116 



CHINA. 



and a restitution of the city and district. No 

 salt was made, no banks were opened, little trade 

 Avas done. The military commanders granted 

 commercial concessions to members of their offi- 

 cial staffs which will be binding on the Chinese 

 Government for sixty years, and confiscated for 

 the benefit of foreigners valuable lands and 

 buildings, giving small remuneration to owners. 

 The Japanese minister sought to remove the in- 

 hibition of Chinese troops in the Tientsin district, 

 of which the British as well as the Russian min- 

 ister had expressed disapproval, though all three 

 originally voted with the three other mini-iters 

 for the sake of unanimity. The United States 

 used its good offices effectively, and, with the 

 support of England, Japan, and Russia, obtained 

 the elimination of the obnoxious conditions. The 

 area of over 1,000 square miles in which the 

 Chinese could have no military force was re- 

 duced to about 50 square miles, a circle with a 

 radius of 6 miles, and there is no restriction to 

 the number of police that can be employed in 

 this smaller district. All the numerous conces- 

 sions dealt out by the provisional Government 

 were declared null and void. The provisional 

 Government during its existence destroyed Taku 

 and the forts on the coast as far as Shanhaik- 

 wan, replaced the wall of Tientsin with a boule- 

 vard, did much for the sanitation of the city, 

 suppressed piracy on the Peiho to a great extent, 

 and began and provided for the completion of 

 the regulation of that river which will render it 

 navigable for seagoing vessels. The English re- 

 stored the Pekin and Shanhaikwan Railroad to 

 the Chinese in the beginning of October, after 

 the Russians had surrendered the railroad to 

 Niuchwang and begun the evacuation of Man- 

 churia south of the Liao river. 



The Chinese Government and the Yangtse 

 viceroys pressed for the withdrawal of the for- 

 eign garrisons at Shanghai. The British posted 

 a garrison there during the Boxer troubles, and 

 because they did so the French sent one, and 

 then the Japanese, and lastly the Germans. Each 

 garrison was about 200 strong. The Nankin 

 Viceroy did not object, although their presence 

 scarcely helped him in his efforts to hem the 

 antiforeign movement and prevent a rising in the 

 Yangtse valley. After the peace, and still more 

 after the restitution of Tientsin, the center of 

 the Boxer movement, the continuance of the for- 

 eign garrisons was a humiliating slight to the 

 Yangtse viceroys. The French and the British 

 and Japanese were willing to retire their troops 

 at once, but the Germans were not inclined to 

 move so quickly. The German military authori- 

 ties planned to keep a brigade in China of 3,300 

 men, only 1,500 less than in 1901, and ordered 

 800 to be stationed at Shanghai, 400 at Tsingtau, 

 300 at Pekin, and 1,300 were kept at Tientsin 

 until the evacuation. England, France, and Ja- 

 pan expressed willingness to leave Shanghai, and 

 proposed a simultaneous withdrawal of the for- 

 eign forces. Ihe Germans complained, when the 

 board to manage the regulation of the Whangpu, 

 or Shanghai, river was elected, that owing to 

 an Anglo-Japanese coalition only one German 

 was appointed, reducing" them, notwithstanding 

 the importance of their shipping and commerce 

 in the Yangtse, to the same position as the Danes 

 and Belgians, while the Americans, French, and 

 Japanese had 2 members respectively and the 

 English 5. The Nankin Viceroy. Liu-Kun-Yi, 

 had to appoint a member, in addition to the 

 Taotai of Shanghai and the commissioner of 

 customs, but at first he declined, resenting the 

 omission to consult him in the matter and be- 



cause he considered that the conservancy scheme 

 under international control was a violation of 

 China's sovereign rights. 



New Commercial Treaty. The financial 

 question resulting from the heavy indemnity ex- 

 acted by the powers was the most difficult and 

 pressing one that confronted Chinese statesmen. 

 Among various expedients, mostly trivial or fu- 

 tile, the most important was a house tax, which 

 could not be generally applied at once without 

 provoking rebellion. In Shanghai, Wuchang. 

 Canton, and other large cities the authorities at- 

 tempted to introduce it gradually, levying it in 

 the beginning on property paying high rents. In- 

 creased salt and land taxes were imposed sporad- 

 ically and without sufficient sanction. All at- 

 tempts to raise revenue failed. The United 

 States Government repaid to China $376,000, the 

 value of silver bullion seized by United States 

 troops in the salt yamen at Tientsin. The Rus- 

 sians returned the salt heaps they had seized, 

 having at no time been able to sell any of the 

 salt because the Chinese were forbidden by their 

 Government to buy it from the Russians. 



The negotiation of a new commercial treaty 

 was undertaken by England, with which country 

 the existing treaty and nearly all commercial 

 arrangements with China were originally made. 

 Sir James L. Mackay was appointed British com- 

 missioner, and Sheng-Ta-Jen and Lu-Hai-Huan 

 were the Chinese commissioners. The subjects 

 of negotiation included the registration and pro- 

 tection of trade-marks, a uniform national cur- 

 rency, extension of bonding privileges, the im- 

 portation of foreign salt, free movement of na- 

 tive grain within the limits of the empire, the 

 right of permanent residence in the interior for 

 commercial purposes, the improvement of navi- 

 gable waterways, increased transit facilities for 

 exports, the definition of the area free of likin 

 at treaty ports, refonn of the Mixed Court at 

 Shanghai, provision for a higher tribunal for 

 civil suits, amendment of the inland navigation 

 rules, definition of the liability of Chinese share- 

 holders in foreign companies, amendment of the 

 drawback system, equal treatment of car. r n - 

 carried by foreign vessels and by Chinese junk>. 

 complete exemption from duty and freedom of 

 trade between all river ports, amendment of the 

 railroad and mining regulations, extension of the 

 postal and telegraph services, substitution of 

 taxes for the likin duties on native opium, o] Til- 

 ing of new treaty ports, and general faciliiio 

 for trade. American, Austrian, Belgian, Dutch 

 British, French, German, and Japanese coininN 

 sioners studied the question of the new pro- 

 visional customs tariff, while Sir J. L. Mackax 

 was urging on the Chinese Government the 

 visability of abolishing likin barriers. Unex|>c< -t 

 ed objections came from Manchester merchant 

 and others in the China trade who have cease* 

 lessly pressed for this reform, but now reckoner! 

 the difficulties and delays in carrying it out ami 

 the probable diminution of profits, as it 

 contingent on an increase of the import dutiei 

 to 15 per cent. They also feared the competi- 

 tion of native yarns and piece goods ami of 

 other native manufactures if those were freed 

 from likin. To abolish the whole system of 

 likin barriers was a stupendous task, as an army 

 of officials is employed in the collection and nm-t 

 of the public revenues are drawn from likin. col- 

 lected from native as well as from foreign ^ 

 It was likin that destroyed the tea trade o 

 China. American and Russian merchants ob- 

 jected to trebling import duties for the sake of 

 suppressing likin, which in north China, where 



