Abstract: Existing studies on the early modern Chinese industry and commerce have pointed out the correlation between industrial organizations and traditional social order, but have not fully explored the way as well as the mechanism of the relationship. This paper takes the mining affairs in Hubei in the 1870s as an example and examines one local resistance incident and the handling strategy of Li Hongzhang and Sheng Xuanhuai. The phenomenon of local resistance reflected the tension between the localized political and social order and the demands of the development of modern mining, and therefore its solution to the problem also lay in the local governance structure of the late Qing Dynasty. Through the strategy of "looking for supporters" and "profit sharing", the tension was subsided and the local resistance was mitigated to some extent. Both policies followed the logic of "pacification" governance theory formed with the development of China's traditional governance structure. By pacifying the local resistance, the Mining Bureau was able to come into existence and eventual became embedded in the governance structure of Hubei. The Bureau also presented the characteristic of localism, an important feature of Chinese early industrial organizations, which subsequently developed into a more complex form in the late stage of Chinese industrial organization and system. This "local" perspective enables us to better understand China's modern social transformation and industrial development.

Key words: governance structure, modern chinese industry, localism, social trans-formation, late Qing Dynasty