Modern China: Republican Bankers

Title slide: Republican Bankers in Modern China, by Brett Sheehan, Department of History, University of Southern California.
Slide: part of Business Elites in Modern China, a joint project of Xiaocai Feng (Fudan), Stephen Morgan (Nottingham) and Brett Sheehan (USC).
Slide 'Topics of Discussion': defining and delimiting the dataset, sources, native place versus residence as sojourning becomes permanent, and web-like nets.
Slide '1) Problems of Definition': literati and merchants blur from the Ming on and government took part in business, so the term business elites can mislead.
Slide '2.1) Sources - General Problems': professional data is easier to get than personal, European sources transliterate names, archivists withhold live files.
Slide '2.2) Selected Available Sources': bank annuals and banker directories, chamber of commerce and firm archives, Who's Who in China, French police records.
Slide '3) Native Place Versus Residence': archives keep recording native county and province, which traces native-place ties but hides geographical movement.
Slide '4) Inherent Complexity in Web-Like Networks': Republican bankers as a test case, 6,000 records so far, dispersed versus hierarchical networks.