Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911

255 Pages·2017·11.032 MB·English

by  Yuping Ni

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Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, ca. 1644–1911
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ii
Global Economic History Series
VOLUME 13
The Quantitative Economic History
of China
Series Editors
Bas van Leeuwen (Utrecht University / International Institute of Social History)
Yi Xu (Guangxi Normal University / Utrecht University)
Peter Foldvari (Utrecht University)
Editorial Board
Bas van Bavel (Utrecht University)
Bozhong Li (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
Debin Ma (The London School of Economics and Political Science)
Denggao Long (Tsinghua University)
Jan Luiten Van Zanden (Utrecht University)
Jaime Reis (University of Lisbon)
James Lee (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
.d Stephan Broadberry (The London School of Economics and Political Science)
e
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The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/qehc
Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
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Created from wustl on 2019-04-23 13:32:08.
iii
Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty,
ca. 1644–1911
By
Ni Yuping
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LEIDEN | BOSTON
Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wustl/detail.action?docID=4734100.
Created from wustl on 2019-04-23 13:32:08.
iv
Cover illustration: Displayed is the left part of the eighteenth-century remake of the twelfth-century
original painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan. The remake is created by
five Qing dynasty court painters (Chen Mu, Sun Hu, Jin Kun, Dai Hong and Cheng Zhidao) and is
currently in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The painting captures the daily life of people and the
landscape of the capital, Bianjing (today’s Kaifeng) from the Northern Song period. Licensed under
public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016042758
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 2405-870X
isbn 978-90-04-32487-9 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-32488-6 (e-book)
Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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10 This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wustl/detail.action?docID=4734100.
Created from wustl on 2019-04-23 13:32:08.
ContentCsontents v
Contents
Foreword ix
Bozhong Li
Foreword xiv
Maarten Duijvendak
Emperors of the Qing Dynasty xvii
List of Maps, Figures and Tables xviii
List of Abbreviations xxiii
List of Chinese Terms xxiv
About the Guan (Customs Office) xxvi
Introduction 1
1 Research Approach 5
1.1 Previous Research 5
1.2 Data Sources 7
2 The System of Customs Duties under the Qing Dynasty 11
2.1 The System of Customs Duties in Traditional China 11
2.2 The Changguan System of the Qing 14
2.3 Policy Adjustments 17
2.4 Rate of Taxation and Surtaxes 23
2.5 Yangguan 31
3 Land Border Customs 34
3.1 Shanhai Guan 34
3.2 Zhangjiakou 37
.d 3.3 Shahukou 40
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gir llA 3.6 Fenghuangcheng Zhongjiang 45
.L 3.7 Fengtian Niuma Shui 46
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Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
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Created from wustl on 2019-04-23 13:32:17.
vi Contents
4 Grand Canal and Yangtze River Customs 54
4.1 Chongwenmen 54
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4.10 Jiujiang Guan 78
4.11 Gan Guan 79
4.12 Beixin Guan and Nanxin Guan 82
4.13 Linqin Guan 85
4.14 Taiping Guan 88
4.15 Wuchang Guan 90
4.16 Jingzhou Guan and Hubei Xinguan 92
4.17 Kui Guan and Yu Guan 95
4.18 Summary 98
5 Coastal Customs 100
5.1 Tianjin Guan 100
5.2 Tianjin Haiguan 102
5.3 Jianghai Guan 103
5.4 Zhehai Guan 106
5.5 Minhai Guan 108
5.6 Yuehai Changguan (after 1861) 110
5.7 Donghai Guan 111
5.8 Brief Summary 112
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gir llA 6.2 Jianghai Yangguan (1844–1861) 117
.L 6.3 Zhehai Yangguan (1844–1861) 118
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7.1 Changguan and Yangguan 128
Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
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Created from wustl on 2019-04-23 13:32:17.
Contents v vii
7.2 Huguan and Gongguan 138
7.3 Influence of Population Growth and Inflation 152
8 Conclusion 167
Postscript 171
Appendix A – Customs Revenues Collected at Changguan, 1723–1910 173
Appendix B – Customs Revenue Data for Yuhei Guan, 1723–1911 211
Appendix C – Customs Revenues Collected at Yangguan, 1844–1910 212
References 220
Index 227
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Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wustl/detail.action?docID=4734100.
Created from wustl on 2019-04-23 13:32:17.
viii Chapter 1 5
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Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wustl/detail.action?docID=4734100.
Created from wustl on 2019-04-23 13:32:17.
ForewoLrId  ix
Foreword
This book was written in the belief that one cannot make full sense of the com-
modity circulation taxes—i.e. customs duties—of the Qing Dynasty, or indeed
of political economy of Qing China more generally, without understanding the
history that produced it.
There is no need to justify the importance of finance in world history.
Modern finance is the breeding ground of modern economic history and mod-
ern state formation.
This book describes and analyzes developments in Qing finance, focusing
on commodity circulation taxes, one of major sources of modern public reve-
nues. In traditional agrarian societies, land and head taxes made up the bulk of
state revenues, while commodity circulation taxes provided only a small part
of the revenues. In Western Europe of early modern times, commodity circula-
tion taxes sprang up rapidly and finally replaced land and head taxes as the
most important source of state revenue. A similar change took place in China
in the mid-nineteenth century. That change is part of the story of China’s eco-
nomic transformation in the decades that followed.
In the Qing times, commodity circulation taxes were charged on all goods in
domestic and foreign trade. These were collected separately by two institu-
tions: Changguanshui, or ordinary custom ports that had the responsibility of
taxing goods taking part in domestic trade; and Yangguanshui, or custom ports
that focused on foreign trade. In this book, the taxes collected by both institu-
tions were sometimes called by the Chinese name of guanshui.
Though there were clearly defined responsibilities for Changguan and
Yangguan, in some cases these overlapped. In late-nineteenth-century China,
moreover, domestic commodity circulation taxes were mainly composed of
lijin (Likin taxes), which were in many cases collected by local authorities,
.d while a modern custom service in charge of levying import and export duties
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.L “custom duties”.
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B The issue of guanshui held a special position in the finances of the Qing
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1 According to Shen Xuefeng, guanshui’s share in Qing financial revenue was 11–12% in the
second half of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. See Shen: Qingdai cai-
Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wustl/detail.action?docID=4734100.
Created from wustl on 2019-04-26 11:03:48.
x Li 
cornerstone of state finances, accounting for three-quarters of the total. In the
second half of the nineteenth century, however, guanshui rose steeply to
become the No. 1 financial source of revenue in the final decade of the Qing
dynasty.2 In this sense, we can say that without guanshui, the Qing state
couldn’t have run the country properly, or, for that matter, even survived. There
can be little doubt, therefore, that the concept of guanshui is crucial to under-
standing the political economy of Qing China.
The Qing dynasty witnessed significant changes in guanshui. In the first two
centuries of the Qing (1644–1850), the state followed the traditional basic prin-
ciples of Chinese finance of “fitting one’s spending to one’s income”, and there
were little changes to speak of in this period. During the mid- and late Qing
periods, however, the traditional financial system, as well as the country as a
whole, faced great challenges. To cope with these challenges, great changes
were initiated in the state’s finances, among them was the rapid development
of guanshui. As a result, this tax, together with land taxes and salt taxes, formed
the financial pillars of the Qing state.3
This change took place in an era of great transformation in world history,
recently referred to as the “Great Divergence”. Angus Maddison has also argued
that the mid-nineteenth century was the turning point of China’s economy,
from the previous centuries-long prosperity to the long-term decline that fol-
lowed.4 Coincidentally, it was in this very period that China’s rocky road to
zheng shuru guimo yu jiegou bianhua shulun (On the changes of the sizes and structures of
Qing finance), in Beijing shehui kexue (Beijing), no.1, 2002.
2 Shen Xuefeng suggested that in 1811 guanshui and lijin together accounted for 47% of Qing
financial revenue. This share is much bigger than that of Land Tax (27%) and Salt Tax (26%),
other major sources of Qing financial revenue (ibidem). R. Bin Wong argued that Qing finan-
cial revenue was 42.5 million taels of silver in 1849, 77% of which came from agriculture, with
the rest coming from commerce. Financial revenue rose to 77 million taels in 1885, mainly due
to a great increase in commercial taxes, which tripled during the period. In 1911, the last finan-
.d cial year of the Qing, revenue went up to 301 million taels, including agricultural taxes of 50
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gir llA Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience, Ithaca: Cornel University Press, 1998.
.L Chapter 3).
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B
.6 Yumin: 19 shiji 60–90 niandai qingchao caizheng jiegou de bianhua (Changes in the financial
1
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2 © structure of the Qing in the 1860s through to the 1890s), in Shanghai shifan daxue xuebao
thg (Shanghai), no. 4, 2000.
irypo 4 Angus Maddison: Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run (Second edition). Paris:
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Development Centre of the Ogranisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2007.
Chapter 1.
Ni, Yuping. Customs Duties in the Qing Dynasty, Ca. 1644-1911, BRILL, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wustl/detail.action?docID=4734100.
Created from wustl on 2019-04-26 11:03:48.