十九世纪六十年代,上海比较著名的十三艘华人自购的轮船,不是委托洋行代营、代理,就是委托外商经营,基本上没有自购轮船者向官府报名注册。1875年近代早期改良主义者薛福成指出:“自中外通商以来,江浙闽广诸商亦有置买轮船者,大抵皆附西商之藉,用西国之旗”。……这种怪现象,一直延续到二十世纪初仍相当普遍。中国轮船为什么要依附外国、挂外国旗呢?这是有历史原因的。 In the 1860s, Shanghai’s rather famous ship owned by thirteen Chinese people was entrusted to operate foreign merchants instead of entrusting foreign merchants and agents. Basically, no ship was registered with the government since its acquisition. Xue Fucheng, an early reformist activist in 1875, pointed out: “Since the establishment of the Sino-foreign trade talks, there have also been purchasers of ships by Fujian-Zhuzhou-based merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Most of them are borrowed from the Western merchants and used the flag of the West.” ... This strange phenomenon, which lasted until the early twentieth century, is still quite widespread. Why Chinese ships depend on foreign countries to hang foreign flags? This is a historical reason.