Main enterprises include Steamship Investment Bureau, Kaiping Mining Bureau, Tianjin Telegraph Bureau, Shanghai Machine Weaving Layout, etc.
1. Government-supervised commercial offices appeared in the 1870s and flourished in the 1880s. It was originally founded to meet the purpose of "seeking wealth" or to solve the funding and needs of military enterprises for raw materials, fuel, transportation, etc. Funds come from privately recruited business stocks. Sometimes the government also advances money in advance to make capital, but it has to be returned gradually after the business is started.
2. The power of employment, administration and financial management of enterprises is controlled by the general office or supervisory office appointed by the Westernization Party, and ordinary businessmen have no right to interfere. Although the civilian enterprises founded by the Westernizationists and run by government officials and merchants were controlled by the bureaucracy and their development was greatly restricted, they were basically modern enterprises of a capitalist nature.
Extended information:
The ways for bureaucrats to control commercial enterprises under government supervision:
1. The first way is to use official funds to advance. Enterprises were established with official funds (such as the military industry in the Westernization Movement) to advanced with official funds. This was a transition from completely government-run to government-supervised commercial-run in terms of capital raising.
2. The second way is for Westernization bureaucrats to directly invest in these enterprises. The Steamship Merchants Bureau founded by Li Hongzhang included his private shares.
3. The third way is for the Westernization bureaucrats to use the power of the state to grant patents or business privileges, as well as preferential treatment in terms of tax exemptions, subsidies, interest rates, etc. to the enterprises they control, in order to achieve the purpose of control.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Westernization Movement
Baidu Encyclopedia - Official Supervision and Commercial Office