Part II: Concession; Foreign Settlement

Shanghai Port was forced to open by the British armed with cannon. In accordance with the provisions the Sino-British Nanking Treaty signed after China was defeated in the First Opium War. Shanghai began to be an open port on November 17, 1845. The British (firstly, diplomats, merchants and missionaries) came to Shanghai in succession to lease land for development. In 1845, British Consul Balfour and Shanghai Taotai Kong Meijiu signed “Land Regulations”, which expedite the birth of British settlement district and greatly influenced the Shanghai city development.

From 1845 to 1849, Britain, France and United States separately established their settlement districts in north of Shanghai out of the city wall. According to the “Land Regulation”, unlike Hong Kong ceded from China, the territorial sovereignty of these Foreign Settlement Districts belongs to China. Foreign consuls regulated these foreign settlements and Chinese Government reserved some administrative power such as jurisdiction, which was seized by Municipal Council after “Xiao Dao Hui” insurgency. Because of these characters, the foreign settlement districts development depended on the immigrants from these western countries. These immigrants were mainly from England, and then United States, European countries and British colonies in Southeast Asia. Many of them came from big cities, such as London, Liverpool, Manchester in England and Boston, New York, Washington, San Francisco in United States. The immigration from western countries was so slow at first, that the visages of these settlements couldn’t be changed greatly.

Year	1844	1845	1846	1847	1848	1849	1850	1851
Population	50	90	120	134	159	175	210	265

In September 1853, under the influence of “Tai Pin Tian Guo” revolution, “Xiao Dao Hui” insurgency broke out in Shanghai inside the city wall. In order to evade the insurgency, lots of Chinese moved out the city wall to foreign settlements. Although there were many different opinions about the Chinese moving into these settlements among the immigrants, they acceded to the situation finally, because they found they could make profit by leasing lands or houses to Chinese. After Chinese mingled with immigrants had been acquiesced by the settlements authorities, these settlement districts developments depended not only on the immigrants but also local Chinese. Marshall (transliterated from ‘Mashali’), one of the commissioners from United States commented that Chinese gentlemen mingling with Anglo-Americans would generate a great effect on the settlements development.

With many Chinese moving into these settlements, a lot of administrative problems such as public security, sanitation and taxation affairs emerged, and it was possible that the confliction between foreigner and Chinese would break out. In 5^th July 1854, without China’s permission and consulting with Shanghai Tao, the consuls of Britain, France and United State changed the statute of “Land Regulation”. According to the new statute, in 11^th November, “Municipal Council” was established by the foreigner conference. From then, although China ostensibly had the sovereignty of there areas, foreigners had control all the local administrative system in the settlements, which Chinese called “the nations in our country”.

Municipal Council

Unlike the corrupt and inept Chinese local government, Municipal Council introduced western city administrative system into Shanghai. The concept of separation power was introduced to Shanghai Municipal Council too. According to the statute of “Shanghai Land Regulation” the municipal power belonged to Foreign Ratepay’s Meeting, which can be viewed as congress in western country. In annual meeting, the major duties were assessing budget, discussing taxation affairs and voting out new board of Municipal Council. So the Foreign Ratepay’s Meeting was a local autonomic organization. Compared with Shanghai Dao government administration, which mainly depended on the governor’s will, this democratic method brought many advantages to local council:

3. Through democratic process many important decisions were made in a more scientific way.

Unlike other areas in the city tortured by the China civil war, these settlements became a harbor attracting people to live in with their fortune. From 1860s, these settlements became more and more prosperous. Increasing population and fortune, peaceful social environment and advanced administration, all these made these settlements develop rapidly after the Municipal Council’s establishment in 1854.

Expansion

In 1862, to preserve its independency, France concession established its own Municipal Council, “Gong Dong Ju”, and in 1863, British and United States consolidate their settlements into “International Settlement”. In the late of 1862, in order to evade the “Tai Pin Tian Guo” civil war in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, about 500,000 Chinese moved into settlements, which expedited the settlements development. For population bulge, land appreciation, economic boom and tax increase the Municipal Council decided to change its policy from migration more people into settlements to expansion these settlements. On the one hand Municipal Council through diplomatic approach to expand these settlements by threatening the inept China government on the other hand they expanded their orbits by paving road on Chinese land without China’s permission. In the early 20 century, the area of Shanghai Foreign Settlements was 48,652 “Mu” (about 32.436 square kilometers), 57 times larger than these settlements’ area when they were established in 1846.

From then, the structure of Shanghai Metropolis formed. International settlement, France Concession and China district were the major spines of the city. Each district had its own characteristic and was under different administration. It was very interesting in a city that had so many different scenes and fragments where Chinese and Foreigners mixed together.

Crises

No matter how well these settlements were developed, these areas indeed were the outcome of foreign invasion. In Shanghai, where Chinese were the majority, foreigner, the minority became the governor. By the end of Qing Dynasty, for the rising of nationalism, Chinese started to fight against the imperialism. By 1870s, there were a lot of conflicts between Chinese and settlement authorities such as “Si Ming Gong Sou” event and lathe men against tax movement, etc. Critiques and animadversion began to appear on media. After the birth of Republic of China, with the tides of nationalism, the political idea that these foreign settlements should be returned to China came up. As the famous democratic revolutionist, Sun Zhongshan, declared: “ I must tell those foreigners: Shanghai is the city of China! You are the guest and we are master. If you cannot understand this fact, then we will have to adopt stern step to take it back. We, Chinese are firm in making the decision that concession must be returned to China!”

After “5.30” Massacre by Municipal Council on Neking Road, the settlement authority changed their extremely arrogant attitude to Chinese and began to compromise by abnegating some privileges:

From then, Chinese entered the highest administration in the settlements and changed the situation that foreigners totally controlled the administration and legislation.

Return

Although settlement authorities in shanghai had reformed since 1925, unlike any other settlements that had already been returned to China, Shanghai, the last and the best western base in China was difficult to be returned. And then the burst of WWII interrupted the attempt to take these settlements back.

After the Pacific Ocean War broke out, in order to stimulate China to fight against Japanese, Britain and United States decided to abnegate their privileges in Shanghai, which had already been occupied by Japanese. In February 1943, Britain and United States signed a new treaty with Republic of China to return these settlements to China. At the same time for the same reason, the puppet government of France signed a new treaty with the puppet government of China, which ended the live of France concession in Shanghai. But it was in September 1945, after Japanese made an unconditional surrender, that these Foreign Settlements were really returned to Chinese and disappeared from Chinese territory.