十九、二十世紀之交，美國工礦企業界對於中國的實業發展有相當高的投資興趣，例如修築鐵路、開礦、架設電報、電力設施和港口擴建的投資等等。這些實業投資多肇始於清末，而於民國初年有更大的投資熱潮。此外，這些技術工程的引進，提供了中國實業建設改良的一個機會，同時也培養出一批中國工程師，在中國的現代化進程中，深具意義。然迄今為止，對於民初美國在華實業投資的相關研究，仍有所不足。本文探討民國初年美國顧問工程公司所參與的兩個公共工程的個案：黃河鐵橋招標案與廣州大港計畫。位於京漢鐵路的黃河鐵橋，其挑戰造橋工程中如何抗拒河川激流和流砂沖刷等技術專業，工程相當艱鉅；而廣州港的改良與擴建則是孫中山（ 1866-1925）「實業計畫」的建國藍圖之一，即所謂的「南方大港」。不同於大型財團所參與的鐵路工程案，本文討論的個案，是由一群專業工程師所組成的顧問工程公司，參與規模較小但需專業技術的公共工程案，且這兩個案子均以失敗告終。本文運用中英文檔案，試圖探討以下問題：這兩個個案的交涉過程與結果，究竟反映了美國企業在中國的公共工程投資中所遭遇的何種困境？在民初政局動盪及南北分裂的情勢中，美國公司的投資交涉與政府政治間呈現怎樣的互動關係？其對中國實業建設的進程又具何種意義？

At the turn of the twentieth century, American industrial entrepreneurs took great interest in China’s industrialization. They invested in the areas of railways, minerals, telegraph, electric power, harbor works and so on. These investments started in the late Qing and reached high points when China entered the Republican era. The technological introduction of these industrial developments provided opportunities to transform China and played important roles in training Chinese professional engineers. The existing studies are far from sufficient.This article focuses on two American engineering corporations’ projects in China: (1) the bid for building the Yellow River Bridge for the Peking-Hankow railway (a very challenging project given the river had strong and swift water flow and drift sand), and (2) the project for the improvement of Canton Harbor, the so-called “The International Harbor in South China.” Sun Yen-sen’s Shiye Jihua（實業計畫） emphasized the role of the second project in China’s national development. Unlike other cases of multi-national enterprise or the American consortium involving in China’s railway or other big investments for profits, a small group of American engineers played key roles in the above-mentioned two cases. These American engineers were highly confident of their skills to deal with challenging engineering works. However, both cases in China eventually did not bear fruit. By analyzing the two cases, I try to examine the difficult circumstances that American engineering companies encountered in China and their links with U.S. government. I will also explain the significance of the two failed cases in Chinese industrial modernization.