The Governance Characteristics of the Earlier Enterprise in Modern China ——Exploration of the Steamship Corporation from 1873 to 1911

Analyzed from the internal governance of the earlier enterprise in modern China, the steamship corporation was in essence a joint governance mixed by “government power”and “stockholders equity”.The government interest system in the steamship corporation was a series of contracts in the process of enterprise governance, and its rights of asking for surplus were shared by shareholders and main managers, its right of controlling surplus were in the hands of senior managers and bureaucrat Li Hongzhang, who enjoyed a part of the rights of asking for surplus with Qing Government together. The managers of the steamship corporation were both officials and shareholders. All of the main facts in the steamship corporation reflected the governance charac teristics, such as the construction of production factors distribution of profits, enjoyment of rights, personnel arrangement and so on.