Chapter 4 Taibao Hurd

In January 1869, the imperial court announced that a bearded British man would be rewarded with the title of chief envoy from the second rank. The "chief envoy" was equivalent to the later "executive deputy governor". Something new that happened.This man named Robert Hart (Robert Hart 1835-1911) served as the General Taxation Department of the Qing Customs—the Director of the General Administration of Customs for 48 years. After his death, he was posthumously awarded the title of Prince Taibao. It is the highest honor that a minister can receive.Taibao Hurd is a very peculiar figure in the modern economic history of China.

The customs of the Qing Empire was an institution that was forced out.Since the Ming Dynasty, the central government has implemented a closed-door policy of "not a piece of wood can go to sea", so there is no need for customs, and there is not much taxation for foreign trade. (The name "customs" has appeared long ago. In the administrative system of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there has always been a yamen called "Shibosi". In 1757, Qianlong issued an edict that "the port is set in Guangdong, and foreign ships are not allowed to go to Zhejiang Province." From then on, the policy of "one-port trade" was established. purpose, so the functions of those customs are very different from those of the future customs, and they are not the same.) After the Opium War, with the opening of treaty ports, it was necessary to set up checkpoints. In the "Articles of Association, Adhesion and Rehabilitation of Foreign Trade", the British proposed that they should manage "businessmen who come and go, and impose constraints", and the taxes collected will be used to pay war reparations. The court officials agreed as soon as they heard it. Money, received and then paid, seems to be a business that does not damage the empire, so there is a system for foreigners to manage China's customs. In 1846, a large courtyard surrounded by cast iron fences appeared on the Bund of Shanghai (now Hankou Road on the Bund), and a Chinese-style archway was built at the entrance, with the words "Jianghai Beiguan" on it, which was specially used to handle import and export taxes for foreign businessmen. . In 1858, the imperial court set up a second customs office in Guangzhou.

Hurd was the second Chief of Customs and Excise.He came to China at the age of 19, first worked as an interpreter in the Ningbo and Guangzhou consulates, and was later hired as the deputy tax department of Guangzhou Xinguan.He spoke fluent Chinese, was self-controlled and tactful, and was familiar with official etiquette and the habits of Chinese scholar-bureaucrats, so he was praised by ministers. He was very close to the most important Manchu ministers at that time, Prince Gong Yixin and Wen Xiang. , especially the relationship with the latter was like a close friend. In 1863, at the age of 28, Hurd was appointed as the General Taxation Secretary, and he worked in this position for 48 long years.

With the expansion of foreign trade, the originally inconspicuous customs has become one of the most important economic institutions and financial sources of the empire in less than two decades. There are 14 customs offices, covering almost all important trading cities, employing 400 foreigners and about 1,000 Chinese. It is already a very large administrative department.Customs revenue reached 4.96 million taels in 1861, 11.21 million taels in 1871, and 30 million taels in 1902. It was the most stable and reliable source of revenue for the central government.In the first five years after the establishment of the customs, the customs repaid the 16 million taels of British and French compensation stipulated in the "Beijing Treaty" for the Qing government.During the war in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the customs paid a huge amount of financial support for the imperial court. Hurd even personally participated in the battle of conquering Changzhou. He rode side by side with Li Hongzhang on a high slope and witnessed Gordon's "ever victorious army" attacking the city Door.

The customs is nominally under the jurisdiction of the Zongli Yamen, but in fact, everything from personnel to operation management is in the hands of foreigners.The fall of customs sovereignty is the most prominent proof of the incompetence of the Qing government, and it is also a shameful record of a sovereign country.But ironically, in the decadent and corrupt administrative system of the late Qing Dynasty, the customs managed by Hurd was also the most orderly and efficient institution.He introduced a whole set of British administrative management experience, no matter the administrative organization, personnel management or tax collection regulations are placed in a strict and unified management system, the customs financial system is formulated by officials of the British Ministry of Finance. Fraud rarely occurs.The executives of various departments generally have a relatively high level of education, and some have a doctorate or a master's degree.The salaries of officials in the Qing Dynasty were very low, and the main income was obtained from the people by abusing their powers. As a result, numerous bad habits in the officialdom were formed. The customs implemented the western civil servant salary system, and the treatment was very high, but they could not charge extra fees.

Economist Yang Xiaokai commented in "Notes on China's Economic History in the Hundred Years", "Many historical books in the past allege that the evidence of the Qing Dynasty's betrayal of the country was the transfer of customs rights to outsiders. The British Hurd managed, but he was an employee of the Qing government, exercising his powers. His management not only made the Chinese customs rapidly modernized, but also made the customs the most efficient and least corrupt Qing bureaucracy. He guaranteed the treaty system The restriction on the tariff rate thus promoted free trade and fair taxation, and he also ensured that the Qing government provided a large amount of tax revenue with efficient management and systems." Liu Guangjing, a Chinese-American scholar who participated in the editor-in-chief of "Cambridge History of China" agrees Similar to Yang Xiaokai, he believes: "Hard's greatest contribution to managing the customs is to promote the development of Chinese commerce and prevent corrupt officials from disrupting the customs under the corrupt system of the Qing Dynasty."

For nearly half a century, Hurd has always been a swinging "middleman". Make suggestions for the revival of the Qing Empire. As an "official" of the Qing government, Hurd also had his own opinions on the reform of the imperial court. In 1865, two years after he became the chief tax officer, he submitted a report called "On the Outsider". As a "bystander", he put forward a series of reform proposals, including rectifying land, salt At the same time, he analyzed the international environment faced by the Qing government, put forward suggestions such as dispatching diplomatic personnel, and proposed to accelerate the adoption of new western technologies such as railways, telegraphs, and machine mining. .Looking at it in the future, this is a very farsighted report. Except that it did not propose a constitutional monarchy, it covered almost all the reform contents of the Westernization Movement and the Reform Movement of 1898.On the one hand, the Prime Minister’s Office believed that the foreigner was suspected of “slightly insulting” the dynasty, but at the same time, he also admitted that “all the pros and cons of domestic and foreign affairs reported are insignificant.” Prince Gong also forwarded his report to the governors of various places, Let them "careful planning, not a little careless, is the most important."

In the following decades, Hurd wrote reform plans many times, and his worry and helplessness about the future of China can often be seen in Hurd's diary that has been preserved to this day. In 1883, he wrote in his diary, "I am not like Did I worry about China so much in the past because I was insensitive? Anyway, this unkillable dragon will withstand everything.” In 1902, after the "Gengzi National Change", the exiled Empress Dowager Cixi returned to Beijing and bowed her knees to the foreign powers. This made Hurd a little bit uncomfortable. He said, "The imperial court has gone too far in terms of etiquette. The Empress Dowager not only To meet the ministers' wives, and also to meet the children of the embassies."

In addition to controlling tariffs, Hurd has extended his hand to many other business areas related to China's sovereignty. In 1896, he was allowed to handle postal business by the customs. By 1903, there were 33 general post offices and 309 sub-offices under his jurisdiction. All provincial cities in the country except Lanzhou had postal routes, which became the embryonic form of China's postal system.In addition, the customs is also in charge of sea affairs, port affairs, quarantine, water diversion, meteorology and other affairs, and even handles patent, copyright and trademark registration and so on.Under Hurd, Customs became an institution of immense importance and astonishing scope.By 1906, the expansion of the customs finally aroused the vigilance of Chinese officials. Under the repeated criticism of the ministers, the imperial court ordered the establishment of an independent tax office and began to gradually reduce the special rights of the customs.Although Hurd was still respected enough in his later years, his power was clearly shrinking.However, the Qing government did not regain its customs autonomy until its demise. Even in the first ten years of the Republic of China, the extraterritorial structure of the customs remained unchanged.It was not until the establishment of the Nanjing government in 1928 that the customs tax collection and custody rights were taken back through difficult negotiations.However, until 1949, the post of General Excise Department of Customs and Excise was still filled by British or American.

Hurd left China in 1908, but his title of General Taxation Secretary has been retained.He lived in China for 54 years, which was almost the last struggling time of the Qing Empire.He seemed to have difficulty distinguishing whether he was Chinese or British. On September 14, 1911, he wrote to his successor Anglian, "My health has been very bad, and I am getting weaker and weaker. Worried about not being able to go back to China again... Chinese people are very kind, big-hearted, and work well together, don't rush them, but take it step by step, you will feel that it is easy to move forward, and the goal can be reached in the end ” Six days later, he died, and twenty days later, the Revolution of 1911 broke out in Wuchang.

The 77-year-old Hurd finally did not see the demise of the empire he had served for half a century. This may be the last reward for him from heaven.