The Empire's Turmoil: The Truth Behind the Late Qing Financial Storm

Empire in Turmoil: The Truth Behind the Late Qing Financial Storms tells how, in 1872, the Great Qing launched an extravagant campaign of reform and opening up. Cixi, Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai, Tang Tingshu, Ito Hirobumi, Hoover... one after another, these influential figures took the stage in grand style, joining together to perform the final elegy of the Aisin Gioro dynasty. Behind this tragic elegy from a century ago, who was driving the Great Qing's reform and opening up? Who was manipulating its fledgling stock market? As the Great Qing struggled to revive itself amid storm and turmoil, who orchestrated one financial storm after another? And who manipulated capital to bury the dynasty? Behind the strange web of espionage, who was choking off the Great Qing's reforms and opening up? And who extinguished its last hope? Was it her? Him? Him? Or him?

Empire in Turmoil: The Truth Behind the Late Qing Financial Storms recreates the capital markets of the late Qing dynasty from 1872 to 1911, like a mirror reflecting how uncannily past and present may resemble each other. Chinese bureaucrats and capitalists, shareholding reforms, insider trading, financial fraud, and the loss of public trust in the state all help us trace the origins of today's Chinese capital markets. How has the invisible hand of financial capital been at work? By the end of the book, you will see that the lessons paid for by the Great Qing Empire and its financial turmoil offer a warning for today.