KIANGNAN ARSENAL

in Shanghai, major Chinese centre during the 1860s and 1870s for the manufacture of modern arms and the study of Western technical literature and Western languages. It was opened in 1865 as part of China's Self-Strengthening movement. Begun as an ironworks base, with machinery purchased from abroad, the arsenal was developed primarily by Tseng Kuo-fan and Li Hung-chang. During the 1860s and 1870s it was the most successful arsenal in East Asia and one of the greatest in the world. Westerners were initially employed to instruct the Chinese labourers in the manufacture and use of the arms. In 1868 the Kiangnan Arsenal produced the first modern Chinese steamship. Its translation bureau, directed by the Englishman John Fryer, translated 173 foreign works into Chinese. The arsenal was managed by Chinese and staffed by some 300 Chinese workmen, who were paid four to eight times better than the average farmer or coolie labourer. In the late 19th century it gradually declined in productivity, chiefly because of apathy and incompetent leadership.