產權、治理結構：近代中國企業制度的歷史走向

Property Rights and the Structure of Governance: The Historical Development of the Modern Chinese Enterprise System

近年來，以「公司制度」、「股份制」為主要論題的近代中國企業制度研究已經成為中國經濟史研究的重要領域，其中，關於近代中國企業制度的歷史走向是十分值得我們考慮的一個問題。在以往的研究中，一些著述論述較多的是近代中國企業制度發展過程中所遇到的阻力，以及傳統因素對企業制度的影響等等。比較具有傾向性的意見走，近代中國的傳統因素以及近代中國社會制度的發育不完善，阻礙了近代中國企業制度的順暢發展。這裡就引出這樣一個問題，即近代中國的企業制度究竟其有怎樣的歷史走向？近代中國企業制度的演進究竟是趨向進步，趨於完善，還是弊病始終依舊，甚至是越來越嚴重？這就需要我們從近代中國比較長的歷史時期中，對其歷史走向進行一個趨勢性的分析。實際上，如果客觀地看近代中國近百年企業制度演進的歷史，不僅晚清時期從十九世紀60-70年代到二十世紀初，近代中國的企業制度已經有了相對長足的進步和變化，更不要說從晚清到中華民國的北京政府時期、南京國民政府時期，近代中國的企業制度更是有了較大的變化和進步，儘管這種變化和進步仍舊帶有較為濃厚的「本土化」特色，以及某些前進中的缺憾。本文試圖從「產權」及「治理結構」的角度，對近代中國企業制度的歷史走向進行一個大致的趨勢性論述。

In recent years, research on modem Chinese enterprise system, with emphasis upon the 'company system' and 'share system', has become an important area in the study of Chinese economic history. In particular, the historical development concerning the modem Chinese enterprise system is a question worthy of our consideration. In previous studies, some emphasize the resistant forces in the process of the development of the modem Chinese enterprise system, and the impact of traditional factors upon the enterprise system. The main opinion of these studies is that due to traditions and the unsound development of the Chinese social systems, the development of the modem Chinese enterprise system has thus been obstructed. This leads us to raise a question, that is, what kind of historical development did the Chinese enterprise system take? Was the evolution of the modem Chinese enterprise system moving towards progress and perfection, or did it become problematic, or even remained so and getting worse? Here we need to undertake a study of the historical trend of a relatively long-term duration in modern China. In fact, if one takes an objective perspective on the history of the evolution of the Chinese enterprises in the last hundred years or so, one would find that it was not only during the late Qing, from 1860s to the early twentieth century, that the Chinese enterprise system enjoyed considerable progress and transformation, but also throughout the different periods from the late Qing, to the Beiyang and Nanjing periods of republican China, even though these changes and progression still carried some local characteristics and bore some shortcomings. The paper attempts to provide a general sketch of the historical development of the modern Chinese enterprise system through the perspectives of property rights and structure of governance.