海關改制與中國財政

Abstract

本篇論文內，因有關中國海關史一些基礎性的問題，乃係所有研究人員的常識，故而關於 中國海關從傳統模式走向「新關」的過程，不擬討論。同時，惟因原已有粵海關式的制度 存在，所以這篇論文的題目，不用海關建制而言海關改制。 中國的關稅，自1842年五口通商以後，百數十年來，始終難脫財政關稅的色彩，新制海關 之所以會由外人管理，除貿易強權國家的趁機攫取，中國政府也因財政的考慮做此決定。 本篇的主旨，就基於這一特性，探討中國海關改制後的功能與中國財政的關係。然對日抗 戰期間，屬非常時期，貿易幾同停頓，故研究範圍的下限止於1937年。 Given that all researchers in this field are well aware of the fundamentals of the history of the Chinese customs, this article will not dwell on the transforming process of the Chinese customs form the traditional model to the moderm one. In the meantime, in the title of this article the term "reform" rather than "establishment" is used, because at that time there had already existed Canton Customs. Between 1842 when treaty ports were opened and a few years ago, tarriffs in China were always revenue-oriented and were quite long time in the hands of foreigners. Modern Chinese customs was controlled by foreigners for such a long time for the following two reasons: first, major trading powers in the world seized every possible chance to snatch as much profit as possible in China; second, the Chinese government had to rely on them for better financial income. By using this trait as the thesis, this article deals with the relations between the functions of modern customs and the finance of China. Nevertheless, during the Sino-Japanese War, which is considered "special times", virtually all international trading had come to halt; therefore, this study will cover the period only up to the year 1937.