February 8, 2000

Dr. Buzzanco

Thomas J. McCormick. China Market: America’s Quest for Informal Empire 1893-1901. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1967. 241 pp. plus Biblio, Notes and Index.

Thomas McCormick's China Market: America’s Quest for Informal Empire 1893-1901 systematically reconstructs and analyzes the process of American economic expansion and policy formation in China during the presidential administrations of Grover Cleveland and William McKinley. McCormick's thesis states late 1890's American foreign policy focused on developing Pacific markets and the sophisticated dynamic of great power rivalry in that region. Diverse factors such as the partitioning of China, war, insular imperialism, the Open Door Policy, the Boxer rebellion and its pacification defined this framework. The author also contends that America's "power elite" (i.e. the government decision-makers, the business community and the emerging national media) jointly formulated and governed this policy. McCormick rests his thesis in the idea that these elements shaped American foreign policy into a practical alternative to European imperialism and isolationism.

According to McCormick, the elite's drive for foreign policy originated from the economic and social crises of the post-Civil War era. Various economic downturns and panics (including the worst depression of the century—the Panic of 1873), the rise of Populism in southern and western farm regions, socialism and radicalism in the emerging labor movements, numerous strikes amongst steelworkers, textile workers, coal miners and railway workers, rising unemployment and urban violence scared the power structure into exploring foreign markets to stabilize domestic markets and sedate the unruly masses. Industrial glut and overproduction also pressed the conservative elites to promote new economic frontiers abroad. Thus, the business community and their political-intellectual allies in government and the media mobilized their machinations to create a conceptual framework for foreign development.

McCormick shows that as a result of the Panic of 1893 and the "awakening of China" American commerce pushed across the Pacific in the name of laissez-faire. He states this ideology placed the burden of creating new business on the private entrepreneur based on open and liberal trade, and not the government. While the Cleveland Administration encouraged economic expansion and maintained already existing organizations for business, the primary dynamics of foreign expansion were to come from the business community. McCormick states the lack of government intervention endangered overseas commerce and shows that successful foreign expansion depended on a state sponsored relationship between the private sector and the federal government. After the failure of Cleveland's laissez-faire policy, William McKinley proved more successful as the federal government accepted the responsibility for creating economic dynamics and structure.

McCormick makes a good point about the binding relationship between American diplomacy and economic expansion. Without the support of American diplomatic efforts and military forces, expansion would have been stifled by strong and focused governments in Europe and Japan. The partition of China amongst industrialized nations in the late 1890's proved a crisis for McKinley's administration as they lacked military-commercial bases necessary to preserve equal economic access and the autonomy of China. As a result of this crisis and the success of the Spanish-American war, the federal government developed a strong military force for retention of American financial and trade interests in China and other parts of the Pacific Rim.

McCormick writes an important component of this development is the acquisition of an insular empire in the Pacific. Pacific islands along an East-West line from Hawaii to the Philippines created a network of "coaling, cable, and naval stations for an integrated trade route which could help realize America's overriding ambition in the Pacific-- the penetration and ultimate domination of the fabled China market" (107). The insular empire allowed the American government to station forces near these new markets and maintain defense of valued interests. According to the author, America's century old policy in the Philippines originated in its China policy. McCormick also states "that retention of the Philippines was no first step in an orgy of imperialism and jingoism, but simply a limited though important accouterment to commercial expansion"(122). Thus, he disputes the idea of American imperialist foreign policy, instead he attributes it to expansionist capitalism.

Further disputing the idea of American imperialism in his discussion of the Open Door policy, McCormick argues that the United States sought a third way to large-scale imperialism and anti-colonialism. This hybrid policy called for economic hegemony, informal empire and open markets. McKinley conceptualized the Open Door Policy to keep China open to all economic interests wanting that lucrative market without the difficulty of colonial monopoly, but he also created a small network of military bases to support commercial and diplomatic efforts of to quell local uprisings. McCormick supports this idea and argues that the Open Door was the most realistic policy available.

He does say that the United States arrogantly overlooked China's domestic situation as they planned their policy.

A similar revisionist interpretation to Walter LeFaber’s The New Empire, Thomas McCormick's book successfully explains the process of American expansion in the 1890's along primarily economic lines. China Market very solidly puts together the origins of 1890's diplomacy and the development of its framework for China policy. Looking at domestic economics and politics, McCormick's detailed research of the writings of businessmen, government policy makers and 1890's journalism answers the question about whom directs the machinations of American foreign policy. This process is another example of economic divisions in American society as the wealthy elite attempted to quell possible domestic revolution by focusing on new markets abroad. He attempts to show a line of continuity of some very diverse events and facts that occurred during the latter part of the 19^th century.

I found this book to be a very informative in an area where I lacked much knowledge. His writing was clear and concise and I enjoyed his systematic approach to dissecting and interpreting the events and the rhetoric of the Cleveland and McKinley eras. It was an excellent read and increased my knowledge of the field in a precise informative manner.