漢口의 紅茶牙行과 兩江總督의 茶葉落地稅 徵收 ― 19세기 후반 長江에서의 “洋”과 “華”의 구별 ―

Abstract

Foreign Governments and merchants had the greatest concern about the Lijin tax(釐金) and Inland duties in late Qing China. It is especially for the reason that Provincial Governments often announced their plan of collecting the Lijin tax and Inland duties without separating native trade from foreign trade for securing their revenue, owing to the financial problem of Provincial Governments since the Taiping rebellion. There was in the ambiguous situations where was not clear between native merchants and foreign merchants, native trade and foreign trade. So, it seems to be understood as a natural consequence that Provincial Governments imposed the Lijin tax and Inland duties without separating “native” from “foreign”. However, as Provincial Governments put the collection of the Lijin tax and Inland duties in the hands of the leading Chinese merchants’ group, from the foreign side, this was regarded as the monopoly. Moreover, the policy of Provincial Governments that it was to be exempted from double collecting, instead of imposing the Lijin tax and Inland duties, as a result, was competed against the collecting of one-half duty by the Maritime Customs. It was recognized as the conflict with the transit system by foreign side, therefore, with the monopoly problem, concern was raised over serious violations of the treaty privilege. But previous studies have failed to observe the course of the above process precisely. So, this study explored the Yangzi as the stage where it was very difficult to distinguish “native” from “foreign” trade, and where the problem of trade and collecting management—whether applying native tariff or treaty tariff was more confused. And through the problems of the Monopoly Tea Hong(紅茶牙行) and the Tseng Kuo Fan’s Lo-ti-shui(茶葉落地稅), this study attempted to re-evaluate the chaos of tariff system in the post-Taiping rebellion era, and finally, reconsider the development and role of the Maritime Customs system in late Qing China.