴⁹ Sun, , Chinese Railways and British Interests, p. 86Google Scholar; YCPTI, V, 1819Google Scholar; LCP, XII, 4607.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Shen Yün-lung, “Sheng Hsuan-huai Liang Shih-i chieh-yüan shih-mou” [From beginning to end (the story of) enmity between Sheng Hsuanhuai and Liang Shih-i], Hsien-tai cheng-chih jenwu shu-ping [Notes on modern political personalities], (Taipei, 1966), Part III, 91–104Google Scholar; SSLNP, I, 82–85Google Scholar; Cheng-chih kuan-pao, 02 8, 1909 (Hsüant'ung 1/1/18), pp. 17–20.Google Scholar

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⁵³ Hsuan-huai, Sheng, op. cit., chüan 16:22–23Google Scholar; LCP, I, 115.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ SSLNP, I, 100Google Scholar; Tung-fang tsa-chih, 09–10 1911Google Scholar (Hsüan-t'ung 3/8), “Chih-kuan piao” [Table of office holders], p. 1.

⁵⁵ LCP, I, 116Google Scholar; Yeh Chia-yen hsien-sheng nien p'u, p. 14.Google Scholar

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⁶⁰ This is the conviction of Hall, R. O., op. cit.Google Scholar, especially chapter V.

⁶¹ YCPTI, IV, 1407–08.Google Scholar

⁶² Liang Shih-i's and the Communications Clique's Howrecord during the Republican period is documented and further developed in a later section of this article.

⁶³ The authorized version of Yüan's career prior to the Republic is Shen Tsu-hsien and Wu K'ai-sheng, Jung-an ti-tzu chi [An Account of Yüan Shih-k'ai by his Disciples], (1913), 4 chüan. In it Chou Hsüeh-hsi and Yang Shih-ch'i are mentioned more frequently than Liang, reflecting their greater importance to Yüan in the earlier period. During Yiiüan's presidency of the Republic, however, Liang is generally considered to have wielded more political and bureaucratic power; see, for example, Ch'en, Jerome, Yüan Shih-k'ai, 1859–1916 (Stanford, 1961)Google Scholar, chapters VIII, IX, X. On Chou Hsüeh-hsi, see Howrecord ard Boorman, L., ed., Biographical Dictionary Republican China (New York, 1967-), 5 volsGoogle Scholar. jected, II, 409–13.

⁶⁴ Ju-lin, Ts'ao, I-sheng chih hui-i [Memoirs of life], (Hong Kong, 1966), pp. 76–77Google Scholar and Chia-ao, Chang, “Chang Chia-ao material,” (Typescript, Columbia U., 1958)Google Scholar, chapter IX. Biographical sketches of Liang Shih-i by men who knew him convey same impression; see Shih-i, Chia, Min-kuo ch'u nien ti chi-jen ts'ai-cheng tsung-chang [Early Republican Finance Ministers], (Taipei, 1967), pp. 40Google Scholar; Shun-sheng, Tso, op. cit., pp. 73–80Google Scholar; and Reinsch, Paul, An American Diplomat in China (New York, 1922), pp. 95–96.Google Scholar

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⁶⁶ Cheng-chih kuan-pao, 02 8, 1909, p. 18.Google Scholar

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⁷² Exchange rate in North-China Herald, 02 23, 1909, p. 330.Google Scholar

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⁷⁴ Tung-fang tsa-chih, 03, 1911 (Hsüan-t'ung 3/2), p. 16.Google Scholar

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⁷⁸ Hall, R. O., op. cit., p. 46Google Scholar, has illustrated this point with a discussion of the reliability of the accounts of the ministry's Bank of Communications; annual revenue reports arc cited in note 38.

⁷⁹ Feuerwerker, Albert, op cit.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ The bank did speculate briefly in rubber plantations in Southeast Asia—Hall, R. O., op. cit., p. 47.Google Scholar

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⁸² Neither in Yeh Chia-yen hsien-sheng nien p'u nor Yeh's Chia-yen hung-kao is there mention of investment in private enterprises.

⁸³ On the relationship of Sheng's business interests in the Canton-Hankow railway complex and the Hanyang Ironworks to his railway nationalization policies, see Hatano Yoshihiro, “Shinmatsu okeru tetsudō kokyū seisaku no haikei” [The Back-ground of the Railway Nationalization Policy at the End of the Ch'ing Period], Nagoya daigaku ronshu, XVII (1957), pp. 29–66.Google Scholar

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⁹⁹ In SSLNP, I, 267–71Google Scholar are a number of Chinese newspaper reports about the scandals; see also analysis in North-China Herald, Feb. 19, 1916, pp. 435–37. The attack on Liang Shih-i and the Communications Clique was related to attacks on the power of two other of Yüan's principal deputies, Tuan Ch'i-jui and Hsiung Hsi-ling. The antagonists included Yang Shih-ch'i, Chou Hsüch-hsi, and Yüan K'o-ting (Yüan Shih-k'ai's eldest son). For a summary of the entire affair, see Tao-lin, Hsü, Hsü Shu-cheng wen-chi nien p'u ho-pien [Collected Writings and Chronological Biography of Hsü Shu-cheng], (Taipei, 1962), pp. 162–72Google Scholar. In the fall of 1915, when Yüan's son and others organized the movement to revive the monarchy with Yüan as emperor, Liang's name headed the signatories of the petition to Yuan. But the fact that Liang had been under attack and his power seriously undermined since June 1915, may support the contention of Liang's biographers that he played a minor part in the monarchical movement—Pai Chiao, Yüan Shih-k'ai yü Chung-hua min-kuo [Yüan Shih-k'ai and the Chinese Republic], (Shanghai, 1936), pp. 255–56Google Scholar and SSLNP, I, 271–72, 276–80.Google Scholar

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