摘要
19世纪末,中国在市政建设方面与西方的都市比较相去甚远。随着欧风美雨对中国的影响,作为清王朝首都的北京迈出了市政近代化的步伐,比较有代表性的就是京师自来水公司的建立。
近代北京的城市人口激增,而北京是一个缺水城市,人们用水主要依靠水井。而由于历史地理因素和人类活动的影响,北京的地下水水质很差,加上水井数量有限,采水技术落后,远远不能满足近代居民日常生活用水、商业消费用水和消防卫生用水,水资源短缺一直困扰着人民的生活、城市的发展。20世纪初,在人们的呼吁下,清政府成立了官督商办性质的京师自来水公司。自来水公司在周学熙等人的精心筹备下,克服了种种困难,仅用22个月的时间就完成了创建工作,于1910年2月开始向北京城市供水。
从京师自来水公司的招股章程中,可以看出清末颁布的《公司律》对自来水公司的影响。官督商办的性质,也为公司的发展提供了一定的保护作用。为了吸引投资,自来水公司采取了当时较为流行的官利制度,但是,自来水公司又做了一定的变通,使之更趋于合理化。自来水公司在清末民初的经营发展过程中,采取多种销售方式,还利用白话文广告的形式进行促销,使得自来水这一新生事物很快被人民所接受。但是由于公司的不完善,也出现了一些问题,如对水质化验不重视遭到了人们的批评,强制用户安设水表而导致与用户的冲突。
京师自来水公司的顺利创建和发展,很大程度上归功于袁世凯、周学熙和王锡彤三个人的作用。袁世凯的大力支持、周学熙的苦心经营和王锡彤的高超管理形成了良性互动,加上人们随着观念进步而对自来水的接受,使自来水公司在清末民初动荡的社会环境中得以迅速发展,即使是这样,自来水公司在清末民初的发展规模还是十分有限的。相比之下,其它市政建设如电车、汽车和公园发展更是困难重重,举步维艰。
In the 19th century, China fell quite far away from the West in municipal construction. But under the influence of Europe and America, Beijing, the capital city of the Qing dynasty, also took steps in modernization of the municipal works, the representative of which is the establishment of the imperial water company.
Beijing's population was on the upsurge in modern times and Beijing was faced with insufficient water supply. Residents mainly depended upon wells to get water. Due to historical and geographical conditions and human activities, the ground water was very poor in quality, which, together with the limited number of wells and the backward technology in water production, resulted in the incapability of meeting the needs of daily life, commercial and firefighting water consumption of modern residents. The lack of water resources had been bothering people's life and city development. At the beginning of 20th century, the Qing government founded the commercial imperial water company under official supervision due to mass appeal. Under the careful preparation of Zhou Xuexi, this water company, overcoming various hardships, completed the establishment works in just 22 months and began water supply for Beijing in February, 1910.
The influence of the Company Law promulgated in the last years of the Qing dynasty on the water company can be seen from this company's regulations in raising capital by floating shares. Being commercial and under official supervision protected it's development, the company followed the popular official benefit system to attract investment. In the
meanwhile, it offered certain flexibilities which made the system more reasonable. During its management and development in the transitional period from the Qing dynasty to the Republic of China, it made use of many sale methods and promoted its products through advertisements written in the vernacular, all of which made people accept tap water, this newly emerging thing very quickly. But there also appeared some problems due to unsoundness, such as lack of emphasis on water quality test resulting in mass criticism, and clashes with end-users dissatisfied with forcing them to install water meter.
The company, on a large part, owed it's smooth establishment and development to Yuan Shikai, Zhou Xuexi and Wang Xitong. Yuan's great encouragement, Zhou's painstaking running and Wang's wise management interacted with each other benignly. What's more, people accepted tap water with the concept progressing. These ensured the rapid development of the company under the unstable social conditions of the final stage of the Qing dynasty. Even so, it was very limited, let alone the development of other municipal works, such as trolleys > buses and recreational parks.
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