두 차례 아편전쟁과 해관 화폐 海關兩의 기원 ― 해관 저울추를 중심으로 ― = Two Opium Wars and the Formation of Maritime Customs Currency — Focusing on the Succession Relationship of Customs Scales —

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper analyzes the process of the succession of the Yuehaiguan(粤海關)'s currency to the Haiguanliang(海關兩) of the Chinese Maritime Customs during the Canton System through the two Opium Wars. The defeat of the First Opium War did not mean the complete dissolution of the Canton System. At the time, the Yuehaiguan had many flaws as a foreign trade customs office, but it was the only option that the Qing dynasty and the West could agree on. As a result of the treaty, the four newly established maritime customs of the era of the Treaty Trade expanded on the modified “Yuehaiguan model” and inherited the proxy taxation structure of the Canton system.
In a proxy tax structure, there is a difference in the weight of the scales between the tax authority and the tax collector. This was a way for Intermediary to manage risk in a system of weighted currency, where the exchange value of a currency was determined by the weight of its pure silver content.
Intermediary had to manage the risk of measurement errors in net weight of silver, whether they used weights heavier than actual ones compared to superior authorities, or adjusted the weight lightly in accounting to achieve balance, known as Jiaping(加平). This made it difficult to accept the weight of the Primary sources as it was. Therefore, this paper tentatively established the figures in the historical materials as “the maximum authorized error of the relative weight values (including the actual weight values)” and examined the relationship between the two with the results of the actual measured weight values.
This paper begins with the hypothesis that the weights of the scales used during the era of the Canton System(粵海關平), the era of the Treaty Trade (關平), and the era of the Chinese Maritime Customs (海關平) were the same. This hypothesis is exactly what the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 and the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858 stipulate. And the purpose is to examine the actuality of the Weihaiguan scales stipulated in each treaty, revealing that the scales of each era's customs were essentially all Weihaiguan scales.
For this purpose, an analysis was conducted on the weight relationship between the “customs scale” and the “tax collector scale” of each era, confirming weight differences of 0.35%, 0.45~0.5%, and 0.4%, respectively. This was simply the officially recognized weight difference in accounting, and it cannot be determined how much it reflects the actual weight values. However, through the measured results of the weights of the scales during the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China period, and through the negotiation process of the dispute that occurred in the Jinhaiguan(津海關) in 1876, it was confirmed that the customs scale was approximately 0.85% (or about 1%) heavier than the Hubu Kuping(戶部 庫平), and the tax collector’s scale was approximately 0.3% heavier.
The Two Opium Wars were a major turning point in the Qing Dynasty's revision of foreign trade policy. The hobu revised the policy direction of managing all the Queguan(榷關) nationwide under a unified operating principle, and the maritime customs was removed from the status of the Queguan(榷關) and recognized as a specialty of foreign trade customs. After the Second Opium War, the currency of the newly established maritime customs, known as Haiguanliang(海關兩), not only signified the independence of customs currency distinguished from the certified standard currency of Qing fiscal accounting, Kupingyin(庫平銀), but also served as one of the symbols indicating the transition from the 榷關體制(Queguan system) to the 海關體制(Haiguan system).

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