ABSTRACT
The domestic-limitation approach, most commonly used by students of China, offers important insights into the effects of domestic factors on Chinese industrialization efforts from 1870 to 1911. The domestic-limitation approach leaves critical questions unanswered by minimizing the importance of foreign intervention, which, as will be seen, often had more influence on Chinese industrialization efforts than did domestic factors. Domestic-limitation theorists view the traditional values and corrupt practices of Confucian society as the major inhibitors of Chinese industrialization. Industries were further hampered by widespread corruption and mismanagement, according to domestic-limitation theorists. The domestic-limitation approach has permeated the field of Chinese history. Chinese historians in the People’s Republic of China have also focused on the negative effects of foreign intervention. China’s enterprises were successful from 1870 to 1897 despite costly but manageable levels of foreign privilege and power, continual foreign demands for increased concessions, and foreign envy of Chinese economic success.
