ROBERT HART IN CHINAS HISTORY HART MEETS THE PROPER TIME a traffic of goods and ideas,strategies and policies,flowed in both almost three years to mourn the death of a parent,was still an active directions.China had been invaded before and China's response to force.No one has made a count,but the ancestral temples in China the foreign aggression of Hart's day was well rooted in China's long of Chinese lineages that reverenced their ancestors probably out- history. numbered the Christian churches in Western countries.Hart's Chris- Just as Hart had his counterparts elsewhere in Queen Victoria's tian faith that found expression so often in his journal had its empire,so he had his predecessors in earlier periods of China's for- counterpart among his Chinese employers,though their faith did not eign relations.The famous exemplars are,of course,Yeh-lu Ch'u-ts'ai impel them to assume anything like the Western "white man's (1190-1244),the Sinicized Khitan Mongol who advised Genghis burden.” (Chinggis)Khan and later helped administer North China;Marco What did Hart's "modernizing"activities consist of?Did he con- Polo,the Venetian who served the Chinese Emperor Kublai(Qubilai) tribute principally by building a revenue arm of the failing dynasty? Khan from 1275 to 1292;and the Jesuit fathers Adam Schall(1591- Or by advising it on its problems of foreign relations?Did he put the 1666)and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688)who served as Chinese capstone on the treaty system that ushered China into the modern officials in the Board of Astronomy at Peking under the late Ming world?Or did he prolong the life of a moribund regime that held and early Ch'ing dynasties.There are a host of other non-Chinese China back?Such questions can best be raised here and answered at who served as officials in China under various dynasties.Their num- least tentatively in subsequent chapters. ber is already legion,but it will increase as the dynastic histories are more intensively studied.The lore concerning them is immense,a major study in itself.So Robert Hart,the British insider at the Court HART MEETS THE PROPER TIME of Peking,was only the latest in an ancient lineage-whether he knew There is a type of Chinese poem entitled "Meeting the proper it or not.? time."Specifically this refers to the scholar who has the good fortune In a similar fashion the opprobrious "unequal treaty system"that to be needed and employed by the emperor as an official,thus having the British in particular felt they had invented had its Near Eastern his talent recognized and recorded in history.The term is found most predecessors,and in the Far East was only the latest in a long series often in the poems of disappointed scholars,who lament that they did of arrangements set up to mediate contact between China and the out- not meet the proper time to figure in great events.3 The obvious and side world.The predecessor of the unequal treaties as a means of quite valid assumption is that greatness usually comes to those people managing Sino-foreign relations had been the Ming-Ch'ing tribute of talent,like F.D.R.and Churchill,whose availability happens to system that underlay the Canton trade until 1842 and in fact contin- coincide with an urgent historical need for leadership. ued to coexist with the treaties-though with increasing pallor- Plainly,young Robert Hart met the proper time.How he suc- down to 1894 (or 1908 if we count a tribute mission to Peking from ceeded H.N.Lay as Inspector General of the Chinese Imperial Mar- Nepal that year). itime Customs Service in November 1863 has been told in our first The above suggests that China's "modernization"(a catch-all term volume,Entering Chinas Service.It has presented the portions of Hart's even less precise than "imperialism")was a process influenced from journals that survived from his first decade in China after his arrival within China even more than from without.This is,of course,what in 1854.In that earlier volume our narrative chapters followed Hart's we should expect.The activities of China's modernization,after all, personal growth during his twenties as he moved into the new bicul- had to occur mainly within China and to be carried on mainly by Chi- tural environment of the treaty ports,and studied the Chinese lan- nese persons.When we call Hart a "modernizer"we are classifying guage and social customs.In particular he learned the ways of the him essentially as a reformer who was trying to play a role that many Ch'ing dynasty's Chinese and Manchu officials with whom the Brit- Chinese and others were also attempting. ish consuls and interpreters had to deal.It was during this decade Behind this reforming role lay countless examples of Confucian that Hart acquired the proficiency in Chinese that enabled him to reformism at work in China's long history.Christian righteousness become an interpreter-that special officer who mediated between was no more compelling than the moral dictates of Confucianism.Fil- the two sides,speaking to the hapless Ch'ing officials with the author- ial piety,which obliged even the highest official to leave office for itative voice of his British superiors and yet representing the Chinese 5
ROBERT HART IN CHINAS HISTORY HART MEETS THE PROPER TIME side by explaining to his uncouth countrymen the facts and consider- eigners'trade did not remain foreign but also became domestic.West- ations that confronted the emperor's servants.This was the focal ern merchants and their vessels traded from one open port to another point at which the Chinese and Western cultures and polities met and along the coast and up the Yangtze River,carrying Chinese produce clashed.Interpreting gave the two parties the verbal data that helped and Chinese-owned goods as part of their business.Some China trad- to shape their decisions.It could be a positive,creative act,depend- ers("old China hands")stayed in China for years on end,not going ing on the interpreter's intellectual grasp of the issues and interests on home until they retired. each side This semi-colonial situation had several causes.First of all,it harked By 1858 Robert Hart was interpreter for the Allied(Anglo-French) back to the expansion of the India-China opium trade in the 1820s and Commissioners who governed the ancient entrepot of Sino-Western after from outside the single open port of Canton to the whole coast of trade at Canton.There he had to deal with the proud and humiliated South China.Under the 1842-1844 treaties until 1858,the China trade puppet officials through whom the foreign invaders governed the city. was part legal (at the treaty ports)and part illegal(at the opium- Governing involved fighting against the local terrorism of the popular receiving stations offshore outside the treaty ports).In fact,the opium resistance movement that was backed by the Canton gentry with trade for the first 16 years of the treaty system was delimited by an unre- imperial encouragement.The tangled fighting and negotiating in corded smuggler-gentlemen's agreement.On the one hand,the British which the young interpreter had to function put him truly in the eye opium duopolists (Jardine and Dent)did not sell outside the estab- of the storm. lished receiving stations on the southeast coast nor did they go north of When Interpreter Hart resigned from the British service and from the Yangtze.On the other hand,the Chinese authorities,after Peking 1 July 1859 became Deputy Commissioner of Chinese Maritime Cus- had been unable to suppress by force the opium trade in foreign and toms at Canton,he remained a British citizen but became a Chinese Chinese hands,tolerated and profited from it faule de mieux.The opium civil servant.In the next four years,until his appointment as Inspec- trade was legalized by treaty in 1858. tor General on 15 November 1863,we see his career carried forward Meanwhile,enterprising Westerners had begun another invasion of by two trends of events.One was the institutionalization,after the China from Hong Kong in small craft operating under sailing letters Anglo-French invasion of 1858-1860,of the Western imperialist given out by the British superintendent of trade.Originally for small treaty system.The other was the coming to power of new leaders in craft plying the waters of the Canton-Macao-Hong Kong triangle, the Chinese government in an era of dynastic "Restoration." these sailing letters soon were not only giving the protection of the Brit- ish flag to British masters but were also providing Chinese junks with The Unequal Treaties and the Customs Service convoy protection against pirates,all the way up to Shanghai. In brief,the Ch'ing dynasty that had ruled China for two centuries The final impetus to Western invasion of China's domestic trade was unable in 1856-1860 to stem the onslaught of the Western powers' routes was the arrival of the steamship.It offered faster and more reli- new steam gunboats and cannon.To avoid being toppled by the violent able carriage of cargo,which could also be insured.The British and popular rebellions of the Taiping and other movements in South and American steam navigation companies found Chinese shippers to be Central China,the Manchu rulers at Peking,in November 1860, good customers and in plentiful supply.Soon the foreign steamers finally accepted the Anglo-French demands and confirmed the institu- were taking the carrying trade in Chinese waters away from the tional structure known as the unequal treaty system.Hart was on the guilds of junkmen,and the junk owners were in trouble. spot and became a chief agent in the elaboration of this system-for the The result was that foreign shippers and foreign goods in China's management of Sino-Western intercourse.(With gradual modifica- domestic trade gave Hart many headaches.Western traders were per- tions,the system would last until the 1940s. sistent and ingenious,especially when assisted by Cantonese or,later, How can we appreciate the complexities that Hart and his genera- Ningpo compradors.By breaking the law consistently and then claim- tion confronted in China?We must begin by noting several historical ing it was an "old custom,"they piled up one extra-treaty privilege trends and institutional features that shaped his situation.The most after another.Hart and his commissioners,being committed to facil- unusual feature of China's international contact in Hart's day,which itating trade,went along with this expansion of foreign "rights." distinguished it from that of other countries,was the fact that the for- Imperialism kept encroaching on the Middle Kingdom. 6 7
ROBERT HART IN CHINAS HISTORY HART MEETS THE PROPER TIME This encroachment was symbolized in the use of four kinds of doc- posal for a transit duty on opium was rejected by the Ch'ing govern- uments or "certificates"that we find Hart referring to in his journal. ment because opium had always caused dirty work and violence They related to transit duties,exemption certificates,drawbacks,and among its handlers.The further revenue from its taxation was left to coast-trade duties,respectively.The first,transit-duty passes or certifi- the provinces.Opium continued to make its way into China on its cates,derived from the Anglo-American traders'ardent belief in free own merits(so to speak)until the production within China took over trade.Made arrogant by victory,they applauded the treaties as curb- the market in the twentieth century.Evidently,by the 1860s,the ing the ancient predilection of Chinese officials for impeding trade by deeply entrenched opium interest that paid its way by corrupting taxation.The free flow of commerce into China (and of profit to officials in the provinces was too well established for Peking to tangle themselves)was constantly obstructed,they believed,by inland exac- with.6 tions.To limit this evil the treaties provided that transit dues were to Aside from opium,the sphere of Hart's revenue collecting kept be paid on all foreign-owned goods transported through the interior expanding.As foreign vessels began to participate in domestic inter- either as imports or for export.These transit dues were to be one-half port trade,both foreign and Chinese goods increasingly were carried the amount of the treaty-tariff import or export duties.They would in foreign bottoms accompanied by the second kind of document be collected by the Maritime Customs,whose transit-duty certificates noted above,exemption certificales.The use of exemption certificates had would free foreign imports from all domestic (or "native")tariff resulted from the Western merchants'desire to treat China as a single charges on goods in transit along the routes of domestic trade.Chi- market where foreign imports,if unsalable at one port,could be sold nese goods purchased in the interior by a foreign merchant for export at another port free of duty.Caleb Cushing in the American treaty of would similarly need to pay only a transit duty of one-half the export 1844,Article XX,had specified that imported goods on which duty duty and then be free from taxation at the native customs collection had been paid,if re-exported to another treaty port,would be ex- barriers en route to the port(where they would pay export duty on empted from a second duty payment.Originally this was done by the export). Chinese superintendent of customs,who would make a"memoran- One result was to limit the rate of taxation on foreign-owned goods dum in the port clearance"for the vessel concerned.But British con- moving through the Chinese interior,just as the treaty tariff limited suls arranged in the late 1840s to have it done by the Customs the rate of taxation at the ports.Another result was to allow enterpris- issuance of an exemption certificate.Similarly,they arranged that,if ing compradors of foreign firms to extend the reach of foreign enter- imported goods proved unsalable in China and were shipped out to prise and treaty privilege far into the Chinese hinterland.And for a foreign country,the owner could secure a duty credit or drawback cer- Hart the most immediate result was that the new Maritime Customs tificate equal to the amount paid as import duty,which could be used Service asserted its supremacy over the old native customs collector- thereafter to pay customs duties.These conveniences,like the inter- ates as the agency for taxing all foreign-owned goods moving any- port trade itself,represented the growth of treaty-port privileges. where into or within China. They damaged both the old-style collectorates and the Chinese ship- From one activity,however,the Foreign Inspectorate held rather ping interest. sedulously aloof:Under the 1858 treaty tariff,opium imports were le- Informal negotiations between the foreign ministers and the newly galized and taxed 30 taels (Tls.)per picul (approximately 133 created Tsungli Yamen led to a compromise arrangement notified to pounds;about the weight of an opium chest)by the Maritime Cus- the trading community on 30 October 1861.Exemption certificates toms at the port of entry.s From there on,taxation of this high-value, would be only for duty-paid foreign goods moving from one port to erstwhile contraband drug was to be entirely a Chinese affair.The another.All native goods arriving in foreign bottoms from another import tax of Tls.30 on each of,say,70,000 chests (the India-to- port(if the treaty export duty had been paid there)would now pay a China trade in the 1880s would reach a height of 87,000 chests)gave coast-trade duly of one-half the treaty import duty.If taken to a third Peking a very considerable revenue.Meanwhile,Chinese local port,they could enter free under a duty-paid certificate.Thus,the authorities,who had always profited from opium the most,could deal new half-tariff coast-trade duty would be parallel on the coast to the with it as they wished.As it left Shanghai,for example,they might half-tariff transit duty on inland trade. slap on a tax of Tls.50,quite within their treaty rights.Hart's pro- The new coast-trade duty,like exemption and drawback certifi- 9
HART MEETS THE PROPER TIME cates,began as a Chinese extra-treaty concession to the aggressive foreigners-another privilege granted them willingly or otherwise. But not for long.Imperialism in China progressed by using the most- favored-nation clause("anything others get hereafter,I get too).New treaties with Denmark (1863),Spain (1864),Belgium (1865),Italy (1866),and so on included as treaty law the right to ship Chinese- owned goods coastwise in foreign bottoms.?This foreign participa- tion in China's domestic carrying trade was an extraordinary privi- lege not normally granted by the nation-states of the West. The preceding account is,of course,an extraordinarily simplified picture of a situation comparable to the United States Internal Reve- nue Service income-tax system today.A smart firm in the China trade always had some staff member keeping close track of treaty pro- visions,consular notifications,and customs regulations,much like a present day tax lawyer. Overall,we must see the China of the 1860s as a vast and intricate hive of commercial activity on the fringes of which foreign firms and their compradors were nibbling away to increase their share of China's trade.Meanwhile,as the Ch'ing government struggled to reestablish its superficial control over areas ravaged by the Taiping(1850-1864) and Nien (1853-1868)Rebellions,it received much-needed and increasing revenues from its new Maritime Customs Service.But this was only one part of China's financial structure. The fact is that the Ch'ing government at Peking administered China in tandem with the provincial governments.It was a highly decentralized fiscal system,which foreigners could not imagine and tended to discount.True,the emperor exercised central power over officialdom,appointing,transferring,promoting,rewarding,and dis- ciplining the bureaucracy all over China.His political prerogatives remained unchallenged.But his centralized power coexisted with a fiscal administration that was,in the words of a late Ch'ing encyclo- pedia,as confused as "tangled silk."Provinces credited to Peking their assigned quotas of taxes but kept the above-quota tax receipts for local use,primarily to maintain the official establishment at vari- ous levels.These receipts,together with gifts,also helped line the pockets of bureaucrats."To become an official and get rich"(tso-kuan -r)was still the major motive that inspired the hard study of many thousands of degree candidates competing in the civil-service-examin- Russell Co.Buildings,Shanghai,1866 ation system. Ground floor:Chinese comprador's offices;Main foor:General business office; Peking ran the empire by assigning a multitude of revenue quotas Top foor:American clerks'quarters;On the right:Partners'residences; to meet a myriad of established needs-whether to feed Manchu gar- On the left(not shown):Godown,tea taster's,and silk inspector's offices. risons,maintain granaries,dikes and waterways,or reward virtuous 11
ROBERT HART IN CHINAS HISTORY HART MEETS THE PROPER TIME widows for not remarrying.To meet emergencies of flood,drought, eign observers he was inclined to see the struggle as one between West- rebellion,or invasion,Peking called for special expenditures from the ern "progress"and Chinese "backwardness."In building the Cus- provincial administrations,whose officials had the primary responsi- toms Service,he felt that the forces of history were on his side.Hart's bility for all events within their jurisdictions.The frequent result was modesty about his personal attainments testified not only to his own financial chaos,a situation ripe for abuse.The British solution for objectivity but also to the apparent inevitability of the "progress"that China's ills was"more power to the emperor"-but a large gap existed seemed so evident in the world throughout the Victorian age.Hart's between modern Western state theory and ancient Chinese practice. problem was not whether to help the forces of progress(now known To enlarge this gap in the 1860s came a new development,the with equal ambiguity as modernization).His problem was simply growth of the provincial tax known as likin(li-chin,lit.,"a levy of one how to do it. thousandth [of a tael]").Inaugurated after 1853 by provincial officials In this enterprise he was aided,as we have already suggested,by the fighting the Taiping rebels,likin began as a very small tax,say 1 per- long tradition of non-Chinese rulers of China employing other foreign- cent,on the value of goods in transit past a collecting point,or where ers to help them govern.One secret of the efficiency of China's imperial produced or marketed.But there soon turned out to be many collect- government had been its longstanding custom of co-opting alien chief- ing points on China's internal trade routes.Provincial likin receipts tains on the frontiers to become servants of the emperor.In the great rose quickly in the 1860s.Though Peking demanded provincial tradition of "using barbarians to control barbarians"(ii chih-i),the accounts and payments of likin revenues,the capital could never Manchu rulers of the Ch'ing dynasty knew that Hart could help them catch up with the provinces.All collectors had sticky fingers. in the distasteful task of managing foreign merchants if only he himself The reason for the rise of likin as a ready form of new revenue could be controlled.They (and he)succeeded admirably.As a loyal gives us one final clue to the Chinese puzzle that Hart confronted as Chinese official who appraised for Peking the customs duties due it Inspector General.Parallel to the growth of steamships,foreign from foreign traders,Hart gave employment to and closely supervised trade,and Maritime Customs revenues so visible to foreign eyes, several thousand Europeans(mainly British)as well as Americans who there was a vigorous growth of China's internal trade which the for- worked under his Maritime Customs service. eigners were less able to see.A long secular rise in China's domestic He did not,however,create the system.Let us pause here to exam- commerce had set in during the eighteenth century along with the ine briefly how it developed,how British administrators trapped them- doubling or more of China's population.The growing domestic mar- selves.Experience under the Canton system of trade before 1842 had ket stimulated inter-provincial and countrywide staple trade in raw led the British to want two incompatible things-the extraterritorial cotton,silk,textiles,tea,timber,salt,iron,ceramic wares,and the jurisdiction of British consuls over the person(and property)of Brit- like,as well as opium.The growth of trade guilds and native-place ish nationals in China,and at the same time a"fair and regular"tax- associations evidenced the rise of a merchant class that officialdom ation of British trade according to a published treaty tariff.In.other could no longer dominate.A public sector of economic enterprise words,no more Chinese-style justice,no more Chinese-style taxes on and community action grew up distinct from the official and private trade.The dilemma arose when the new British consuls at the first sectors of the past,and,although merchants never threatened the five open ports were given responsibility both for applying British established Chinese social order the way their counterparts did in late (and treaty)law to British persons and for applying the treaty tariff Tokugawa Japan,they did become part of a new gentry-landlord- to British goods.They soon found that in facilitating Britain's China merchant elite that played an increasingly significant role in China's trade they could usefully do the former but not the latter.After all, modernization.Provincial likin taxes,which foreign goods might they had to deal with the living institutions and practices of China, avoid by paying transit duties,were harbingers of accelerating not Utopia. changes in China's domestic environment-changes that had begun Specifically,in creating the treaty system to take the place of the before the foreign intrusion that brought Hart and the Maritime Cus- Canton system,the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 decreed that British toms to the scene.a consuls should take the place of the Security Merchants(the firms of Once aware of these trends of the 1860s,we can more easily define the licensed guild or Cohong at Canton),one of whom took respon- Hart's role,or roles,in the complex events of his time.Like other for- sibility for the proper conduct of each foreign ship.Applying this idea, 12 13