Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Countries (Vol. 40)

二十三 Page 23

Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms, Volume 78

General Discourse on Coastal Defense II

Monopolies and self-imposed restrictions often made these arrangements inconvenient for the merchants. As these policies were carried out over a long period, the old systems gradually fell into neglect. After the eleventh year of the Jiaqing reign [1806], rice ships arriving at the Guangdong Customs Yueguan (粵關); the customs office in Canton responsible for overseeing foreign trade were only granted tax exemptions on the grain itself, while the vessels were strictly ordered to depart the port empty. Consequently, the foreign merchants found no profit in the venture, and the arrival of foreign rice suddenly became rare.

In the fourth year of the Daoguang reign [1824], Governor-General Ruan Ruan Yuan (阮元), a prominent scholar-official and Governor-General of Liangguang known for his focus on practical learning and maritime defense submitted a memorial to the throne. He requested that foreign ships of all nations specifically transporting foreign rice to Guangdong be exempt from both measurement fees and tonnage dues chuanchao (船鈔); a tax based on the size and capacity of a vessel. Under this proposal, the transported rice and grain would be unloaded and stored in the foreign factories yanghang (洋行); the specialized merchant houses or "Hongs" authorized to trade with foreigners for sale. Meanwhile, the original ships would be permitted to load cargo for export, with those goods being subject to the standard taxes and duties. This proposal received an Imperial Decree granting permission for its implementation.

For a time, the annual rice supply at Whampoa Huangpu (黃埔); the anchorage for foreign ships reaching Canton and Macau increased by over 100,000 picul shi (石); a unit of weight/volume for grain, approx. 60kg. However, the rice ships from various nations arriving in Guangdong were mostly small-scale traders rather than foreign merchants with abundant capital. Each ship carried between 3,000 to 4,000 shi, or sometimes only 1,000 to 2,000 shi. Although they carried export goods, the quantities were not very significant. Since the profit from foreign rice was already slim, and export taxes still had to be paid, the initial exemption of import duties and fees was barely enough to offset—