Question on Republic of China

[SWH]

My question on the Japanese occupation of China being answered so quickly, here's another one that's been puzzling me for a while:

The Republic of China after 1912 controlled only parts of the country - other parts being controlled by warlords that were not subdued until the mid 1920's. Was there any kind of postal service in the parts of China not controlled by the Republic? And if so what stamps would have been used? 

[khj]

Jul 4, 2015 1:34:49 GMT -5 SWH said:

My question on the Japanese occupation of China being answered so quickly

Keep in mind that I gave a generalized reply. I left out a lot of details. For those, you have to dig into some of the postal history books and historical documents -- which I don't have, although bits and pieces can be found online with diligent searching. It is a lot of rules/regulations reading and you pretty much have to rely on translations/reports if you aren't fluent in Asian languages.

Jul 4, 2015 1:34:49 GMT -5 SWH said:

The Republic of China after 1912 controlled only parts of the country - other parts being controlled by warlords that were not subdued until the mid 1920's. Was there any kind of postal service in the parts of China not controlled by the Republic? And if so what stamps would have been used?

Warlord Era, what a mess. Almost as bad as my stamp room. I don't know the answer to this question. During the revolution, the Manchus and the Nationalists had an agreement regarding the neutrality of the post offices. This allowed the postal service to function with less interference.

I pretty much assumed that the Central Government had agreements (possibly informal) with the warlords as well, but don't hold me to that. Maybe one of the postal history books addresses this. I've not seen any evidence of warlord issued local/provisional stamps, but I don't have that much exposure to this. Certainly nothing documented that I've seen or comparable to the very early Communist issues of 1930.

It would appear to me that they were more concerned about theft and locally depressed currency. This is why you see a large number of restricted use provincial overprints in the 1920s. You know there are some collectors who actually enjoy going through and sorting all those overprints and surcharges!?!

Sorry I can't give you more concrete information.

[SWH]

Jul 4, 2015 2:28:26 GMT -5 khj said:

Keep in mind that I gave a generalized reply. I left out a lot of details.  

That's fine khj. I use his for the country profiles on my site. In those I try to provide an overview aimed at the worldwide collector, not the specialist.

As far as the warlord era is concerned: I guess I'll just have to be patient. Maybe another member will come up with the answers. Thanks anyway for addressing the issue. I can at least rest assured that I'm not the only one to be confused about it. 

[zepherusbane]

Your question is very interesting to me as I hadn't thought about that potential issue with the warlords. I enjoy the history around the stamps I collect too, but I am still very new to learning about a lot of it. China is one area that although I did start collecting, I hadn't done any research in yet.