Porous borders: Kowloon imperial maritime customs and the regulation of foreign-flagged Chinese junks from Hong Kong (1902-1911)

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.