Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies

Series Editors Richard Drayton, Department of History, King’s College London, London, UK Saul Dubow, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK The Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies series is a well- established collection of over 100 volumes focussing on empires in world history and on the societies and cultures that emerged from, and chal- lenged, colonial rule. The collection includes transnational, comparative and connective studies, as well as works addressing the ways in which particular regions or nations interact with global forces. In its forma- tive years, the series focused on the British Empire and Commonwealth, but there is now no imperial system, period of human history or part of the world that lies outside of its compass. While we particularly welcome the ﬁrst monographs of young researchers, we also seek major studies by more senior scholars, and welcome collections of essays with a strong thematic focus that help to set new research agendas. As well as history, the series includes work on politics, economics, culture, archaeology, literature, science, art, medicine, and war. Our aim is to collect the most exciting new scholarship on world history and to make this available to a broad scholarly readership in a timely manner.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/13937 Bert Becker France and Germany in the South China Sea, c. 1840–1930

Maritime competition and Imperial Power Bert Becker Department of History School of Humanities University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong

ISSN 2635-1633 ISSN 2635-1641 (electronic) Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies ISBN 978-3-030-52603-0 ISBN 978-3-030-52604-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52604-7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover image: The cargo-steamer Amiral Latouche-Tréville of the French shipping company Chargeurs Réunis, in service from 1904 to 1929, in the port of Haiphong, c. 1910 (Private collection Bert Becker)

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements

When I came to Hong Kong in 2002 and took up a DAAD-funded lectureship in History and European Studies at the Department of History of The University of Hong Kong, I became interested in researching the history of European expatriate communities in the former British colony. The first opportunity arose with the 90-year anniversary of the university and the invitation from a colleague in the History Department, Peter Cunich, to contribute to the Festschrift of which he and Chan Lau Kit- ching, then head of department, were the editors. Then came the invitation from Hans Michael Jebsen, chairman of the Jebsen Group in Hong Kong (or Jebsen & Company Limited), to visit the company archives in Aabenraa, Denmark. Afterwards, he invited me to write a comprehensive academic biography about his great-grandfather, Michael Jebsen (1835– 1899). The research project gave me access to extensive correspondence from the founder and first owner of the Reederei M. Jebsen (M. Jebsen Shipping Company), which is kept in the company’s own archives in Denmark. Research visits to the French National Archives in Aix-en-Provence, which hold the records of the former French colonial ministry and a large collection of newspapers published in Hanoi and Haiphong, gave access to a considerable amount of correspondence from one of the most important pioneering firms in French Indochina (and one of the main competi- tors of the M. Jebsen Shipping Company), the shipping company Marty et d’Abbadie, with its affiliates, the Subsidised River Shipping Service of

v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Tonkin and the Tonkin Shipping Company. Combined with the business correspondence of Michael Jebsen, the French records promised to provide a comprehensive and often fascinating picture of dynamic transnational interactions between European shipping and trading companies and their Chinese customers. It was also exciting to delve deeper into the biographies of their owners, especially those of the almost forgotten French shipowners, Auguste Raphael Marty (who was in his time quite a well-known figure in colonial Hong Kong) and his partner Édouard Jules d’Abbadie. The Indochina files of the German Foreign Ministry Archives in Berlin offered insights into Speidel & Company, one of the earliest and most important trading houses in French Indochina, which employed Jebsen vessels to ship rice from Saigon or Haiphong to Hong Kong. The existence and operations of this company are nowadays almost unknown even to experts of French colonial history or Vietnamese modern history. All this together finally gave me sufficient inspiration and motivation to write this book. The research for the book took me to many different places. The most fascinating was Hanoi where I was allowed to access numerous volumes of former French colonial newspapers preserved in the National Library of Vietnam, and, years later, also to look at various records of the former French colonial government of Indochina that are in the National Archives No. 1 of Vietnam. The respective archives of the foreign ministries in Paris, Nantes and Berlin provided valuable insights into various political-diplomatic matters and the sometimes colourful reports of French and German consuls from several port cities in the South China Sea. The Main Library of The University of Hong Kong, the State Library in Berlin and the French National Library in Paris were the most important places to find an array of secondary literature that was relevant to almost all areas of the book. I am grateful for the support of staff working in the aforementioned archives and libraries. The Faculty of Arts and the School of Humanities of The University of Hong Kong have been extremely generous in allowing study leave and providing financial assistance in support of research. The Jebsen Group provided extra funds and access to their archives. I do owe much gratitude to both. I am especially indebted to the following colleagues in France for help with this project: Hubert Bonin, François Dremeaux and Antoine Vannière. These colleagues sent books and other publications, commented on various chapters and helped with tricky translations. I am ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii also grateful for support of various kinds provided by my colleagues at The University of Hong Kong: John M. Carroll, Peter Cunich, James R. Fichter, Ghassan Moazzin, Robert Peckham, David Pomfret, Stefan Purwins, Maureen Sabine, Charles Schencking, Elizabeth Sinn, Paul Urbanski and Roland Vogt. My further thanks go to a number of individ- uals who were part of this research throughout: Mette Haugaard Bach, Ruth Clausen, Frank-Ulrich Gast, Manfred Lutz, Lena Mengelkamp, Joel Montague, Sonja Or, Quang Minh Pham, Fion So, Christy Takeuchi, Pamela Tsui, Ekin Ulas, Bowman Wu and Bamboo Yeung. I am especially grateful to Ekin Ulas who considerably contributed to improving my French language skills. I owe much gratitude to Paul Wenham who was willing to copy edit the manuscript proofs at very short notice. I am also profoundly indebted to Christiane Millenet and her father, Eduard Leopold, who provided private images for this book. Finally, I thank the series editors, the anonymous reviewer and the staff of Palgrave Macmillan for their support and patience during the time I spent working on the manuscript in Hong Kong, Berlin and Seebad Ahlbeck in 2019–2021.

Bert Becker Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region People’s Republic of China Contents

1 Introduction 1 References 11 2 The South China Sea in History 15 The Age of Commerce (1450–1680) 15 The Chinese Century (1740–1840) 22 The Early Imperialist Age (1839–61) 27 The Prussian Expedition to East Asia (1860/61) 35 References 42 3 Hong Kong 47 The German Business Community 47 Tramp Shipping Markets in East Asia 62 The M. Jebsen Shipping Company 68 Asian Crews and European Shipmasters 74 The French Business Community 79 Auguste Raphael Marty (1841–1914) 90 The Decline of the French Flag 101 References 112 4Saigon 123 Cochinchina (1840–1870) 123 The Franco-German War of 1870–1871 142 High Politics and German Merchants (1875–1920s) 178 The Rice Industry of Cochinchina 200

ix x CONTENTS

Speidel & Company in Saigon 210 The Dutch Consulate 221 References 226 5 Haiphong 235 Tonkin and the South China Sea (1600s–1885) 235 “Le Grand Port du Tonkin” 261 Marty et d’Abbadie 292 The Tonkin Shipping Company 324 Shipping Boycotts in the South China Sea 344 Steamships and Illicit Trades 361 References 376 6 Guangzhouwan 385 French Politics in the South China Sea (1898–1904) 385 Shipping and Politics 412 Guangzhouwan in German Government Records (1898–1914) 430 The Almost Forgotten French Territory 438 References 440 7 Conclusion 447

Index 469 Abbreviations

ACM Archives départementales de la Charente-Maritime ADPO Archives départementales des Pyrénées-Orientales, Perpignan ANOM Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence AP Archives de Paris BAB Bundesarchiv, Berlin BASF Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik CADN Centre des Archives Diplomatiques, Nantes CCC Correspondance consulaire et commerciale, 1793–1901 CGT Compagnie Général Transatlantique CNEP Comptoir national d’escompte de Paris CPC Correspondance politique et commerciale, 1896–1918. Nouvelle Série: Chine CSI Carl Smith Index DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service) DDG Hansa Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa (German Steamship Company Hansa) EAC East Asiatic Company EIC [English] East India Company FO Foreign Ofﬁce GGI Gouvernement-Général de l’Indochine GSTA Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin HKGG Hong Kong Government Gazette HKPRO Hong Kong Public Records Ofﬁce HSBC Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation IG Farben Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft

xi xii ABBREVIATIONS

INDO-GGI Gouvernement-Général de l’Indochine JJHA Jebsen and Jessen Historical Archives, Aabenraa LAA Landsarkivet for Sønderjylland, Aabenraa MAE Centre des Archives Diplomatiques du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Paris N.Y.K. Nippon Yusen Kaisha NAN Nationaal Archief, Den Haag Ø.K. Det Østasiatiske Kompagni PAAA Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts, Berlin PS Miscellaneous ﬁles R Deutsches Reich RH Résidence de Hadong RST Résidence Supérieur au Tonkin SEDT Service de l’Enregistrement, des Douanes et du Timbre de l’Indochine TNA British National Archives, Kew/Surrey VNA1 Vietnamese National Archives No. 1, Hanoi VOC Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie List of Illustrations

Fig. 2.1 Map of the South China Sea, 1920s. (Eduard Gaebler’s Hand-Atlas über alle Teile der Erde, ed. Eduard Gaebler, Leipzig: Georg Dollheimer, 1930) 17 Fig. 3.1 Club Germania in Hong Kong, c. 1910 (Private collection Bert Becker) 55 Fig. 3.2 Auguste Raphael Marty (1841–1914), c. 1910 (Bulletin Trimestriel de la Société Amicale des Anciens Tonkinois 9, 1940) 100 Fig. 4.1 Detail of a map of French Indochina, showing Cochinchina with Saigon, 1920s (Newnes’ Citizen’s Atlas of the World, ed. by John Bartholomew, London: The Home Library Book Co., c. 1923/24) 124 Fig. 4.2 The port of Saigon on the Saigon River (Sông Sài Gòn), c. 1890 (Courtesy of Eduard Leopold, Coburg) 129 Fig. 4.3 The Union Rice Mill of Speidel & Company in Cholon (front and back views), c. 1890 (Courtesy of Eduard Leopold, Coburg) 209 Fig. 4.4 Staff of Speidel & Company in Saigon, c. 1894. Second row sitting on the bench from the left: Max Leopold; presumably Friedrich Wilhelm Speidel (Junior); presumably Hermann Kurz (Courtesy of Eduard Leopold, Coburg) 216 Fig. 4.5 The private residence of Max Leopold and his family in Saigon, c. 1895 (Courtesy of Eduard Leopold, Coburg) 217

xiii xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 4.6 A street scene in Saigon, with Café “La Civette” and Hotel Laval situated close to the office of Denis Frères, the major French trading firm in Indochina, c. 1895 (Courtesy of Eduard Leopold, Coburg) 220 Fig. 5.1 Detail of a map of northern French Indochina and Gulf of Tonkin, 1920s (Newnes’ Citizen’s Atlas of the World, ed. by John Bartholomew, London: The Home Library Book Co., c. 1923/1924) 238 Fig. 5.2 The premises of the Haiphong Chamber of Commerce, with its clock, c. 1900 (Private collection Bert Becker) 267 Fig. 5.3 The commercial port of Haiphong, with parts of the head office and the landing stage of the Subsidised River Shipping Service of Tonkin (Marty et d’Abbadie), c. 1900 (Private collection Bert Becker) 272 Fig. 5.4 Map of Haiphong, c. 1915 (An Official Guide to Eastern Asia, vol. 5, ed. by The Imperial Government Railways of Japan, Tokyo, 1917) 274 Fig. 5.5 The private residence Villa Marguerite of Auguste Raphael Marty in Haiphong, c. 1900. On the back of the image, the sender, in 1909, observed the following: “Cette carte représente un chalet, ou plutôt une forteresse. Très curieuse parait-il, le propriétaire est [à] moitié fou” [This card shows a chalet or rather a fortress. It appears very curious, the owner is a bit fanciful] (Private collection Bert Becker) 277 Fig. 5.6 The Grand Hotel du Commerce in Haiphong, c. 1900 (Private collection Bert Becker) 279 Fig. 5.7 French postcard showing Chinese women and merchants in Haiphong, c. 1900 (Private collection Bert Becker) 282 Fig. 5.8 The Haiphong office of Speidel & Company, located at the corner of Boulevard Paul Bert and Boulevard Amiral Courbet, c. 1900 (Private collection Bert Becker) 285 Fig. 5.9 Max Leopold (1858–1930), partner of Speidel & Company, in Haiphong, c. 1910 (Courtesy of Eduard Leopold, Coburg) 287 Fig. 5.10 Letter of Marty et d’Abbadie, Haiphong, dated 2 February 1898 (Private collection Bert Becker) 295 Fig. 5.11 River Paddle Steamers of Marty et d’Abbadie, Haiphong, c. 1910 (Private collection Bert Becker) 299 Fig. 5.12 The Haiphong head office of the Subsidised River Shipping Service of Tonkin (Marty et d’Abbadie), c. 1900 (Private collection Bert Becker) 302 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv

Fig. 5.13 Édouard Jules d’Abbadie, c. 1895 (ANOM, Aix-en-Provence: Haiphong illustré: Supplément au Millième Numéro du Journal: Le Courrier d’Haiphong, 24 December 1895—all rights reserved) 323 Fig. 5.14 Steamship Hue of the Tonkin Shipping Company, c. 1910 (ANOM, Aix-en-Provence, INDO-GGI-1868—all rights reserved) 331 Fig. 6.1 Detail of a map of south China, showing the northern shore of the South China Sea, with Guangzhouwan [“Kwang-chow B. (Fr.)” on the map] situated between Hong Kong and Haiphong, early twentieth century (The Hundred and Twentieth Report of the London Missionary Society, 1915.) 399 Fig. 6.2 Guangzhouwan [spelt on the postcard as Quang-Tchéou-Wan, one of many variations of the French territory’s name in different languages]: Administrative Building in Fort Bayard, the administrative centre of Guangzhouwan, c. 1910 (Private collection Bert Becker.) 411