Chapter 84 The tax department in the sound of revolution

Amid the sound of revolution, regimes have changed their flags one by one. No matter whether they change people or not, the banner must be changed.Although it is said that the post-revolutionary regime is not uniform in what flags to fly, even the parties involved in the revolution, there are those who fly the iron-blooded eighteen-star flag, and some who fly the blue sky and white sun flag. In Shantou, Guangdong, there were also red, white, and blue tricolor flags. , more, is to fly the white flag.Later, flying the white flag represented surrender, but at that time, flying the white flag represented the recovery of the Han people.As a rule, the new regime after the restoration must accept all government agencies, not one.Otherwise, what is it called seizing power?However, there is one institution that the new regime cannot accept, and that is the Customs and Excise Department.

The tax department has money, the revolutionaries lack money.Although all localities have received a lot of silver from the local government of the Qing Dynasty, the new government after the revolution generally has to desperately expand the army. The more revolutionaries are in charge, the more powerful the army expansion will be.The most expensive cause in the world is the army, so no matter how much property the Qing government left behind, it would not be enough.Of course, the revolutionary government would be very happy if it could control an institution with a large amount of tax revenue.Therefore, the new governments in many places are trying to accept the tax department, or let the tax department take orders from them.However, the Department of Taxation did not buy it.The Taxation Department of Jianghan Customs not only rejected the Hubei Army Government’s request to replace the Customs Supervision (for example, this position is held by a Chinese, but has little power), but also clearly told the person Li Yuanhong sent to negotiate that he was not an official of the Chinese government, but only is an employee of the General Taxation Division.Some local taxation bureaus even emphasized that he is a British citizen, and with the approval of the British government, he serves in the General Taxation Department and only accepts orders from the General Taxation Department.After the Yunnan Uprising, the governor Cai E asked the local tax department to obey orders, but the tax department refused, saying that he only obeyed the orders of the general tax department.Cai E said that the Chief Taxation Department is a Chinese official, he can give orders, and so can I.The tax department replied that although the chief tax department was a Chinese official, the appointment of him required the consent of the British government.Even the local taxation departments refused to agree to the request of the revolutionaries to change the flag.The Changsha Customs guards changed the yellow dragon flag to a white flag without the approval of the Tax Department. , I can only apologize.None of the customs in liberated cities around the country hangs the flag of the revolutionary party, and most of them don't hang any flags, maintaining the so-called neutrality.Only Canton made a slight compromise. The revolutionary government in Canton told the customs that if their customs patrol boats did not fly their flag, their safety would not be guaranteed.After the liberation of Guangdong, there were too many bandit-like militias from all walks of life, which frightened foreigners, so the patrol boats of Guangzhou Customs reluctantly hoisted the white flag.The Changsha tax department also rejected the new government's request to temporarily deposit the tax money in the Bank of China, even if the new government promised that it would never be used. After a long discussion, they finally remitted it to the Hankou branch of HSBC Bank as usual.After the revolution, the Zhenjiang military government sent a new customs supervisor, but was rejected. The tax department also refused to allocate funds for the local government government that had always been apportioned by customs taxes.In the process of adhering to "neutrality", the local tax bureaus maintained close contact with foreign consulates, especially the British consulate. Obviously, this kind of neutrality was supported by the big powers.

However, the Chinese employees of this "neutral" institution were not as neutral as their bosses. When the Wuchang Uprising broke out, many customs servants and coolies went to join the army.The low-level Chinese employees of the customs in Shanghai worked harder. After the revolution, there were several incidents of theft of arms from customs warehouses. It was not petty theft, but batches of arms were transported away in batches.Even the General Tax Department knew that without the cooperation of the "insider thieves" Chinese customs staff, it would not have been possible anyway, so they quickly asked the Shanghai Tax Department to admonish the Chinese employees to either resign or stop destroying "neutrality."However, it was already too late. There was not a single munition left in Curry, and all of them had been equipped with the revolutionary army.

However, the neutral tax department is very concerned about whether it can guarantee the payment of the Boxer indemnity with customs duties and salt tax, and guarantee the guarantee of a part of the Chinese government's loan apportioned by lijin.After all, the revolution and the war will have an impact on tariffs, and the collection of lijin has not been controlled by the General Taxation Department. After the revolution, it is even more difficult to say.Under the "serious" negotiations of the local taxation departments, Zhang Jian, the industrial director and director of salt affairs of the provisional government, had no choice but to order that all localities must not use tax money without authorization, so as not to affect the payment of compensation and foreign debts.

The General Tax Department of the Qing government is a relatively unique government agency.In terms of origin, this institution, like the Zongli Yamen, was forced to be established by the Qing government.After being defeated in the Second Opium War, the Qing government was forced to abandon the inherent tributary system and establish foreign-related institutions in front of the Western powers.This institution, from the perspective of foreigners, is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but from the perspective of the Qing Dynasty itself, it is the "Prime Minister's Office of State Affairs". .Therefore, customs affairs involving foreign businessmen's trade in China must of course be taken care of.Although the Qing Dynasty also had customs in the past, they were basically concentrated in Guangzhou, and the specific affairs were also managed by merchants. The prime minister's office is all temporary, not to mention the general tax department.As a result, the temporary agencies of the temporary agencies were generously handed over to foreigners.

Of course, after it was put into operation, people found that not only was there no possibility of canceling the original temporary agency, but it was getting bigger and bigger, and the General Taxation Department was getting more and more prosperous. Big income.The General Tax Department eventually became a government agency contracted to foreigners.Due to the system, this institution has been attached to the "diplomatic institution" from the very beginning, and the longest-serving chief tax officer, Hurd, has long-term close relations with the Qing government, including personal relations with important government officials.Therefore, partly because of the system, and partly because of the individual contractors, the General Taxation Department is indistinguishable from the Prime Minister's Office, has close contacts with ministers from various countries, and frequently participates in China's foreign policy decisions and processes.When the Chinese government set up embassies in various European countries, the General Tax Department even sent its own people in to do translations to obtain first-hand information on China-foreign negotiations, acting like a spy.Conversely, the affairs of the General Taxation Department will never allow the Chinese government to intervene.The local taxation departments have a lot of contacts with foreign consuls, especially the British consuls.Due to the existence of extraterritorial rights, foreign businessmen must inform the consul of their own country when they arrive in China. Therefore, the customs must also deal with the consulate when collecting taxes.As a foreign tax secretary, out of personal preference, he also likes to maintain close contacts with consuls.

Regardless of whether it was in Li Taitai, Hurd or even the Anglian era in the late Qing Dynasty, the General Tax Department was an independent and closed system.Not only are the systems and rules foreign, but so are the personnel. Chinese people can at best be the lowest-level employees, unable to insert needles or splash water.Taxation departments in various places have close contacts with foreign consulates, but they never buy into the accounts of local governments.Because of such a large amount of income, the local government cannot get involved, and with the deepening of the Qing government's efforts to centralize power, the hands of the tax department gradually extended to the field of lijin managed by the local government by borrowing the mortgage of lijin. Therefore, the local government of the Qing government Almost all the officials expressed strong dislike and dissatisfaction with the tax department.However, they can only say nothing about this kind of institution that is double-blessed by the central government and foreign powers.Such an institution, you say it belongs to the Chinese government, but it is more interested in protecting the interests of foreign powers in China, although this interest can generally be limited to its business scope.You can say that it is an agent of the great powers, and it is indeed working for the Chinese government. If China's tariffs and salt tax were not managed by it, it would be absolutely impossible to have such efficiency and such a large amount of benefits.

In fact, no matter how unique this institution is, institutionally it is a General Administration of Customs in China.No matter from which point of view, it has no reason to be neutral, nor is it entitled to be neutral.The foreigners among them are actually not qualified to declare that they are not employees of the Chinese government, because Hurd, the chief tax officer with the longest qualification, has repeatedly emphasized that the foreign employees of the chief tax department are employees of the Chinese government.Legally, there is no doubt that this institution is a department of the Chinese government, and all employees have to obey the government. If the government changes, they have to obey the new government.However, the revolutionaries at that time could not stand up against an institution full of foreigners and in close contact with local foreign consuls.Not touching foreigners is a minefield for the revolution.It doesn’t matter if you say they are weak or the revolution is not thorough, anyway, at that time, all the revolutionaries were afraid of being regarded as Boxers by the foreign powers. It seemed that once they were viewed in this way, the legitimacy of the revolution would be lost.It is precisely because the revolutionaries respect or fear this spiritual minefield that the uniqueness of the tax department is guaranteed.