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Porous borders: Kowloon imperial maritime customs and the regulation of foreign-flagged Chinese junks from Hong Kong (1902-1911)
Author(s)
Date Issued
2011
Conference
Citation
Choi, S. H. (2011 May 6). Porous borders: Kowloon imperial maritime customs and the regulation of foreign-flagged Chinese junks from Hong Kong (1902-1911). Spring History Symposium 2011, HKU.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Although the Mackey Treaty in 1902 provided that the tariffs and Likin combined
levied on goods carried by Chinese junks from Hong Kong to treaty ports in
Guangdong province should not more than the duties on goods carried by
steamships, however, the evasion of Likin and Chingfei by Chinese junks was
continued and the new trading practice, that is, the namely ownership of Chinese
junks by foreign trading firms and daily operation of the junks by Chinese masters,
was becoming prosperous in the waters of Hong Kong, Canton and various
non-treaty ports in Guangdong province. This created a problem for Kowloon
Imperial Maritime Customs, which was responsible for collecting tariffs and Likin
from Chinese junks traveling between Hong Kong and Guangdong province, how
far it should regulate the foreign-flagged junks?
Based on the reports and correspondences written by Kowloon Imperial Maritime
Customs, this paper first discusses Chinese junk’s business model and their
strategies of evading Likin and Chingfei, by using the colonial status of Hong Kong
and the Chineseness of Chinese merchants. Second, it analyses the position of
Kowloon Customs within the system of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs and
how Hong Kong, as a “free port”, was fitted in treaty port and non-treaty systems in
Guangdong province. This paper is suggesting that regardless of the increasing
appearance of steamships in coastal trade of Hong Kong and South China in the
1890s, Chinese junks was still a crucial element of connecting Hong Kong with
Guangdong province in the field of imports and exports trade.
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