Professor Carles Brasó Broggi (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

China Engineers, Ltd. (信昌機器工程公司) was a hybrid company founded in 1928 by the Eurasian entrepreneur William Charles Gomersall (1895 – 1960). It was registered according to the Hong Kong ordinances, but its main economic activity took place in its branch office in Shanghai. Besides being major shareholder, Gomersall was elected director for life, while the company mixed Chinese and British partners. Between 1928 and 1936, China Engineers became an important provider of textile machinery to Chinese industrialists, who thrived in Shanghai and the surrounding cities. However, when the war against Japan clashed in July 1937, the industrial machinery trade reached a standstill and China Engineers had to look for alternative activities to survive. This is a part of a book project about the business history of China Engineers, from 1928 to 1972. It will deal with the wartime period and profit from the archives found in Shanghai and Hong Kong as well as the private diary of William Charles Gomersall. The long war strengthened the ties between the company and the Chinese entrepreneurs from one side, and the British government from the other, facilitating transfers of capital and machinery between Shanghai and Hong Kong, especially in the postwar period.