<論説>清末粤海関の展開 : 広州における洋関設立の意味

Abstract

南京条約以前、中国の西洋貿易に当たった外洋行商人の取引は、粤海関の立場からすると徴税の過程にほかならないものであった。外国側の不満を買った附加税や独占などは、このような取引と徴税が表裏一体となった構造から生じた現象である。外洋行商人が包括的に営んでいた、この取引・徴税の機能は一八三〇年代より徐々に分化しはじめ、五〇年代半ばになると、貿易様式の変化によって旧外洋行商人が姿を消し、粤海関の徴税の機能は通事に集約される一方で、広州の貿易は香港やマカオとのつながりが強まり、小汽船やロルチャ船による交易が盛んとなった。通事はこの交易に対処できなかったため、通事に代わって洋関が設立されるようになる。すなわち、粤海関の徴税が対外取引から分離独立した過程となるのに対応して、徴税のための機構も外洋行から析出され、その最終的な形態が洋関であったのである。以上のような洋関の設立に帰結する粤海関の展開は、従来ほとんど注目されてこなかったが、清末の内外にわたる交易と徴税の関係を考えるうえで、示唆するところ少なくないであろう。

Prior to the Treaty of Nanking, the Hong-merchants' transactions with foreign traders were, from the viewpoint of the customs house authorities at Canton, an important revenue-producing process. The monopoly held by, and the excessive charges placed on foreign trade by the Chinese are the consequences of this particular structure of trade and taxation. Throughout the 1840 s, whilst the structure itself was not transformed even after the first Treaty settlement, the Hong-merchants' functional involvement in both trade and taxation based on it had been gradually diverging since the 1830 s. In the mid-1850 s, due to changes in the Sino-foreign trade system, the old Hong-merchants eventually retired from the Canton trade, and revenue-raising became a function of the linguists who had played the part of customs house clerks and interpreters in the name of the Hong-merchants in pre-Treaty days. Then the trade between Hongkong and Macao and Canton with river steamers and lorchas had been developing rapidly. The foreign inspectorate of customs at Canton, established in 1859, replaced the linguists who were not able to control the river-steamer trade on the Canton river. In other words, the divergence of the revenue-producing process from the transactions with foreign traders gave rise to an agency for levies on foreign trade at Canton independent of the Hong-merchants, which was in its turn succeeded by the establishment of the foreign inspectorate. This development at Canton, throws light on the relationships between the Ch'ing authorities and the Chinese brokers, and thus is significant for research on trade and taxation during late Ch'ing China as a whole.