Sheng Xuanhuai
Kenneth Walker criticised the emphasis placed on cultural conservatism as a factor in delaying the industrialisation of China, pointing out that Sheng Xuanhuai and his fellow early industrialists were capable, accomplished businessmen who generated much profit from their operations. He considers them to have merely abided by the principle of increasing risk in calculating liquidity, capital replacement funds, short-term and long-term expectations, while their enterprises remained highly successful commercially. While these early industrialists had political ambitions as scholar-officials, and occasionally spent their funds on disaster relief, it is pointed out that so did the contemporary British factory owners. He postulated that the slow advancement of industrialisation was instead primarily due to the modern industrial efforts' size relative to the expanse of China.