Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Michie, Alexander
MICHIE, ALEXANDER (1833–1902), writer on China, born at Earlsferry, Fifeshire, on 1 March 1833, was only son of Alexander Michie, a weaver, by his wife Ann Laing. On his father's death his mother married again, and Robert Thin, M.D. Edinburgh (d. at Shanghai in 1867), and George Thin, M.D.Edinburgh, of London, were Michie's stepbrothers. Educated for commercial life at Kilconquhar school, Michie was for some time a bank assistant at Cohnsburgh; but in 1853 he left England to join Lindsay and Co., merchants, at Hong-Kong. Encouraged to depend largely on his own judgment in his work for the firm, he was allowed by tradition to trade independently and for his own profit. Michie made rapid progress, and in 1857 became a partner of his firm and its representative at Shanghai. Subsequently he transferred his services successively to Chapman, King and Co., to Dyce, Nichol and Co., in which he obtained a partnership, and finally to the leading Chinese firm, Jardine, Matheson and Co. He was meanwhile a prominent member of the Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai, and was for some years chairman.
Michie was active in acquiring information likely to be serviceable to British commerce. After the drafting of the treaty of Tientsin, ratified in 1860, which proposed to open new parts in the north, Michie in the spring of 1859 engaged in a secret trading expedition to the Gulf of Pechili, and was one of the first European traders to gain direct knowledge of Wei-hai-Wei, Chefoo, Newchang, and other places on that then unknown coast. In 1861 he helped Sir James Hope [q. v.] in his negotiations with the Taiping rebels. He went up the River Yangtze with the expedition which was to protect British trade, and at Nanking, Michie, with Lieutenant-colonel (afterwards Lord) Wolseley and J. P. Hughes, vice-consul designate of Kiu-Kiang, was allowed to land, and the three remained for some weeks as the voluntary guests of the rebels, as to whose strength and intentions they acquired useful information.
In 1863 Michie returned temporarily to England by the unusual route of Siberia. He described in the 'Journal of the Geographical Society' his journey between Tientsin and Mukden, and in 1864 published 'The Siberian Overland Route,' a description of the whole journey from Peking to St. Petersburg.
In 1869 Michie, on behalf of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, accompanied Mr. Swinhoe, consul of Taiwan, on an expedition into the interior. A revision of the Treaty of Tientsin was contemplated, and Michie and his companion undertook to study the conditions of trade in the districts likely to be affected. After passing through the canal district of the Yangtze valley, he explored Szechuan and made a report of permanent value.
In 1883 Michie settled at Tientsin, where he not only carried on his private business but acted as correspondent of 'The Times.' For some years too he edited the 'Chinese Times,' published at Tientsin, and wrote occasionally for 'Blackwood,' 'Leitner,' and other magazines. In 1895 he was 'The Times' special correspondent during the Chino-Japanese war. Subsequently he left China for England, only returning in 1901 in order to visit his daughter, who with her husband had been shut up in the legations at Peking. He died on 8 Aug. 1902 at the Hotel Cecil, London, and was buried at Highgate cemetery.
In 'The Englishman in China' (2 vole. 1900) Michie supplied a clear and comprehensive account of European relations with China through the Victorian era. The central figure of the narrative is Sir Rutherford Alcock [q. v.]. Michie's criticisms of English diplomacy and English officials are the fruit of personal observation and first-hand knowledge. He also published 'Missionaries in China' (1891) and 'China and Christianity' (1900).
Michie married on 16 Dec. 1806 Ann, daughter of Charles Morley Robinson of Forest House, Leytonstone, Essex. He had issue one daughter and one son, Alexander, an official in the Chinese customs service.
[The Times, 12 Aug. 1902; Geog. Journ. x. xvii. and xx.; Stanley Lane Poole, Life of Sir Harry Parkes, 1894; Sir Henry Keppel, A Sailor's Life under Four Sovereigns, 1899; private information.]