THE ANGLO-CHING PARTNERSHIP chow gentry families fleeing the Taipings in 1853-1854,had fallen after the end of the rebellion to an estimated 146,000.The foreign set- tlement experienced a period of depression after an era of enthusias- tic land speculation and profit at the expense of the large Chinese refugee population.The Chinese walled city to the south of the French Concession was estimated to have a population of 125,000 liv- ing in what foreigners routinely described as"extreme native filth and squalor."19 Shanghai in the winter of 1863-1864 was still a raw prod- uct of invasion and rebellion. 8 For Hart as Inspector General of Chinese Customs,Shanghai was as important as all of the other ports put together.While Peking had been the center of diplomacy between the Tsungli Yamen and the for- eign ministers to China,Shanghai harbored the British commercial interests (led by Jardine Matheson Co.and Dent Co.)that had helped precipitate and win the Opium War of 1839-1842.The second war of 1856-1860 and the final opening of China had heightened the merchants'sense of their role in the forefront of progress,which they saw in simplistic terms as Right backed by Might.Devotees of the Shanghai mind with its aggressive contempt for Chinese officialdom H were quick to feel hostility for the Customs Inspectorate under Hart and for its expansion to form a branch of the Chinese government at every port. Robert Hart,whose bronze statue would 60 years later be a tourist attraction on the Bund,kept a low profile in Shanghai during his first year as Inspector General.The title "I.G."as yet conveyed no aura of concentrated institutional power.Quite the contrary.In 1864, Hart was a nice,friendly young man,soft-spoken and unassuming in manner,although tenacious in his aims.He had to speak gently to 留 the Shanghai-minded,especially after the assertive Harry Parkes returned to China to be British Consul at Shanghai.(Recall that Parkes's return from England in 1856 had soon been followed by his finding a casus belli for the warfare at Canton.) An example of Hart's personal style can be found in his handling of the Heron case in late 1863.On 19 December 1863,Hart confides jD in his journal that he is perplexed because Dent Co.'s Heron ar- ranged to go on a pleasure trip without cargo,but outside the port found other boats loading cotton with local officials'permission and so did the same.The Shanghai Customs therefore seized their boat for smuggling.Since the trading outside the port limits was going on uncontrolled,Hart released the Heron but refused to let it move freely on the river again.Hart hinted that Dent Co.had committed a breach of good faith.Dent objected,not wanting to be placed in a 25
ROBERT HART IN CHINA'S HISTORY THE ANGLO-CHING PARTNERSHIP false position;and later H.N.Dent wrote a long letter "somewhat China,not to mention its superior naval power and colonial network plausible,but yet [containing]fallacious arguments.I talked with (including Hong Kong after 1842),British officials took the lead in him on the bund tonight:he admits I had cause for complaint-and most policy matters relating to treaty-port affairs.This was particu- that's enough.I must now let them down gently:and,Robert my larly the case during the Taiping Rebellion.British policy in the early boy!,no hurry in future!"(24 December 1863). 1860s aimed to restrict direct Western intervention in the rebellion; Hart's social life was largely institutional.He made it a practice instead,to assist the Ch'ing government in military reform ("self- every ten days or so to have a dinner party for five males guests,usu- strengthening"),and to bolster Peking's central authority,even against ally young staff members of the Customs.Sooner or later,all would encroachments on that authority by British residents in China.In be invited.Only once,on 20 April 1864,did he invite the high brass pursuing these goals,the Foreign Office limited the field of direct Brit- of British Shanghai-Consul Parkes,Colonel Hough,Major Jebb, ish military operations against the Taipings to a 30-mile radius Captain Murray plus Thomas Dick,his local Commissioner of Cus- around Shanghai;but at the same time it sanctioned the employment toms.Hart called it "a rather slow party,"which was probably an of British officers as advisers and instructors in the Chinese military understatement;he had little respect for Sir Harry's intellect,having service. been his interpreter in governing Canton in 1858-1859.Hart went Hart's military counterpart in the Shanghai area was Major out to dinner occasionally and paid many calls,both socially and for Charles "Chinese"Gordon,who headed the much publicized Ever- business,but he seems to have eschewed as a matter of policy the Victorious Army(EVA).Where Hart commanded his commissioners active social life of the Shanghai foreign business community at large. and their Chinese staffs to bring the Ch'ing government new sources On the side of Chinese officialdom,the young I.G.maintained of funds for military operations(including those of the EVA),Gordon steady relations with the Shanghai Taotai (in 1864 Ying Pao-shih), commanded his foreign officers and Chinese troops to bring modern who was both the local Superintendent of Customs and the represen- cannon fire to bear on Taiping strongholds.Gordon's ingenuity in tative of the Governor of Kiangsu,Li Hung-chang.Hart and Ying, using steamers and cannon in amphibious warfare in the Yangtze when both were in the city,kept in close touch,calling on or writing Delta waterways gave the Ch'ing forces a crucial strategic advantage; to each other on an almost day-to-day basis.Ying conveyed messages it also introduced special problems of responsibility and restraint. from Governor Li,wrote (2 March)to convey the Tsungli Yamen's Although Hart and Gordon were both British subjects taken into the approval of Hart's action in a case of confiscation,and sometimes sim- Chinese service,Gordon remained an officer of the Royal Engineers, ply reported news of events.Relations were so close,in fact,that Hart more accountable to the British government than to the Chinese, became aware"from word that Ying Taoutae let drop the other day" while Hart operated solely as a Ch'ing employee.For this reason, that Hart's Chinese amanuensis,Sun,evidently sent Ying copies"of among others,Gordon lasted less than 2 years as a Chinese officer; all my correspondence-the old blackguard!Still what can I do?Any Hart,more than 40. other Chinese that I could get hold of wd.require years of drilling Shanghai's Chinese Establishment before he could do what Sun does,and wd.then play false just in the same way."(18 March 1864) Although Hart was a Ch'ing official,he neither lived nor worked in Hart's Customs Administration by 1864 boasted employees from the Chinese walled city.He did,however,have regular and some- Great Britain,the United States,France,and Prussia,as well as Chi- times intimate contact with his bureaucratic colleagues there-notably nese superintendents of customs and lower-ranking Chinese function- the Shanghai Taotai.Moreover,he paid extremely close attention to aries.As the multi-lingual head of a multi-national body,he was a the activities of the Chinese as well as the Western merchants at the cultural middleman-British by birth,Chinese by choice.In this posi- treaty port.Although Shanghai in the 1860s had a split personality tion,Hart constantly became involved in negotiations of many sorts: typical of colonialism,the International Settlement and French Con- between Chinese and Western employees in his own organization; cession were more than simply bastions of foreign privilege.They between Western merchants and Chinese officials;between Chinese also served as havens for growing numbers of Chinese from other and Western officials,and among the Western officials themselves. parts of the empire.The first wave of refugees arrived at Shanghai By virtue of Great Britain's predominant commercial interests in when Nanking fell to the Taipings in 1853.By early 1863,the Chinese 26 27
ROBERT HART IN CHINAS HISTORY THE ANGLO-CHING PARTNERSHIP population of the city as a whole was estimated at 1.5 million,about a At Shanghai,the Western firms and the Chekiang merchants devel- third of whom lived in the foreign settlements.At that time,the West- oped a symbiotic relationship.On the one hand,the Chinese mer- ern residents totaled probably fewer than 2,000.Predictably,real- chants grew increasingly dependent on foreigners for capital,for estate values skyrocketed,and profits from land rents tended to mute protection,and for political leverage with the Ch'ing government.On foreign grumbling about the influx of Chinese refugees.Wealthy gen- the other,foreigners needed the Chinese merchants and native banks try from the rich Yangtze Delta sought physical safety in Shanghai, in order to trade successfully in the interior.For this reason they were while Chinese merchants found a secure environment for business. willing to lend the Chinese capital,entreat for them with the Ch'ing Among the Chinese merchants at Shanghai in the 1850s and 1860s, authorities,and allow them to operate in the International Settle- two main groups vied for commercial supremacy.One consisted of ment and French Concession.Western firms circulated investment natives from Kwangtung and Fukien-primarily from the port cities capital to native banks through their Chinese compradors(mai-pan, of Canton and Foochow.The other,sometimes known as the Che- managers),and the banks,in turn,lent this capital to other Chinese kiang financial clique,was led by merchants from the nearby city of merchants,who controlled trade between Shanghai and the interior. Ningpo.Although Canton,Foochow,and Ningpo had all been opened Some native banks made loans for foreign trade staples such as along with Shanghai as treaty ports in the 1840s,a number of mer- opium,tea,and silk,while others concentrated on raw cotton and chants from the three ports had foreseen their inevitable eclipse by rice for the domestic market.Native banks increasingly owed their Shanghai even prior to the Opium War.The fifth early treaty port, economic position to foreign capital,which would not have been so Amoy,had long been the base of an international trade conducted by readily available if the foreigners themselves could have traded easily Chinese merchants with Southeast Asia.20 in the interior. In competing for Shanghai's profits,the Canton and Foochow mer- Compradors,in their dual capacity as Chinese merchants and chants initially enjoyed the advantage of greater experience in foreign employees of Western business firms,were uniquely situated to facil- trade;but the Chekiang clique was firmly entrenched in the lower itate Sino-foreign trade.Their knowledge of both the foreign and Yangtze Valley,where it dominated the native banks (chien-chuang,lit. domestic market,as well as their personal and professional connec- "copper-coin shops").This gave the Ningpo guild a great advantage. tions,enabled them to serve several financial interests simulta- In the absence of effective Ch'ing central government control over neously.Acting as agents and brokers,they provided foreign firms fiscal matters such as coinage,the distribution of currency,and the with their Chinese personnel,and guaranteed the solvency of Chi- issuance of credit or bank notes,their native banks had considerable nese merchants who dealt with Westerners,all for a price.Further- control over both currency exchange and interest rates-a situation more,their skill at "barbarian management,"and their ability to that would not change appreciably until the first modern Chinese raise money for charitable and military purposes,made them of enor- bank was established in 1897.Ch'tien-chuang handled traditional trans- mous value to Ch'ing officials. actions between government and private interests,as well as between The career of Yang Fang(also known as Takee)illustrates the sev- Chinese borrowers and lenders of different social classes;in addition, eral roles a well-connected comprador could play at Shanghai during they played an increasingly significant role in business with foreign- the turbulent 1850s and 1860s.Yang became a comprador with Jar- ers.One analyst of Chinese native banking cliques noted how the dine,Matheson Co.from 1849 to 1851,and proceeded in the next Ningpo element at Shanghai relied on their common loyalty to their decade to amass a vast fortune,estimated at several million taels.As native place "to contain the profits of trade within the circle of a a native of Ningpo,enjoying excellent connections with other Che- group of merchants"from that place,even when doing business else- kiang merchants,he became a leading member of the influential where.In this way,Ningpo merchants "left their local system and "Ningpo guild"at Shanghai.Meanwhile,Yang's association with the abandoned their stake in its prosperity as a port of foreign trade,pre- prestigious Jardine firm-a product of his own extensive Chinese cisely in order to preserve that prosperity."In other words,they connections-assured him of many valuable foreign contacts,espe- pinned their collective future as members of one local system (at cially since he seems to have spoken English comparatively well. Ningpo)on the success of another(at Shanghai),thereby building on While employed by Jardine's,Yang displayed a special talent for the profits of two central places instead of one.21 bringing opium from Shanghai to Soochow for sale and at the same 28 29
ROBERT HART IN CHINA'S HISTORY THE ANGLO-CHING PARTNERSHIP time purchasing silk at Soochow for his Western clients.But he also helped arrange for the joint defense of Shanghai by Western forces in dealt in a number of other commodities,including tea,and invested early 1862,and who played a role in bringing Li Hung-chang's An- heavily in pawnbroking.He arranged for foreign merchants to lend hwei Army to the treaty port in the spring. steamships to the Chinese,bought his own steamers under foreign The motive behind these actions was not,of course,simply the pro- auspices,and served as treasurer for the Shanghai"Houseless Refu- tection of Shanghai,but rather the recovery of Soochow and its sur- gees Fund"-a somewhat questionable "charitable"undertaking sus- rounding areas.P'an and his elite associates,including the well-known tained largely by Western contributions.With the vast wealth he had scholars Wu Yun and Feng Kuei-fen,correctly perceived that,in accumulated both legally and illicitly,Yang purchased official rank, order to achieve this object,local powerholders with entrenched and became a close associate of Wu Hsu,also a native of Chekiang, financial interests at Shanghai-notably Wu Hsu,Yang Fang,and who served as Shanghai Taotai from 1859 to 1862 and concurrently their numerous fellow provincials from Chekiang-had to be elimi- as Provincial Financial Commissioner.According to the North China nated.Although the Governor of Kiangsu,Hsueh Huan,was the Herald,Wu had“the purse of Fortunatus'”and“a small army of ranking official in Shanghai,he proved to be nothing more than Wu English friends."22 Hsu's"yes man,"and therefore of no help against the pervasive power During the crisis of mid-1860,when the Taipings threatened of the Chekiang clique.He had long been under fire by the Soochow Shanghai and the British and French were advancing on Peking, gentry,and would soon be replaced by Li Hung-chang,who became Yang and Wu negotiated with the foreign powers on behalf of the Acting Governor upon his arrival at Shanghai in April of 1862. Ch'ing government,while making all kinds of feverish arrangements Li wasted no time in mobilizing his gentry allies against Wu and for the defense of the treaty port.The United Defense Bureau and Yang,while providing his erstwhile mentor,Tseng Kuo-fan,with a the Ever-Victorius Army were two noteworthy products of their col- wealth of information on their various malpractices.On 6 June 1862, laborative labors in the early 1860s-each organized with the assis- Yin Chao-yung,a Soochow native then serving as a metropolitan tance of compradors and sustained by private subscriptions as well as official,presented a secret memorial to the Throne impeaching Wu, customs revenues that fell under Wu's direct control as Superinten- Yang,and Lin Fu-hsiang-respectively in charge of Chinese customs dent of Customs and Financial Commissioner.The first commander at Shanghai,the Su-Sung Tai tribute grain collectorate,and the of the EVA,Frederick Townsend Ward,became a close friend of Yang Shanghai likin bureaucracy-for financial misconduct.By the end of and married the merchant-official's daughter in the spring of 1862. the year,all three had been replaced-Wu and Yang by men from Together Yang and Ward not only headed the Sino-foreign merce- Tseng Kuo-fan's home province of Hunan (Huang Fang and Kuo nary force as imperially designated co-commanders,but also engaged Sung-tao),and Lin by Feng Kuei-fen.In addition,Li Hung-chang in several defense-related business enterprises at Shanghai,not all of placed a number of his own fellow provincials from Anhwei in posi- which were entirely above board.23 tions of fiscal responsibility at Shanghai. The military aspirations of individuals such as Yang Fang and Wu Meanwhile,highly sensitive to the interests of his local gentry sup- Hsu overlapped,but did not coincide,with those of gentry refugees porters,the new Acting Governor made detailed plans for the recov- from Soochow and other Taiping-held cities in southeastern Kiangsu. ery of Soochow,pressed successfully for tax reduction in the area (a Shanghai officials and members of the Chekiang financial clique were plan championed by Feng Kuei-fen),and made arrangements with a concerned primarily with the protection of the treaty port and its relative of Wu Yun to support the establishment of a"rent bureau" immediate environs,while gentry members from the hinterland nat- that empowered local landlords to collect "donations"from their urally sought the rapid pacification of their home districts and the tenants in the name of defense and rehabilitation.By the terms of restoration of their once-lucrative landlord economy.Among these lat- this arrangement,two-thirds of the receipts went to Li's war chest ter individuals,P'an Tseng-wei serves as a typical example.A scion of and to local philanthropies,while a third remained in the hands of the illustrious P'an family of Soochow,and a former senior secretary the property owners.In the period from 1862 to 1864,the Yuan-ho of the Board of Punishments,Tseng-wei boasted close connections Rent Bureau contributed over a million taels to Li's military opera- with many infuential literati in southeastern Kiangsu as well as a tions.24 host of powerful relatives and friends in Peking.It was P'an who Li Hung-chang's rapidly expanding financial and political power 30 31
ROBERT HART IN CHINAS HISTORY THE ANGLO-CHING PARTNERSHIP allowed him to build the Anhwei Army to some 40,000 well-trained Great Britain had built up an unwarranted assumption of imperial yung-ying soldiers by mid-1863.But he was still not strong enough mil- omnipotence,such that access to the emperor would be the key to itarily to dispense with the Ever-Victorious Army.Despite its rela- securing treaty enforcement or any other local demand made at the tively small size,high cost,and Li's persistent problems with its ports.In the midst of empire-wide rebellion in the 1860s,British foreign commanders after Ward's death in late 1862,the EVA contin- officials repeatedly encouraged the Ch'ing government to centralize ued to be a valuable adjunct to Li's Anhwei Army and a crucial ele- its military forces and to unify its various provincial self-strength- ment in his strategy to recapture Soochow. ening programs,not only in order to enhance the dynasty's power Unfortunately,Li's difficulties with the Sino-foreign contingent- and national prestige,but also to protect foreign commercial and mis- which included his failure to pay the force regularly and on time- sionary interests. had implications that went well beyond domestic administrative and Yet ongoing problems with both the Ever-Victorious Army and the strategic considerations.On 14 January 1863,following the tumultu- Lay-Osborn fiasco demonstrated that British hopes did not conform to ous dismissal of Ward's successor as commander of the force,Henry Ch'ing administrative realities.As Thomas Wade wrote to Gordon in Burgevine,Li was compelled by the terms of the so-called Li-Staveley mid-1863:"I find no willingness in the Central Govt.to commence agreement to accept a British officer as commander of the EVA.Since organizing [the Chinese military],as from the centre,so long as it can this instantly increased Great Britain's stake in the EVA's affairs,Brit- get the giant local evils topically treated."The British Minister,Sir Fred- ish diplomatic and military officials at Shanghai began complaining erick Bruce,made the same point:"So long as Governors can obtain bitterly over Li's management of the contingent.In particular,they on their own terms foreign officers and steamers officered by foreign- chafed over problems of payment,resenting the fact that,although ers sufficient to repel the insurgents,it is idle to expect that the Govern- Gordon held a regular commission from Peking,Li treated him as no ment in Peking will undertake the organization of an Imperial force more than a local British mercenary (which,of course,he was).Once either on land or on sea,and thereby relieve local Governors from the this situation came to the attention of the British authorities at responsibility of maintaining tranquility in their provinces,which is Peking,it raised acutely the issue of provincial versus metropolitan the established principle of Chinese administration."25 responsibility in China's financial and military administration. Thus,when Bruce bluntly informed the Tsungli Yamen in June of From the Ch'ing government's standpoint,no real problem existed. 1863 that he could not authorize the employment of British naval or The dynasty's basic administrative strategy,as we have already indi- military officers unless the forces in which they served were directly cated,was to grant comparatively wide leeway to its local officials, under central-government control and financed directly by centrally but to maintain unremitting supervision over them.In the 1850s and dispensed customs revenues,Prince Kung responded self-confident- 1860s,as rebellion raged throughout most of China,the Throne was ly:"The decision of the question whether(British)officers shall be au- forced as a military necessity to surrender an unprecedented degree thorized to serve China or not must undoubtedly lie with the British of control to provincial officials.But the establishment of so-called Minister,...but if they be authorised to lend their aid,it will be for regional armies,as well as the privately arranged exploitation of reg- the Prince alone to decide under whose command they are to be,and ular tax revenues and the use of irregular sources of support such as from what source they are to be paid."26 Faced with the choice of with- the likin tax to support them,were possible only if provincial leaders drawing Gordon and his fellow officers from the Chinese service to enjoyed a large measure of confidence from Peking.Officials like make his point,or backing down,Bruce backed down.In his opin- Tseng Kuo-fan,Tso Tsung-t'ang,and Li Hung-chang could not oper- ion,and that of most foreigners both at the capital and in Kiangsu ate independently of Peking's will without grave risk.Still,the lack of province,the defense of Shanghai was too important to entrust to Li a means of supervising domestic tax collection analogous to that of Hung-chang's forces alone.Hart himself held this view. the Imperial Maritime Customs for foreign trade taxes made it virtu- ally impossible for the Throne to monitor precisely either the collec- The Soochow Incident and Its Aftermath tion or the disposition of likin revenues. When Hart arrived at Shanghai from Peking in early September Although the Ch'ing government was satisfied with this arrange- 1863,and "took over charge"of his new responsibilities at the treaty ment,the British assuredly were not.During the 1840s and 1850s, port,he hoped that he would be able to confine himself solely to Cus- 32 33