IMHO you should wait until they fix https://jira.spring.io/browse/SPR-3948
One probable way is to use depends-on attribute. But again, I don’t want to add this attribute in all the rest of the beans (this is probably the last resort for me).
Actually, you don’t need to use depends-on on EACH AND EVERY BEAN in each and every applicationContext.xml.
Use <import /> in all “lower-lvel” applicationContext.xml to import the topmost applicationContext.xml.
And use depends-on attribute in each and ever bean definition only in topmost applicationContext.xml, except the <bean /> that you wanna load first.