The ”’Imperial Telegraph Administration”’ (ITA; {{zh|t=電政總局}})<ref name=”Harwit”>Harwit, Eric. ”[https://books.google.com/books?id=Uiwh_annSr0C&pg=PA28 China’s Telecommunications Revolution]”, p. 28. Oxford University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|0-19-923374-8}}.</ref> or ”’Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration”’ (ICTA)<ref name=”Mas”>Chiba, Masashi. “[http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-sseh/en/seh_e/sum/sum_e636.html The nationalization of the Chinese telegraph industry in the late Qing period]{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}”. ”Socio-Economic History Society”, Vol. 63, No. 6.</ref> was a [[Qing dynasty|Qing]]-era government-controlled corporation (spec. ”guandu shangban”) supervised by [[Sheng Xuanhuai]].
The ”’Imperial Telegraph Administration”’ (ITA; {{zh|t=電政總局}})<ref name=”Harwit”>Harwit, Eric. ”[https://books.google.com/books?id=Uiwh_annSr0C&pg=PA28 China’s Telecommunications Revolution]”, p. 28. Oxford University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|0-19-923374-8}}.</ref> or ”’Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration”’ (ICTA)<ref name=”Mas”>Chiba, Masashi. “[http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-sseh/en/seh_e/sum/sum_e636.html The nationalization of the Chinese telegraph industry in the late Qing period]{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}”. ”Socio-Economic History Society”, Vol. 63, No. 6.</ref> was a [[Qing dynasty|Qing]]-era government-controlled corporation (spec. ”guandu shangban”) supervised by [[Sheng Xuanhuai]].
The ITA was established in 1881,<ref name=”Harwit”/> after which it swiftly gained a monopoly on Chinese telegraphy. The Qing government’s control over the agency would prove to be crucial in its efforts to centralize power.<ref name=”:2″>{{Cite book |last=Zhou |first=Yongming |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804767583 |title=Historicizing Online Politics |date=2005-12-16 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-6758-3}}</ref>
The ITA was established in 1881,<ref name=”Harwit”/> after which it swiftly gained a monopoly on Chinese telegraphy. The Qing government’s control over the agency would prove to be crucial in its efforts to centralize power.<ref name=”:2″>{{Cite book |last=Zhou|first=Yongming|url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804767583|title=Historicizing Online Politics|date=2005-12-16|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-6758-3}}</ref>
By 1900 the ITA administered 14,000 miles of telegraph wires and supervised another 20,000 miles under local control.<ref name=”Harwit”/> The same year, it absorbed the infant Chinese telephone network started in [[Nanjing]].
By 1900 the ITA administered 14,000 miles of telegraph wires and supervised another 20,000 miles under local control.<ref name=”Harwit”/> The same year, it absorbed the infant Chinese telephone network started in [[Nanjing]].
{{Heading|Telegraphy and Centralization}}
{{Heading|Telegraphy and Centralization}}
The introduction of the telegraph to Imperial China fundamentally changed the systems of government that held together the Qing state.<ref name=”:0″ /> Prior to the telegraph, central government officials handed down edicts, by way of bureaucratic newsletters such as the [[Peking Gazette]], but these legislations were carried out almost entirely by local officials with little oversight.<ref name=”:0″>{{Cite journal |last=Masashi |first=Chiba |date=March 2009 |title=Establishment of Modern Traffic and Communication Administration System and Reorganization of Relation between the Central Government and Provinces in Late Qing China |journal=Journal of Chinese Economic Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=12-21}}</ref> These newsletters allowed the Qing, and the [[Ming dynasty|Ming Dynasty]] before them, some agency in controlling the spread of information across the vast areas the ruled,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mokros |first=Emily |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9780295748801 |title=The Peking Gazette in Late Imperial China |date=2021-12-31 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-295-74880-1}}</ref> but they were effectively a one way channel of communication. The telegraph allowed Qing officials to coordinate and control, by way of direct and near instantaneous communication, the machinery of state on all its levels.<ref name=”:0″ />
The introduction of the telegraph to Imperial China fundamentally changed the systems of government that held together the Qing state.<ref name=”:0″ /> Prior to the telegraph, central government officials handed down edicts, by way of bureaucratic newsletters such as the [[Peking Gazette]], but these legislations were carried out almost entirely by local officials with little oversight.<ref name=”:0″>{{Cite journal |last=Masashi |first=Chiba |date=March 2009 |title=Establishment of Modern Traffic and Communication Administration System and Reorganization of Relation between the Central Government and Provinces in Late Qing China |journal=Journal of Chinese Economic Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=12-21}}</ref> These newsletters allowed the Qing, and the [[Ming dynasty|Ming Dynasty]] before them, some agency in controlling the spread of information across the vast areas the ruled,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mokros|first=Emily|url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9780295748801|title=The Peking Gazette in Late Imperial China|date=2021-12-31|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-74880-1}}</ref> but they were effectively a one way channel of communication. The telegraph allowed Qing officials to coordinate and control, by way of direct and near instantaneous communication, the machinery of state on all its levels.<ref name=”:0″ />
Seeing the value of this new technology, the Qing folded the ITA into the national agency Youchuanbu (Chinese: 郵伝部), The Ministry of Posts and Communications, in 1906. The Ministry of Posts and Communications then dictated that all communications administrations such as post offices, customs offices, and local telegraph offices, which had up until this point been managed by provincial authorities, be oversaw by the Ministry of Posts and Communications.<ref name=”:0″ /> Instantaneous communication began to fold space and time together in such a way that only a handful of bureaucrats in a central location could micromanage the day today of provincial and national affairs.<ref name=”:1″>{{Citation |title=Time, Space, and the Telegraph, James W. Carey |date=2015-09-30 |work=Communication in History |pages=139–146 |url=https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315664538-26 |access-date=2025-10-27 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-66453-8}}</ref> On the global stage as well as within China proper, these centralizing developments collapsed time and space to the point where individuals could buy and sell the idea of goods rather than the goods themselves in the new global market.<ref name=”:1″ /> The telegraph allowed for and facilitated these changes to China’s machinery of state that would change the relationship between the local and national government, and setting a precedent of centralization<ref name=”:2″ /> that would continue through to the [[People’s Republic of China]] in the present day, increasing with every subsequent innovation in communications technology. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Alekna |first=John |title=Seeking News, Making China |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2024 |isbn=9781503638570 |pages=155-189}}</ref>
Seeing the value of this new technology, the Qing folded the ITA into the national agency Youchuanbu (Chinese: 郵伝部), The Ministry of Posts and Communications, in 1906. The Ministry of Posts and Communications then dictated that all communications administrations such as post offices, customs offices, and local telegraph offices, which had up until this point been managed by provincial authorities, be by the Ministry of Posts and Communications.<ref name=”:0″ /> Instantaneous communication began to fold space and time together in such a way that only a handful of bureaucrats in a central location could micromanage the day today of provincial and national affairs.<ref name=”:1″>{{Citation |title=Time, Space, and the Telegraph|date=-09-|work=Communication in History|pages=|url=|access-date=|publisher=Routledge|isbn=}}</ref> On the global stage as well as within China proper, these centralizing developments collapsed time and space to the point where individuals could buy and sell the idea of goods rather than the goods themselves in the new global market.<ref name=”:1″ /> The telegraph allowed for and facilitated these changes to China’s machinery of state that would change the relationship between the local and national government, and setting a precedent of centralization<ref name=”:2″ /> that would continue through to the [[People’s Republic of China]] in the present day, increasing with every subsequent innovation in communications technology. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Alekna |first=John |title=Seeking News, Making China |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2024 |isbn=9781503638570 |pages=155-189}}</ref>
After the [[1911 Revolution]] and the reformation of the Qing Empire into [[The Republic of China]], the ITA remained a facet of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, the newly renamed the Ministry of Communications. Prior to 1911, there was on going debate within China about the Qing’s decision to nationalize all of the industries that made up the Ministry of Communications, which would serve as fuel on the revolutionary fire.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Railway Controversy of 1911: The Bureaucratic Perspective|last=Rosenbaum|first=Arthur|date=07/1982|journal=近代史研究所集刊 The Instititute of Modern History: Academia Sinica|issue=11|pages=315-345|url=https://www.airitilibrary.com/Article/Detail/a0000481-198207-x-11-315-345-a}}</ref>
{{Heading|Nationalizing and Democratizing Effects}}
{{Heading|Nationalizing and Democratizing Effects}}
While the Qing’s efforts to centralize by expanding and controlling telegraphy would eventually resolve into the extremely centralized People’s Republic of China, telegraphy in the short term proved to have both an nationalizing and democratizing effect.<ref name=”:1″ /> Telegraphy transcend geography in such a way that allowed people to see the whole of humanity more so than any communication medium before it, and resulted in the novel concepts of governance that pervaded the 20th century such as [[nationalism]] and [[communism]].<ref name=”:1″ /> The ability to communicate with far away people and swiftly learn about events on the other side of the globe has fostered both unity and alienation in the international community.<ref name=”:1″ />
While the Qing’s efforts to centralize by expanding and controlling telegraphy would eventually resolve into the extremely centralized People’s Republic of China, telegraphy in the short term proved to have both an nationalizing and democratizing effect.<ref name=”:1″ /> Telegraphy geography in such a way that allowed people to see the whole of humanity more so than any communication medium before it, and resulted in the novel concepts of governance that pervaded the 20th century such as [[nationalism]] and [[communism]].<ref name=”:1″ /> The ability to communicate with far away people and swiftly learn about events on the other side of the globe has fostered both unity and alienation in the international community.<ref name=”:1″ />
In China, as the Qing attempted to tighten their control over networks of communication, local telegraph magnates like [[Jing Yuanshan]] the head of the [[Shanghai Telegraph Administration]] found ways to utilize the burgeoning technology to counter state power.<ref name=”:2″ /> After an edict issued by [[Empress Dowager Cixi]] in 1900 in which she attempted to position a puppet imperial family member as an heir to the recently deceased [[Guangxu Emperor|Emperor Guangxu]], Jing sent a protest telegram to the [[Zongli Yamen]], the Qing’s foreign policy agency, cosigned by 1,231 of Shanghai’s powerful.<ref name=”:2″ />
In China, as the Qing attempted to tighten their control over networks of communication, local telegraph magnates like [[Jing Yuanshan]] the head of the [[Shanghai Telegraph Administration]] found ways to utilize the burgeoning technology to counter state power.<ref name=”:2″ /> After an edict issued by [[Empress Dowager Cixi]] in 1900 in which she attempted to position a puppet imperial family member as an heir to the recently deceased [[Guangxu Emperor|Emperor Guangxu]], Jing sent a protest telegram to the [[Zongli Yamen]], the Qing’s foreign policy agency, cosigned by 1,231 of Shanghai’s powerful.<ref name=”:2″ />
==See also==
==See also==
Qing dynasty corporation founded in 1881
 Seal of Qing dynasty |
|
.svg) |
|
| Formed | 1881 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1906 (1906) |
| Superseding agency |
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| Jurisdiction | Qing Empire (China) |
The Imperial Telegraph Administration (ITA; Chinese: 電政總局)[1] or Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration (ICTA)[2] was a Qing-era government-controlled corporation (spec. guandu shangban) supervised by Sheng Xuanhuai.
The ITA was established in 1881,[1] after which it swiftly gained a monopoly on Chinese telegraphy. The Qing government’s control over the agency would prove to be crucial in its efforts to centralize power.[3]
By 1900 the ITA administered 14,000 miles of telegraph wires and supervised another 20,000 miles under local control.[1] The same year, it absorbed the infant Chinese telephone network started in Nanjing.
It was nationalized in 1902 to allow otherwise unprofitable usage rates and expansion of the network[1] or to gain control of its profits.[2] The ITA was then absorbed by the newly formed Ministry of Posts and Communications in 1906. Following nationalization, control alternated between Sheng and his political rival Tang Shaoyi.
Telegraphy and Centralization
The introduction of the telegraph to Imperial China fundamentally changed the systems of government that held together the Qing state.[4] Prior to the telegraph, central government officials handed down edicts, by way of bureaucratic newsletters such as the Peking Gazette, but these legislations were carried out almost entirely by local officials with little oversight.[4] These newsletters allowed the Qing, and the Ming Dynasty before them, some agency in controlling the spread of information across the vast areas the ruled,[5] but they were effectively a one way channel of communication. The telegraph allowed Qing officials to coordinate and control, by way of direct and near instantaneous communication, the machinery of state on all its levels.[4]
Seeing the value of this new technology, the Qing folded the ITA into the national agency Youchuanbu (Chinese: 郵伝部), The Ministry of Posts and Communications, in 1906. The Ministry of Posts and Communications then dictated that all communications administrations such as post offices, customs offices, and local telegraph offices, which had up until this point been managed by provincial authorities, be overseen by the Ministry of Posts and Communications.[4] Instantaneous communication began to fold space and time together in such a way that only a handful of bureaucrats in a central location could micromanage the day today of provincial and national affairs.[6] On the global stage as well as within China proper, these centralizing developments collapsed time and space to the point where individuals could buy and sell the idea of goods rather than the goods themselves in the new global market.[6] The telegraph allowed for and facilitated these changes to China’s machinery of state that would change the relationship between the local and national government, and setting a precedent of centralization[3] that would continue through to the People’s Republic of China in the present day, increasing with every subsequent innovation in communications technology. [7]
After the 1911 Revolution and the reformation of the Qing Empire into The Republic of China, the ITA remained a facet of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, the newly renamed the Ministry of Communications. Prior to 1911, there was on going debate within China about the Qing’s decision to nationalize all of the industries that made up the Ministry of Communications, which would serve as fuel on the revolutionary fire.[8]
Nationalizing and Democratizing Effects
While the Qing’s efforts to centralize by expanding and controlling telegraphy would eventually resolve into the extremely centralized People’s Republic of China, telegraphy in the short term proved to have both an nationalizing and democratizing effect.[6] Telegraphy transcended geography in such a way that allowed people to see the whole of humanity more so than any communication medium before it, and resulted in the novel concepts of governance that pervaded the 20th century such as nationalism and communism.[6] The ability to communicate with far away people and swiftly learn about events on the other side of the globe has fostered both unity and alienation in the international community.[6]
In China, as the Qing attempted to tighten their control over networks of communication, local telegraph magnates like Jing Yuanshan the head of the Shanghai Telegraph Administration found ways to utilize the burgeoning technology to counter state power.[3] After an edict issued by Empress Dowager Cixi in 1900 in which she attempted to position a puppet imperial family member as an heir to the recently deceased Emperor Guangxu, Jing sent a protest telegram to the Zongli Yamen, the Qing’s foreign policy agency, cosigned by 1,231 of Shanghai’s powerful.[3]
- ^ a b c d Harwit, Eric. China’s Telecommunications Revolution, p. 28. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-19-923374-8.
- ^ a b Chiba, Masashi. “The nationalization of the Chinese telegraph industry in the late Qing period[permanent dead link]“. Socio-Economic History Society, Vol. 63, No. 6.
- ^ a b c d Zhou, Yongming (2005-12-16). Historicizing Online Politics. Stanford University Press. pp. 1–16, 59–79. ISBN 978-0-8047-6758-3.
- ^ a b c d Masashi, Chiba (March 2009). “Establishment of Modern Traffic and Communication Administration System and Reorganization of Relation between the Central Government and Provinces in Late Qing China”. Journal of Chinese Economic Studies. 6 (1): 12–21.
- ^ Mokros, Emily (2021-12-31). The Peking Gazette in Late Imperial China. University of Washington Press. pp. 3–19. ISBN 978-0-295-74880-1.
- ^ a b c d e Carey, James W. (2018-09-03), “Time, Space, and the Telegraph”, Communication in History, Routledge, pp. 126–131, ISBN 9781032161754
- ^ Alekna, John (2024). Seeking News, Making China. Stanford University Press. pp. 155–189. ISBN 9781503638570.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Arthur (07/1982). “The Railway Controversy of 1911: The Bureaucratic Perspective”. 近代史研究所集刊 The Instititute of Modern History: Academia Sinica (11): 315–345.
