Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/290



HE Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service is the only department of the Chinese government that is organised on Western lines, and produces any statistical returns. It therefore forms the chief security which China has to offer when seeking to negotiate a loan. The magnitude of its operations may be gauged from the fact that its revenue during 1907 amounted to upwards of five millions sterling, and that it afforded employment to some thirteen thousand foreigners and natives.

The origin of the Customs may really be traced back to the Treaty of Nanking, between Great Britain and China, in 1842. Prior to that date the foreign trade of China was conducted through the medium of the co-hong, a corporate body of Chinese merchants who were given an absolute monopoly of all dealings with foreigners, and were held responsible for their debts and good behaviour. Under this system the foreign merchant was obliged to submit to many exactions in order to satisfy the cupidity of the members of the co-hong, who, in turn, had to pay heavily to the Chinese officers from whom they received their privileges. It was these exactions, and the injustices generally imposed upon foreigners in the prosecution of trade, that led to the series of warlike operations that Great Britain waged against the Chinese. Upon the conclusion of hostilities the Chinese undertook, by the Treaty of Nanking, to open five ports to foreign trade and establish at them "a fair and reasonable tariff of export and import customs and other dues." It was further provided under the same instrument that "when British merchandise shall have once paid at any of the said ports the regulated customs and dues, agreeable to the tariff to be hereafter fixed, such merchandise may be conveyed by Chinese merchants to any province or city in the interior of the Empire of China on paying a further amount as transit duties." This amount was to be a certain percentage ad valorem.

It was not, however, until the Chinese Customs House in the native city of Shanghai was closed, owing to the occupation of the city by the Taeping rebels, that the Foreign Customs were established. An arrangement was then come to under which the foreign merchants declared to their consuls the nature of the merchandise imported and exported, and deposited at the consulates bonds for the duty leviable thereon, which was on a moderate 5 per cent. basis. These responsibilities soon became irksome to the consuls, and an agreement was entered into on June 29, 1854, between the Shanghai Taoutai, Wu Kien Chang, who was a refugee in the foreign concession, and the British, French, and American Consuls, under which it was decided to introduce a foreign element into the Customs House establishment. The object of this innovation was to remove the difficulty which had been experienced by the Superintendent of Customs in obtaining "officials with the necessary qualifications as to probity, vigilance, and knowledge of foreign languages required for the enforcement of a close observance of treaty and customs-house regulations." Following upon this a board of three foreign inspectors was constituted, composed of Captain (afterwards Sir) Thomas F. Wade, Mr. Arthur Smith, and Mr. L. Carr, who represented the British, French, and American communities respectively. Captain Wade was the only one who had any knowledge of the Chinese language, or any aptitude for the duties of the position, and upon his shoulders fell the chief burden of organising the new office. Upon his resignation a year later to take up the appointment of Chinese Secretary of Legation at Peking, his place was filled by Mr. Horatio Nelson Lay, who was equally well equipped for the duties of the office, and who, like his predecessor, was practically in control.

Apparently the new authority discharged its duties with greater diligence than the Chinese had done, for upon the arrival in Shanghai of the American Minister, Mr. Peter Parker, in August, 1856, the American merchants presented a memorial to him, in which they asked for a return to the old order of things. They pleaded that under the new institution, which was not intended to be permanent, they were placed at "great disadvantage in comparison with other ports," adding: "Customs-house business in China under Chinese supervision is conducted with a facility which greatly aids in the dispatch of business and the ready lading of ships when haste is of importance, while, with the minute and in some cases vexatious regulations established by the inspectors, this advantage disappears, and this, in itself, is no small item in the account against us." In these circumstances "the expediency and justice of abolishing the present system" was urged.

Due consideration was accorded to this representation, but the result was not quite what those who framed it anticipated. Instead of reverting to the old régime, it was decided to establish stricter control over other ports open to foreign trade. Under the Rules of Trade drawn up in November, 1858, by the Tariff Commission, as one outcome of the Treaty of Tientsin, it was agreed that one uniform system for the collection of duties should be enforced at every port, and to this end it was provided that the high officer appointed by the Chinese Government to superintend foreign trade should, from time to time, either himself visit, or send a deputy to visit, the different ports. He was empowered to select any British, French, or American subject to aid him "in the administration of the customs revenue; in the prevention of smuggling; in the definition of port boundaries; or in discharging the duties of harbour-master; also, in the distribution of lights, buoys, beacons, and the like, the maintenance of which shall be provided out of the tonnage dues." Under this article Mr. Lay was appointed Inspector-General of Customs, and when in June, 1861, he returned to England on leave, Customs Houses had been opened in seven different ports. While in England Mr. Lay was commissioned to procure a fleet of gunboats for the repression of rebellion and piracy, and the demand which he and his commander, Captain Sherard Osborne, made, that this fleet should be directly and solely under the orders of the central and not provincial authorities, brought his rule to an end. The ships were sold, and Mr. Lay was "permitted to resign."

It was then that Mr. Robert Hart, who during Mr. Lay's absence had discharged the duties of Acting Inspector-General in conjunction with Mr. Fitzroy, received the substantive appointment on November 30, 1863. In May of the following year the Inspectorate-General was transferred from Shanghai to Peking, where it has since remained.

The task with which Mr. Robert Hart was confronted on taking office was one of considerable difficulty. He had to centralise the work, which had hitherto been carried on independently at the different ports by each commissioner, acting conjointly with a Chinese superintendent, and to reconcile the Imperial Government to a uniform system of administration which, though designed to promote its interests, was distinctly alien. Among the questions to be decided were the regulation of the