SHANGHAI.
Shanghai -- Importance of its situation -- Consul Balfour
-- Germ of municipal institutions -- The foreign
settlements -- Confidence and civility of the natives --
Alcock appointed consul, 1846 -- Excursions into the
country -- Their limitations -- Responsibilities of
consuls.
Of the four new ports, Shanghai, by far the most important, had been
fortunate in the selection of its first consul. This was Captain
George Balfour of the Madras Artillery, who, like a wise
master-builder, laid the foundations of what is now one of the
greatest emporia in the world. Captain Balfour had managed the
beginnings of the settlement so judiciously that the merchants enjoyed
the fullest facilities for prosecuting their business, while the
consul maintained good relations with the native authorities and no
hostile feeling existed between the foreign and native communities.
The circumstances of the place were favourable to all this: the
foreign residents were not, as at Canton, confined to a narrow space;
they had abundance of elbow-room and perfect freedom of movement in
the surrounding district, which was well provided with footpaths and
an excellent system of waterways. The people of that part of the
country are of a peaceable and rather timid disposition. Altogether, a
healthy condition of things had grown up, there seemed to be no
grievance felt on either side, while the material prosperity of the
natives rapidly increased as a result of a great and expanding foreign
trade, to which they had never been accustomed. The regulation of
business accommodation and residence was very simple and worked
automatically. A certain area, ample for every purpose that could be
foreseen, was set apart by the Chinese Government for the residence of
foreigners, the location having been indicated by Sir Henry Pottinger
on his way from Nanking after the signing of the treaty. The rights of
the native proprietors were in no way interfered with, the merchants
and others who desired to settle were at liberty to deal with the
natives for the purchase of building lots, and as the prices paid were
so much above the normal value of the land there was no essential
difficulty in effecting purchases. But there being so many interested
parties, several years elapsed before the whole area had passed into
the possession of foreign occupants. The land remained the property of
the Crown, held under perpetual lease, subject only to a small
ground-rent, which was collected through the consulates, as at this
day. Roads were gradually marked out and jetties for boats were built
on the river frontage, and what is now a municipal council served by a
large secretarial staff and an imposing body of police, and handling a
budget amounting to £130,000, came into existence under the modest
title of a "Committee for Roads and Jetties." In the beginning there
seems to have been an idea of forming separate reservations of land
for the subjects of the three treaty Powers--Great Britain, France,
and the United States; but the exigencies of business soon effaced
the theoretical distinction as between England and America, whose
separate ideal settlements were merged for all practical purposes into
one cosmopolitan colony, in which the Powers coming later on the scene
enjoyed the same rights as the original pioneers.
[Illustration: BAMBOO BRIDGE AT FOOCHOW.]
To ground thus wisely prepared Mr Alcock succeeded in the autumn of
1846. His four months at Amoy and eighteen at Foochow were only
preparatory for the real work which lay before him in the consulate at
Shanghai, whither he carried in his train the interpreter Parkes, with
whom he had grown accustomed to work so efficiently. Shanghai by this
time was already realising the position assigned to it by nature as a
great commercial port, and the resident community, 120 Europeans all
told, was already forming itself into that novel kind of republic
which is so flourishing to-day, while its commercial interests were
such as to give its members weight in the administration of their own
affairs as well as in matters of public policy.
[Illustration: COUNTRY WATERWAY NEAR SHANGHAI.]
The level country round Shanghai was, as we have said, very favourable
for excursions by land and water, affording tourists and sportsmen
congenial recreation. The district was in those days remarkably well
stocked with game. Pheasants of the "ring-necked" variety, now so
predominant in English preserves, abounded close up to the city wall,
and were sometimes found in the gardens of the foreign residents.
Snipe, quail, and wildfowl were plentiful in their season, the last
named in great variety. All classes of the foreign community took
advantage of the freedom of locomotion which they enjoyed. Newly
arrived missionaries, no less than newly arrived sportsmen, were
encouraged by the ease and safety with which they could prosecute
their vocation in the towns and villages accessible from Shanghai.
Within the radius authorised by treaty the foreigners soon became
familiar objects in a district which is reckoned to support a
population as dense as that of Belgium. Not only did friendly
relations exist, but a wonderful degree of confidence was established
between the natives and foreign tourists. It was not the custom in
those days for foreigners to carry money, the only coinage available
being of a clumsy and non-portable character. They paid their way by
"chits" or orders upon their comprador, and it was not uncommon for
them in those early days to pay for supplies during their excursions
into the interior by a few hieroglyphics pencilled on a scrap of
paper, which the confiding peasant accepted in perfect good faith, and
with so little apprehension that sometimes a considerable interval
would elapse before presentation of these primitive cheques--until,
perhaps, the holder had occasion to make a journey to Shanghai.
But although the foreigner in his proper costume moved freely within
the prescribed area, it was considered hazardous to venture beyond
these limits. It was also, of course, a nominal contravention of the
treaty, for the consequences of which the traveller must take the
whole risk. Those, therefore--and they were exceedingly few--who could
not repress the desire to penetrate into the interior adopted as a
disguise the costume of the natives. It was thus that Fortune made his
explorations into the tea districts of China. The notion that either
difficulty or danger attended these distant excursions gradually
disappeared, and about the year 1855 sportsmen and travellers began
to explore the forbidden country without any disguise at all, to the
great amusement of the populace, and to the profit of the priests of
the temples where they found accommodation.
The consular authorities occupied a peculiar and highly responsible
position in China. Their nationals being exempt from native
jurisdiction, and subject only to the laws of their own country,
promulgated, interpreted, and, when occasion arose, executed, by the
consul, that functionary was morally answerable to the people and the
Government of China for the good behaviour of his countrymen. On the
other hand, it was his primary duty to defend them against all
aggression of the Chinese. Between these two opposite duties the
consul needed all the discretion, courage, and good judgment that he
could command; and it was but natural that individual temperament or
the pressure of local circumstances should cause diversity in the mode
in which the consuls interpreted their instructions and balanced the
different claims of their public duty. As has been said before,
Captain Balfour had shown himself most judicious in all his
arrangements for the protection and advancement of his countrymen in
Shanghai. Foreseeing, notwithstanding the peaceable disposition of the
natives, that risks might attend unfettered intercourse with the
interior, he had thought it prudent to restrict the rambles of British
subjects to the limits of a twenty-four hours' journey from
Shanghai,--a limit which coincided with curious exactness with the
"thirty-mile radius" of defence against the rebels which was laid down
by Admiral Hope eighteen years later.
I. THE TSINGPU AFFAIR.
Attack on three missionaries -- Redress extorted by Consul
Alcock -- Its lasting effect.
Affairs in Shanghai had followed a placid and uneventful course until
an incident occurred which brought into sudden activity the latent
forces of disorder. Within little more than a year after the arrival
of Mr Alcock at his new post an outrage was perpetrated on the persons
of three English missionaries, which led to the first and the last
important struggle between the British and Chinese authorities in
Shanghai. The assailants of Messrs Medhurst, Lockhart, and Muirhead,
the three missionaries concerned, were not the peaceably disposed
natives of the place, but the discharged crews of the Government
grain-junks, who had been cast adrift by the officials and left to
shift for themselves after the manner of disbanded soldiers. The
attack took place at a small walled town called Tsingpu, within the
authorised radius, and the three Englishmen came very near losing
their lives. Mr Alcock lost not a moment in demanding full redress
from the Chinese authorities, who instinctively sheltered themselves
under the old evasive pleas which had proved so effective at Canton.
It happened that the highest local official, the Taotai, had had
experience of the southern port, and, entirely unaware that he was
confronted in Shanghai with a man of very different calibre from any
he had encountered before, he brought out all the rusty weapons of the
Canton armoury, in sure and certain hope of reducing the consul's
demands to nullity. Evasion being exhausted, intimidation was tried,
and the consul and his interpreter were threatened with the vengeance
of an outraged people, quite in the Canton manner. But intimidation
was the very worst tactics to try on two Englishmen of the stamp of
Alcock and Parkes, and when that card had been played the Chinese game
was up.
The situation was one of those critical ones that test moral stamina,
that discriminate crucially between a man and a copying-machine. It
was also one which illuminated, as by an electric flash, the pivotal
point of all our relations with China then as now, for the principle
never grows old. It is therefore important to set forth the part
played by the responsible officer, the support he obtained, the risks
he ran, and the effective results of his action. An absolutely
unprovoked murderous outrage had been perpetrated on three Englishmen;
the Chinese authorities refused redress with insolence and evasion;
acquiescence in the denial of justice would have been as fatal to
future good relations at Shanghai as it had been in the previous
decade in Canton. What was the official charged with the protection of
his countrymen to do? He had no instructions except to conciliate the
Chinese; there was no telegraph to England; communication even with
the chief superintendent of trade at Hongkong, 850 miles off, was
dependent on chance sailing vessels. Delay was equivalent to
surrender. Now or never was the peremptory alternative presented to
the consul, who, taking his official life in his hands, had to decide
and act on his own personal responsibility. Had time allowed of an
exchange of views with the plenipotentiary in Hongkong, we know for
certain that nothing would have been done, for the first announcement
of Mr Alcock's strong measures filled Mr Bonham (who had just
succeeded Sir John Davis) with genuine alarm.
Considering the instructions [he wrote] with which you have
been furnished from the Foreign Office, dated December 18,
1846, and the limited power and duties of a consul, I
cannot but express my regret that you should have taken the
steps you have seen fit to do without previous reference to
her Majesty's plenipotentiary, as undoubtedly, under the
peremptory orders recently received from her Majesty's
Government, I should not have considered myself warranted
in sanctioning, &c., &c.
Fortunately for the consul and for the peaceful development of British
trade, one of Palmerston's specific instructions had been obeyed in
Shanghai. There was a British ship of war in port, the 10-gun brig
Childers, and, what was of still more importance, a real British _man_
on board of her, Commander Pitman, who shared to the full the Consul's
responsibility for what was done.
The measures adopted by Consul Alcock--when negotiation was
exhausted--were to announce to the Chinese authorities that, until
satisfaction had been obtained, no duties should be paid on cargo
imported or exported in British ships: furthermore, that the great
junk fleet of 1400 sail, laden and ready for sea with the tribute rice
for Peking, should not be allowed to leave the port. The Childers,
moored in the stream below the junk anchorage, was in a position to
make this a most effective blockade. The rage of the Taotai rose to
fever heat, and it was then he threatened, and no doubt attempted to
inflame the populace and the whole vagabond class. The Taotai ordered
some of the rice-laden junks to proceed; but though there were fifty
war-junks to guard them, the masters dared not attempt to pass the
ideal barrier thrown across the river by the resolute Captain Pitman.
[Illustration: MOUTH OF YANGTZE AND CHUSAN ARCHIPELAGO.]
The outrage took place on the 8th of March. On the 13th the consul
presented an ultimatum to the Taotai giving him forty-eight hours to
produce the criminals. This being disregarded, the measures above
referred to were enforced, with the full approval, it may be
mentioned, of the consuls of the two other treaty Powers. At the same
time Vice-Consul Robertson, with Parkes for interpreter, was
despatched to Nanking on board her Majesty's ship Espiègle to lay the
whole case before the viceroy of Kiangnan. The matter was there
promptly attended to, full redress was ordered, and the culprits
punished exactly three weeks after the assault. The embargo on the
rice-junks was removed, and affairs resumed their normal course.[15]
The effect of this lesson has never been effaced, harmony having
prevailed between British and Chinese officials and people in Shanghai
and the province from that day to this.
The circumstances were of course very unusual which placed such ready
means of bloodless coercion in the hands of the British consul. The
fortuitous coincidence of the time of the outrage with the period of
departure of the grain fleet placed a weapon in the consul's hands
which of itself would have eventually brought the Chinese to terms,
should the matter in the mean time not have been taken out of the
hands of the consul and dealt with from Hongkong by the
plenipotentiary, whose views have been given above. So soon as the
detention of the grain fleet became known to the Government of Peking,
orders of a very drastic nature would undoubtedly have been despatched
to the viceroy of the province, and both he and his subordinate would
have been made answerable for their incompetence in imperilling the
supply of rice for the Government. But the pressure was doubly
intensified by the appearance of a foreign ship of war under the walls
of Nanking. Six years had not elapsed since a similar demonstration
had brought the Government to its knees, and to have allowed such an
invasion a second time would have drawn down the imperial wrath on the
luckless provincial authorities. For Nanking differs from the other
provincial capitals, such as Canton and Foochow, inasmuch as it is
near the strategic centre of the empire, commanding the main artery of
communication with the interior of the country, at the point of
intersection of the Yangtze river by the famous Imperial Canal which
connects the capital with the richest region in the Yangtze valley. A
blockade of the sea-going grain fleet with a simultaneous blockade of
these inland waters, so easily effected, would have throttled China.
The viceroy, who sent a report on the transaction to the throne by
special express, explained away his own hasty action by saying "that
the appearance of the barbarian chiefs at the provincial city may have
caused anxiety in the sacred breast."
The verdict of the Home Government on the episode was substantially
the same as that on Sir John Davis's brilliant expedition on the
Canton river the year before: "Gratified with your success, but don't
do it again;" in other words, "Do it at your peril, leaving us to
applaud or repudiate according to the event." Perhaps it would be more
just to say that there were then, as always, conflicting views in the
British Cabinet, the apparent vacillations of the Government depending
a good deal on which of its members happened, for the moment, to have
the parole,--whether the Foreign Secretary, the Colonial Secretary, or
other Minister indited the despatch.
Commenting some years later on the general question of our relations
with China, Mr Alcock wrote as follows: "A salutary dread of the
immediate consequences of violence offered to British subjects,
certainty of its creating greater trouble and danger to the native
authorities personally than even the most vigorous efforts to protect
the foreigners and seize their assailants will entail, seems to be the
best and only protection in this country for Englishmen." Palmerston
himself could not have laid down the law and common-sense of the case
with greater precision.
II. REBELLION.
Taiping rebellion -- Rebel occupation of Shanghai --
Encroachment of investing force on foreign settlement --
Driven off by Anglo-American forces -- The French quarrel
with insurgents -- Consequent enlargement of French
concession -- The assumption of self-government by the
Anglo-American community -- Exemplary conduct of Chinese
authorities after their defeat -- French belligerency --
Difficult question of neutrality -- Treatment of native
refugees.
Affairs went smoothly and prosperously in Shanghai for another five
years, when the greatest calamity that has visited China in modern
times cast its shadow on the province and on the city. The appalling
ravages of the Taiping rebellion, which, originating in the southern
province of Kwangsi, followed the great trade-routes to the
Yangtze-kiang and down the course of that stream, leaving absolute
desolation in its wake, reached the southern capital, Nanking, on
March 8, 1853. The city was paralysed, and surrendered on the 19th,
apparently without a struggle; the whole Tartar garrison, numbering
20,000, were put ruthlessly to the sword, not a soul being spared. The
whole country, officials and people alike, was thrown into a state of
abject fear. The ease with which such Government forces as there were
succumbed to the onslaught of the rebel hordes may very well have
prompted the rowdy element, which exists more or less everywhere, to
make raids on their own account. Such a band, belonging as was
supposed to certain secret societies, but without any connection with
the main body of the Taipings, who were at the time applying fire and
sword to the populous towns on the Yangtze, surprised and captured the
walled city of Shanghai. "The news," says an eyewitness, "came like
thunder from a clear sky;" there was no thought of the city being in
danger either from within or without. The people were panic-stricken
at first, but fear with them seemed near akin to criminality, and the
scene enacted was what was repeated thousands of times and over a wide
area--one of general pillage and destruction. "Several hundred of the
usually innocent and simple country-folk--who must have scented their
prey as the eagle does the carcass, for as yet it was early
morning--fell upon the custom-house, whence they carried off chairs,
tables, windows, doors, everything that was portable, leaving the
floor littered with books and papers, which were being kicked about
and trodden on in a most unceremonious way."
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO SZE-KING, NEAR SHANGHAI.]
For a period of eighteen months, beginning in September 1853 and
ending in February 1855, these rebels held possession of the city.
It took a little time before the authorities were able to gather any
force to expel them. But they did commence a species of siege which
ultimately succeeded in its object. There would be no interest in
tracing its progress. What we have to note is the effect which the
interregnum produced on the relations between the foreign officials
and community and the Chinese.
The first was of a very remarkable character, being nothing less than
an armed collision between such foreign forces as could be mustered
and the imperialist troops who were investing the city. The Chinese
soldiers were in camp at a short distance outside of the foreign
settlement, which was exempt from the operations of the war. But the
discipline of Chinese troops is never very efficient, and unruly
stragglers from the camps kept the foreigners in the settlement in
constant hot water. It became, in fact, dangerous for them to take
their recreation in the open ground at the back of the settlement,
which was used as a racecourse. Immunity from reprisals produced its
invariable result, and the aggressions of the soldiery became more
persistent and better organised. The foreigners were at last driven to
retaliate in their own defence. After a formidable inroad of the
Chinese troops, the three treaty consuls met hastily and decided on
sending a demand to the Chinese general for the withdrawal of all his
soldiers from the vicinity of the settlement, failing which, his
position would be attacked at four o'clock the same afternoon by all
the available foreign forces. These were, marines and bluejackets from
her Britannic Majesty's ships Encounter and Grecian, marines and
sailors from the United States ship Plymouth, some sailors from the
merchant ships in port, and about 200 of the residents as infantry
volunteers. The English force was commanded by Captain O'Callaghan,
who was accompanied by Consul Alcock; the Americans were led by
Captain Kelley, who was accompanied by Consul Murphy; while the
volunteers were commanded by Vice-Consul Wade, subsequently her
Majesty's Minister to China. The attack on the Chinese position was
completely successful; indeed there was apparently very little
resistance, a circumstance which was attributed by Mr Wetmore, who was
in the action from beginning to end, to the uncovenanted co-operation
of the rebels within the city. It was, nevertheless, according to him,
writing nearly forty years after, "a hazardous, if not a reckless,
undertaking."
Her Majesty's Government, in a despatch from the Foreign Office dated
June 16, "entirely approved of Mr Alcock's proceedings, and they
considered that he displayed great courage and judgment in
circumstances of no ordinary difficulty"; while the British community
unanimously conveyed their warmest thanks to Consul Alcock,
Vice-Consul Wade, and the naval officers concerned, for "saving their
lives and property from the most imminent jeopardy." And they add that
"any symptoms of hesitation and timid policy would inevitably have led
to serious consequences and far greater loss of life."
It is to be remarked that the French took no part in this common
defence of the settlement, in explanation of which it must be noted
that they had never fallen kindly into the cosmopolitan system, but
as years went on kept themselves more and more apart, expanding what
was a mere consular residence until it covered two populous suburbs
embracing half of the circuit of the walled city, and what began as a
settlement came to be spoken of as a "concession."
In this situation it was not difficult for them to pick a quarrel on
their own account with the rebels, which led to an ineffectual
bombardment of the city by French ships of war moored close under the
walls. Guns were then landed in the suburb, which was thereafter
embraced within the limits of the French concession, the houses being
demolished to give play to the artillery. A cannonade lasting many
days resulted in a practical breach in the city wall, which was
followed up by a combined assault by the French and the imperialist
troops, with whom they had allied themselves. The attack was repulsed
with severe loss to the assailants.
Among the results of these operations and of the lapse of organised
government during eighteen months the most direct was perhaps the
establishment of the French on the ground where their batteries had
been placed. For reasons military or otherwise, a _tabula rasa_ was
made of an immense populous suburb, the ground then admitting of easy
occupation and the laying out of streets and roads. The area thus
occupied by the French is separated from the cosmopolitan settlement
of Shanghai by a tidal creek.
Results less showy, but more important in the interests of humanity
and international commerce, were very soon apparent in the
cosmopolitan settlement. The first of these was the assumption by the
foreign community of the function of self-government and
self-protection, and the foundation of that important municipality,
which has established as fine a record of public service as any such
body has ever done. The inroads of vagabondage and crime would,
without the protective measures extemporised for the occasion, have
swamped the foreign quarter and reduced it to the desolate condition
of the native city. And this necessity of relying on their own
strength has no doubt given to the community of Shanghai that tone of
self-confidence which has characterised successive generations of
them.
The effect of the collision on the relations between the foreign and
Chinese authorities can hardly be understood without some explanatory
words. In countries where the soldier, sudden and quick in quarrel,
seeks the bubble reputation in the cannon's mouth, there is a
psychological figment called military honour, which may be symbolised
in various ways, as, for example, by a rag at the end of a stick for
which brave men will cheerfully die. The warlike traditions which have
evolved European codes of honour have no existence in China.
_Revanche_, therefore, did not enter into the heads of the defeated
Chinese commanders, who contented themselves with posting placards
about their camps stating that "the barbarians were about to be
annihilated, but that they had ransomed themselves for 300,000 taels,
and that an additional 300,000 would be required." Their conduct,
however, was quite exemplary during the remainder of the siege, their
chief solicitude being to avoid encroaching on the foreign quarter.
Whatever be the explanation, the fact is that the Chinese were on
better terms with the foreign officials after than they had been
before the battle of "Muddy Flat," fought on the 4th of April 1854.
Within ten days they were amicably settling in concert the ground for
a new camp, which would not hamper the military operations of the
besiegers nor yet compromise the sanctity of the foreign settlement.
Thus there was no obstacle whatever in the way of concerting with the
nearest representatives of the Government of China all those measures
which were demanded by the position of neutrality assumed by the
British Government between the insurgents and imperialist forces, and
also for the regulation and control of the Chinese refugees, who
poured into the foreign settlement to escape the rapine of savage war.
The neutrality of the British representative was difficult to
maintain: by force of circumstances it took a benevolent form towards
the beleaguered rebels, who were dependent for their continued
existence upon supplies received from and through the foreign
settlement. The situation was complicated by the action of the French,
who, having quarrelled with the insurgents, entered on the stage as a
third belligerent. Thereupon the French authorities made a grievance
of "the scandal of supplies being furnished to the declared enemies of
the French in the sight and under the protection of our English
guard," France being at the time allied with Great Britain in
prosecuting the war in the Crimea. Consul Alcock, whose sense of
propriety had already been considerably shocked by the facilities
which the position of the cosmopolitan settlement afforded for
conveying supplies into the city, treated the appeal of his French
colleague with respect, and made it the text of a representation to
the senior naval officer, urging him, if possible, to devise means in
conjunction with the measures which were already being adopted in the
settlement for enforcing British neutrality, so that "we may be able
to give an honest answer to all three belligerents--imperialists,
insurgents, and French." This policy was at the same time proclaimed
by a unanimous resolution of the largest meeting of residents ever, up
to that time, assembled in Shanghai.
The question of the influx of refugees seems not to have met with such
a prompt solution, but that was due rather to the British
plenipotentiary's caution than to the obstruction of the Chinese. In a
despatch to Sir John Bowring, dated June 5, 1854, the consul thus
describes the evil in question:--
As regards the strange and altogether unsatisfactory
position in which we are placed by the pouring in of a
large Chinese population, who have squatted down within our
limits contrary to the standing edicts of their own
authorities, and run up whole streets of wooden and brick
tenements, giving cover to every species of vice and filth,
I have only to remark that a walk through the settlement
[the governor was expected on a visit] will, I am
convinced, satisfy your Excellency that the evil is already
too great and increasing at too rapid a rate to be
overlooked. The health of foreign residents, the security
of their property, and the very tenability of the place as
a foreign location, alike render it imperative that a
jurisdiction of some kind should be promptly and
energetically asserted.
The important negotiations which, within three months, issued in the
birth of the Foreign Maritime Customs, must be regarded as by far the
most important outcome of the rebel episode of 1854-55.
III. THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS.
Extent and audacity of smuggling -- Alcock's determination
to suppress it -- His report on the position -- Corruption
of the Chinese customs service -- Efforts of the British
Government to co-operate in collecting dues -- Nullified by
treaties with other Powers -- Consequent injury to all
foreign trade -- Unexpected solution of the difficulty
during the interregnum -- Impetus given to trade by the
Taiping rebellion -- Alcock with French and American
consuls takes over the customs and collects all dues in
trust for the Chinese Government -- Promissory notes
employed -- Conditions which made it impossible to enforce
payment -- Notes ultimately cancelled.
Certain crying evils in foreign intercourse having arrested the
attention of Consul Alcock from the day of his arrival in China, he
bent himself strenuously to the task of overcoming or mitigating them.
They formed the subject-matter of many anxious reports to his
superiors, for Mr Alcock always took both a serious and a
comprehensive view of his duties. For many years there seemed little
hope of a successful issue to these labours; but at last a rift in the
clouds opened up the prospect of coping with at least one of them, and
that was smuggling. So universal was this practice that it seemed a
necessary and natural feature of all commercial dealings in China. As
its roots lay deep in the Chinese character and civilisation, no
stigma attached to the venality of the officials charged with the
collection of the maritime revenues. Although the practice was in
extent universal, it was by no means wholesale in degree, and where
the facilities for evading duties were so tempting, merchants must
often have been astonished at their own moderation.
Among the legends of the coast, it is true, there were certain _tours
de force_ in the way of smuggling which made good topics for
walnuts-and-wine conversation among a community which was rather
lacking in subjects of general interest,--as of an apocryphal ship
clearing from China in ballast or with coal which would mysteriously
land in England a full cargo of tea, which had been taken on board
without being passed through the custom-house. Conversely, a shipload
of manufactured goods taken on board in England would melt on the
passage to China like a cargo of ice, so far as the records in the
Chinese custom-house would show. One special feat was kept alive,
post-prandially, for many years as the acme of audacious smuggling.
British goods were entered at the custom-house "for re-exportation,"
and no duty paid. The merchant packed the empty cases with silk, which
was thus shipped under the original English marks, and was described
as calicoes, on which a "drawback" was claimed of import duties which
had never been paid at all. Such racy anecdotes belonged to the order
of Rabelaisian humour which inspired the boast of a certain Lancashire
manufacturer at the time when, owing to the scarcity and high price of
cotton, the "filling" of shirtings with plaster of Paris and other
substances to make up the required weight of the piece was raised to
almost the dignity of a fine art. Complaints being made by the
consumer that the cloth so compounded would not wash, this genial
Lancastrian declared that for his part he would never rest satisfied
until he could turn out his calicoes without any cotton in them at
all.
Shanghai, of course, was the great centre of the smuggling trade. What
smuggling was done at Canton, being the only other important entrepot,
was on a system which was regulated by the customs authorities
themselves, and the testimony of Mr Alexander Matheson before the
House of Commons Committee was to the effect that their tariff was so
light that it was not worth the merchant's while to smuggle. Such,
however, was not the view taken by Mr Consul Alcock, who regarded the
smuggling system as a very serious evil, against which he waged a
relentless war. He not only compelled, as far as lay in his power, the
British merchants to comply with the letter of the treaty in their
dealings with the customs, but he further considered himself bound to
enforce on the Chinese officials themselves the proper discharge of
their duty. In these efforts to abolish irregular practices, which all
deplored, many of the British merchants were only too willing to
co-operate with the consul's efforts, and the Foreign Office was
repeatedly moved to take some action in the reform of these abuses.
The difficulties and anomalies of the situation were fully set forth
by Mr Alcock in many reports made to his superior, the chief
superintendent of trade, as the following extract, written in 1851,
will exemplify:--
How the commercial and custom-house system of the West and
the very opposite principles and practice of the East might
be combined so that both should work together with the
least possible friction and prejudice, was a difficult
problem, no doubt, for those who had the framing of
existing treaties. How even the trading operations of
foreign merchants, based upon good faith and honesty, could
be in any way associated with the corrupt and inept
administration of the Chinese custom-house, so that the
revenue of the latter alone should be liable to suffer and
not the foreign trade, though apparently a simpler task,
seems to have presented to the negotiators insuperable
difficulties. For one or other of these problems,
nevertheless, it was essential they should find some
adequate solution, or whatever treaties might be signed
their real mission was unfulfilled, and the basis of all
future trading relations left unstable and unsatisfactory.
We cannot suppose this important fact was overlooked by the
British Government, which, on the contrary, appears to have
sought earnestly to meet the difficulty by undertaking in
good faith to co-operate with the Chinese authorities in
collecting the duties on British trade. Neither is it clear
that failure would have attended such a course had not a
disturbing element been speedily introduced from without
for which adequate provision does not seem to have been
made. We allude to the ratification of treaties with other
Governments which should repudiate all obligation on this
point to contribute to the protection of the Chinese
revenue. It might have been supposed that the Chinese
Government, having obtained so great and unquestionable an
advantage from the Power they had most to fear, would
scarcely have been so foolish as to throw it away upon the
first occasion, yet such proved to be the fact, and some
credit was taken by the United States commissioner for the
omission of all co-operative clauses. Two treaties in
consequence came into operation, founded upon different
principles--the one subversive of the other in a very
essential point. So much was this the case that no fair
trial could be given to the provisions of the British
treaty respecting the payment of duties, and any attempt to
act upon the system contemplated in it became altogether
unpracticable so soon as the alteration of our navigation
laws opened our ports to foreign shipping.
We found that to secure the essential objects of these
treaties as they now stand there is one thing plainly
wanting and yet essential, an honest and efficient
custom-house, and who does not see that this is
unattainable in China? Too much or too little has been
done, therefore. We should either have refused to concede a
right to levy maritime duties, or obtained as the condition
some better guarantee for its impartial exercise. It should
have been remembered that although a foreign Power might
give this right to the Emperor of China, it could not so
easily give him honest and faithful servants, without which
custom-house duties cannot be fairly levied. The very
attempt to profit by such a right partially, and with
manifestly imperfect means, could not fail to prove
injurious to the trade it was the great object of the
treaties to develop and protect. It is superfluous now to
say that against this evil no sufficient provision was
made, and the result has been perpetual and irreconcilable
antagonism. From the first day the American treaty came
into operation the contracting parties, Chinese and
foreign, have been placed in a false position in regard to
each other and to the permanent interests of both. The
emperor had obtained a right he could not unaided duly
exercise, and the foreign merchant was laid under a legal
obligation which under such circumstances tended to make
his trading privileges nugatory. The former was daily
exposed to the loss of the whole or a part of a revenue to
which he was by treaty legally entitled, as the price of
commercial privileges to the foreigner; and the latter, in
so far as he recognised his obligation to pay to such
revenue, was debarred from trading with advantage or
profit.
Loss to the custom-house is palpably only one of the
mischiefs resulting, and injury to foreign trade is the
direct consequence in a far more important degree. There
may be some disposed to question this, but when no man can
calculate on entering into an operation within 15 or 20 per
cent of the prime cost of his merchandise before it shall
leave his hands, and his next-door neighbour may gain
advantage over him to this amount, while the ordinary
margin of profit seldom exceeds that range, it is difficult
to arrive at any other conclusion. And when we consider
that the natural tendency of partial smuggling is to raise
the price in the buying and to lower it in the selling
market, its disastrous influence on the general prosperity
of the trade must be too plain to admit of contradiction.
However it may temporarily enrich a few, it must eventually
impoverish many.
The British plenipotentiary may have thought that
smuggling, so far as the interests of trade were concerned,
would affect only the Chinese revenue: the American
commissioner clearly must have concluded so, and on this
supposition acted. But experience has abundantly proved
such a conclusion erroneous, and based upon a partial view
of the whole case.
The solution of all these difficulties, and the end of the apparently
hopeless struggle to set things right, came about in a way that must
have been totally unexpected by all parties. It was through the
capture of Shanghai by the rebel band in 1853.
The day the city fell the functions of the custom-house ceased, but
trade continued without interruption; indeed the export trade was
naturally stimulated by the eagerness of the natives to convert their
produce into money, and by the desire of the foreign merchants to get
their purchases safely on board ship. But there was no one in a
position to collect the dues. Mr Alcock, never timid when he had a
case for action which satisfied his own mind, proposed to his French
and American colleagues, who also never seemed to hesitate to follow
his lead, a method of bridging over the interregnum of the Chinese
authority and at the same time establishing for the first time the
precedent of collecting full duties. The plan was that the consuls
should themselves perform the functions which the Chinese officials
had never performed--take a rigid account of the goods landed and
shipped, and receive the amount of the duty on them, to be held in
trust for the Chinese Government when it should once more be
resuscitated in Shanghai. Not in coin, however, but in promissory
notes payable on conditions which were complicated by the necessity of
maintaining equality of treatment between the various nationalities
concerned. The contingencies were, in fact, such that it would never
have been possible to enforce payment of the notes, and in the end
they were all cancelled and returned to the merchants, so that during
the ten months between September 1853 and July 1854 there were no
duties collected at all at the port of Shanghai.
IV. CREATION OF THE FOREIGN CUSTOMS.
The provisional system -- British and American ships pay
full dues -- Other nations enter and clear free --
Americans follow the same course -- Alcock's strict views
of neutrality -- Danger of infringing it by establishment
of Government officials within the foreign colony --
Breakdown of the provisional system -- Alcock calls upon
the Imperial Government -- Custom-house re-established by
the Taotai Wu -- Reappearance of all abuses -- Alcock's
remonstrances -- Antecedents of Wu -- He makes private
arrangements and admits vessels free of dues -- Alcock
allows British ships to do likewise -- Shanghai thus
becomes a free port -- Alcock's efforts to meet the
difficulty -- First idea of the foreign customs --
Conditions of success -- Conference with the Taotai --
Delegates appointed -- New custom-house inaugurated July
12, 1854 -- Mr H. N. Lay appointed Inspector-General --
Conditions and essential features which caused immediate
and permanent success of the foreign customs.
The "provisional system," as it was called, worked smoothly for four
months, but not equally, for while British and American ships paid
full duties (in conditional promissory notes), those of other
nationalities, having mercantile consuls, were entered and cleared
exempt from all duty. One Prussian, one Hamburg, two Siamese, one
Austrian, three Danish, and two Spanish--in all ten vessels--were so
cleared between September and January, which was, of course, a serious
injustice to the competing merchants on whose ventures full duties
were levied. In vain might the British consul argue that the cargoes
of these defaulting ships bore no larger a proportion to the whole
trade than in normal conditions the smugglers would bear to the honest
traders. The American consul, sympathising with the latter, notified
on January 20, 1854, his secession from the provisional compact, to
which decision he gave immediate effect by allowing two vessels, the
Oneida and Science, to depart without payment or security of any
kind. It was impossible after this for the British authorities to
continue to lay a burden on their nationals from which competitors
were thus freeing themselves, the more especially as on broader
considerations their collecting duties at all for the Chinese had
been, three years previously, pronounced inexpedient by the British
Government. However commendable, therefore, on political and moral
grounds, and however convenient as a stop-gap, the provisional system
was doomed. The next move was by some means or other to procure the
re-establishment of a legal Chinese custom-house.
This would have been done at an earlier period but for the strict
views held by Mr Alcock on the question of neutrality between the
belligerents. The soil of the foreign settlement had been declared
sacred and neutral. To permit any Chinese authority to use it even for
fiscal purposes seemed a violation of its neutrality. Besides, native
officials exercising their functions there would have had either to
protect themselves by military force, however small, or to be
protected by the foreigners, in either case compromising the
neutrality of the settlement. When the Chinese officials proposed as
an alternative to discharge customs functions afloat in the river, the
same objections presented themselves. The foreigners must in that case
also have defended the revenue collectors from attack by the rebels.
The customs authority therefore remained dormant.
But on the breakdown of the provisional system whereby the three
treaty consuls acted as trustees for the Chinese Government, there was
no alternative left between making Shanghai absolutely a free port and
setting up some sort of native custom-house. As the lesser evil--to
say no more--Mr Alcock chose the latter, and within three weeks of the
lapse of the provisional system he had "called upon the imperial
authorities to re-establish a custom-house in some convenient
locality," offering at the same time to afford them the necessary
facilities for working it. The custom-house was, in fact,
re-established by the Taotai Wu on February 9, when the provisional
system of collecting duties, a system never favoured by the British
Government, was finally and officially terminated.
The reinstatement of the custom-house under the superintendency of the
Taotai Wu was the signal for the prompt reappearance of all the worst
irregularities in an exaggerated form.
The admonitions that official received from Mr Alcock on his treaty
rights and on the necessity for strictness and impartial accuracy were
completely thrown away. The Taotai had been formerly a merchant in
Canton, under the name Samqua; and whether it was the passion for a
"deal" inspired by early training, or the corruption of good manners
by subsequent association with official life, or, as is most likely, a
double dose of both, without the checks appropriate to either, he, the
superintendent of customs, fell at once to making private bargains
with individual merchants. By arrangement with him a Bremen ship, the
Aristides, was allowed to enter and clear without complying with a
single customs or port regulation or the payment of any dues, save
what may have been paid to Wu himself by way of douceur. Two American
ships and one British were dealt with in similar fashion. These facts
being brought to the notice of Mr Alcock, he called the Taotai to
account, and on receiving only subterfuges instead of explanation, he
thenceforth allowed openly to British ships the same privileges that
the Chinese authorities had voluntarily, though secretly, conferred on
those who chose to make corrupt bargains with them. That is to say,
Shanghai became now--from April 1854--absolutely a free port.
At last, then, there was a real _tabula rasa_ inviting a fresh
experiment; and Mr Alcock immediately applied his mind to devising
some new expedient to meet the difficulty. The Chinese superintendent,
however willing to compound to his own advantage for the customs dues,
was as little pleased with its complete abolition as the foreign
authorities themselves, and he had made sundry alternative proposals,
based on his experience at Canton, for the effective collection of
duties. It seemed, however, that in the hands of such a facile
official, or any one likely to succeed him, his remedies against
smuggling were worse than the disease, and the necessity of a new
departure began seriously to occupy the minds of the treaty consuls.
The outcome was a novel scheme, which was mooted in a despatch to Sir
John Bowring, dated May 1, 1854, in which Consul Alcock, while
recognising that "the attempt will not be unaccompanied by serious
difficulties," declared that he "did not relinquish all hope of
success _if the collection of duties can in any way be brought under
the effective control of the three treaty Powers as to the executive
of the custom-house administration_."
"On any other basis," he added, "I believe every effort to benefit the
Chinese revenue and at the same time protect the honest merchant must
in the nature of things prove nugatory." The idea took further shape
in a memorandum of suggestions drawn up by Mr Alcock on 15th June,
when he stated that "the sole issue out of the difficulties by which
the whole subject is beset under existing treaties is to be sought in
the combination of a _foreign element of probity and vigilance with
Chinese authority_."
He adds as the first condition of success the "free concurrence of the
Chinese authorities" in any scheme which may be concocted, and then
proposes "the association with the Chinese executive of a responsible
and trustworthy foreign _inspector of customs_ as the delegate of the
three treaty Powers, to be appointed by the consuls and Taotai
conjointly at a liberal salary." This is put down at $6000 per annum,
the whole foreign staff to cost $12,000, and various details of
administration follow.
It argues well for the absence of international jealousy in those days
that Mr Alcock proposed that a French gentleman of the name of Smith,
in the French consular service, should be the inspector whom he and
the American consul agreed to recommend to the Taotai. In a despatch
to M. Edan on the 27th of June 1854 he solicited his official sanction
to the appointment.
The next step was a conference where the three treaty consuls--Alcock,
Murphy, and Edan--received the Taotai, who discussed with them and
then adopted substantially, though with some modifications, the
"suggestions" above quoted.
Instead of one delegate from the three consuls, it was decided that
each was to appoint one, the three delegates then forming a "board of
inspectors with a single and united action." As many questions of
national and international jurisdiction were likely to arise out of
the executive functions of the inspectors, provision was made for
dealing with them, and as far as human ingenuity could foresee without
any experience to guide, every contingency, down to the minutiæ of
internal administration, was considered in the instructions given to
the inspectors. The announcement of the newly-constituted Customs
Board was formally made by the consuls on July 6, and the new
custom-house was inaugurated on the 12th, the three inspectors being
Mr T. F. Wade, British; Mr Lewis Carr, American; and M. Smith, French.
The new custom-house was an immediate success: it fulfilled every
purpose for which it was created, yielding its full revenue to the
Chinese Government, and putting an end to the temptations of traders
to seek illicit advantages over each other. It says much for the
soundness of the principles on which it was established that not only
has the custom-house of 1854 survived the shock of rebellion and war,
of extended treaties, of the multiplication of trading-ports from five
to thirty and of treaty Powers from three to thirteen, but its roots
have struck deep and its branches have spread wide over every portion
of the empire, and that in spite of the opposition of powerful
provincial officials, whose revenues it curtailed by diverting them
into the imperial channel. The triumvirate Board under which the
institution was launched was little more than nominal, the direction
of the customs being a one-man power from the outset, one only of the
three inspectors possessing either the knowledge, capacity, or zeal
needed to infuse life into the new department.
The first English inspector, who was only lent for a time to start the
new enterprise, was replaced in a few months by Mr H. N. Lay,
interpreter to the consulate, who definitively retired from the
British in order to enter the Chinese service, while Mr Wade returned
to his vice-consular duties. The functions of the Board of Inspectors
were soon consolidated in the office of Inspector-General, which was
conferred upon Mr Lay, and held by him until 1863, when he was obliged
to resign the service of the Chinese Government in consequence of
their failure to ratify his engagements in connection with the Osborn
flotilla.
It only remains to mention in this place that coincident with the
establishment of the maritime customs in Shanghai came the
instructions from her Majesty's Government to cancel the promissory
notes, amounting to a million of dollars, which had been given by the
British merchants for duties during the interregnum, the conditions
attached rendering them legally invalid.
Although the organisation of the foreign customs was an expedient to
meet an emergency never likely to recur, the transaction,
nevertheless, forms a brief epitome of the ideal foreign relations
with China, and it is useful therefore to note what were its essential
features and the conditions of its creation.
_First._ The Chinese Government were reduced to helplessness and were
amenable to advice.
_Second._ Corruption and laxity were inherent in their nature and
ineradicable except by external force.
_Third._ The external force, to be savingly applied, must not be
subversive of Chinese authority, but must supply the element in
administration in which the natives are absolutely wanting, and which
is so tersely summarised by Mr Alcock as "vigilance and probity."
_Fourth._ This combination of Chinese authority with foreign
vigilance and probity, which has rendered the Chinese customs service
a kind of miracle of reform, was capable of renovating the whole
Chinese administration. Why it has not been extended into the other
departments of state is only another form of lament over lost
opportunities.
_Fifth._ That the system was established on the broadest cosmopolitan
basis.
V. MR ALCOCK'S DEPARTURE FROM SHANGHAI.
Promoted to Canton -- Impression he had made upon the
European colony of Shanghai -- Their confidence in his
integrity and ability -- His domestic life -- First
literary work -- Condition of affairs at Canton --
Difficulties and obstructions -- Alcock leaves for home
before the outbreak of 1856.
With these distinguished services Mr Alcock's career in Shanghai was
brought to a close. He was promoted to the senior consulate at Canton,
but he remained long enough in his northern post to see the city of
Shanghai once more in possession of the constituted authorities and
the restoration of peace in the vicinity of the port. Being
practically starved out, the insurgents set fire to the city and made
the best escape they could during the night, which happened to be the
last night of the Chinese year, 17th February 1855. Some may have
escaped, but the greater part fell into the hands of their enemies,
and for weeks afterwards many a ghastly trophy in the neighbourhood
attested the ruthless treatment which the fugitives received,
recalling the realistic picture in a certain epitaph of Villon.
[Illustration: RUSTIC SCENE NEAR SHANGHAI.]
On his departure from Shanghai in April of that year Mr Alcock
received a flattering testimonial from the British residents, who were
cordially joined by both French and Americans. This compliment had the
special value of being practically unanimous, while yet by no means
undiscriminating. As a curious characteristic of the social relations
of the community at that time, it may be mentioned that the document
was presented in two parts, substantially the same, but differently
worded. The explanation of the dual presentation is to be found in the
etiquette which was commonly observed between the Montagues and the
Capulets of the period, it being considered a point of honour that
neither should follow the signature of the other; hence the two
leading members of the community had each to head a separate list.
It was impossible for an officer of such strict views and such an
uncompromising character to live for eight years in the midst of an
independent population whom he had to treat as his subjects without
provoking occasional resentment, and creating friction in carrying out
the details of his administration. Moreover, his public acts were of
too decisive a quality to commend themselves to universal approval.
Yet, frankly recognising all this, the memorialists state, "In
whatever degree as individuals we may have approved or dissented from
any of your acts of public policy, we are all ready to do justice to
the singleness of purpose and sense of public duty under which you
have uniformly acted. We believe that you have throughout held in view
your conscientious convictions of what was right and just, and that no
undue external influence has at any time operated to divert you from
them." In fact, the Shanghai community--_quorum pars fui_--were proud
of their consul, and looked up to him as soldiers do to a commander in
whom they have absolute confidence. They felt themselves ennobled by
contact with a character _sans peur et sans reproche_. Above all, he
represented before the Chinese authorities the dignity of his country
in a manner which has rarely been equalled, and gratitude for that
patriotic service would of itself have covered a multitude of sins.
The feeling of respect so generated reconciled the residents to that
which in another man might have been held to savour of coldness, for
in social life he was reserved, if not somewhat haughty in his
bearing,--partly no doubt from temperament, but chiefly from
absorption in the duties and responsibilities of his office, in
researches into all the matters which concerned his work, and in the
study of subjects which were congenial to his mind. It may also be
said, without reflection on either party, that those robust
recreations which engrossed the leisure of younger men--and the
community was very young--were not of a kind with which the consul had
much personal sympathy. His own distractions were more of a literary
and reflective order. He did not unbend to gain popularity.
His domestic life left him nothing to desire in the way of society. To
his wife he was most devoted, and to her he addressed, in half
soliloquy, a series of thoughts on religious subjects which reveal
more than anything the deep earnestness of his nature. When this
loving helpmeet was snatched from his side in March 1853, the calm
exterior was little disturbed; but having to face that immense gap in
his life, he was thrown more than ever on his mental resources. His
isolation was the more keenly felt when he was relieved from the
heavy demand which the affairs of Shanghai had made on his energies,
and it was in the comparative leisure of Canton that he composed his
first serious political contribution to periodical literature, an
outlet for his thoughts which proved such an attraction to him to the
end of his life. His first essay was an article in the 'Bombay
Quarterly Review' on "The Chinese Empire and its Destinies," published
in October 1855. It was soon followed by a second, entitled "The
Chinese Empire and its Foreign Relations," a paper which fills no less
than seventy-eight pages of the 'Review.' The two together form an
able disquisition on the state of China which has not become obsolete
by lapse of time.
It was during the same period also that he composed that series of
short essays which were published anonymously under the title of
'Life's Problems.' Instead of attempting any appreciation of that
little volume, we prefer to quote the impression it made on one reader
many years afterwards. In a letter of Dora Greenwell, published in her
Memoirs, she says: "I have met with a friend, a book that seems to
take my whole rational nature along with it. I have seen no such book
now or at any former time; and it is a book I have often longed for,
yet never hoped for--a book contemplating _life_ as it is in a
Christian spirit, yet from the natural standpoint."
The consulate in Canton during the year that Mr Alcock occupied the
post presented nothing of sensational interest. There was a
superficial lull there, the lull before the storm which burst in
October 1856, after Mr Alcock had left for home on his first
well-earned furlough. The chronic obstruction to business and the old
difficulties in communicating with the Chinese authorities formed the
burden of his reports to his chief, Sir John Bowring. The question of
direct intercourse and of access to the city, which had been put off
from time to time, was still unsettled. The definitive postponement of
the treaty right of entry till 1849 had not rendered the solution of
it one whit easier. On the contrary, the concession had only served to
confirm the Chinese officials and people in their determination to
resist the claim for ever. On the accession of Lord Palmerston to the
Premiership in 1855 the dormant claim was revived, and Sir John
Bowring was instructed by the Government to obtain unrestricted
intercourse with the native authorities and the full exercise of the
right of admission to all the cities which were opened to trade,
Canton included. To repeated applications of this tenor the Viceroy
Yeh replied by the traditional evasions, thus laying the train for the
explosion which soon followed.
Mr Alcock being personally severed from the chain of events which led
to the outbreak of hostilities in the autumn of 1856, it will be
convenient here to suspend the narrative and glance at some of those
general questions which form the subject-matter of our relations with
China.
FOOTNOTE:
[15] See this whole transaction described in his characteristic manner
by De Quincey in his brochure on China, originally published in Titan,
1857.