People · French consul-general
M. Gaudeaux
葛笃Gědǔ · b. 1833
French consul-general in Shanghai 1872–79, in office during the first Siming Gongsuo incident of 1874.
M. Gaudeaux (葛笃, Gědǔ) was French consul-general in Shanghai from 1872 to 1879, a long term that covered the first Siming Gongsuo incident. The gazetteer does not give his first name or his death date.
His career began as a trainee consul in 1852 and took him through London, Zanzibar, Hong Kong and New Orleans before Shanghai. In the city he agreed with the Chinese daotai Shen Bingcheng (沈秉成, Shěn Bǐngchéng) on a ban on women waiters in the opium houses of the French Concession. On 3 May 1874, in the first Siming Gongsuo incident, Westerners shot and wounded or killed seven Chinese. No French troops were in Shanghai, so he asked American sailors to guard the consulate. The Qing government paid France 37,650 taels in compensation, and he set aside 7,000 for the victims.
The gazetteer adds that he argued for joining the French Concession with the British and American settlements.
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Shen Bingcheng沈秉成Agreed with Shanghai daotai Shen Bingcheng to bar women waiters from French Concession opium houses