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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
In recent studies of warlordism, one source has not, to my knowledge, been used. This is the collection of reports of the Sino-foreign salt inspectorate held in the Toyo Bunko. Of all the institutions of the China coast, the salt inspectorate, its offices deep in the interior, its revenues a magnet for predatory armies, was perhaps in closest touch with warlordism. This paper studies the relationship of salt and warlordism in Szechwan between 1914 and 1922. Szechwan in this period has been selected for 3 reasons. First, the reports from the inspectorates of Ch'uan-nan and Ch'uan-pei, which together covered not only Szechwan but also Yunnan, Kweichow and Hupei as supplied by its salt, are unusually informative on politics. Second, between 1914 and 1922, Szechwan, a border province both northern and southern or neither, ran a full gamut of warlordism: regional, provincial, subprovincial and stabilized. It also attracted the attention of ‘guest armies’ from outside. Third, 1914–1922 has coherence; 1914 saw Yüan Shih-k'ai ascendant and the inspectorate established in Szechwan; 1922 saw Yüan's legatee Hsü Shih-ch'ang descendant, and Liu Hsiang, the embodiment of stabilized warlordism in Szechwan, ascendant.
1 The Chief Inspectorate of the Central Salt Administration, Peking, Reports by the District Inspectors, Auditors and Collectors on the Reorganization of the Salt Revenue Administration in China 1913–1917, 1918, 1919–1921, 1922, cited hereafter as District Reports; Report by Sir Richard Dane on the Reorganization of the Salt Revenue Administration in China 1913–1917, cited hereafter as Dane Report.
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7 Ibid., p. 188.
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17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid., p. 134.
20 Ibid., p. 137.
21 Ibid.
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