- 著者
-
金 昇來
- 出版者
- 東洋文庫
- 雑誌
- 東洋学報 = The Toyo Gakuho (ISSN:03869067)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.103, no.2, pp.1-28, 2021-09-16
Even before the decline of the Qing Dynasty, which began at the turn of the 19th century, there were cases of the construction of access roads in and out of the former British Settlement of Shanghai; then as early as 1869 the ratepayers of the consolidated International Settlement approved the management of “extra-settlement roads” by the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC). In 1885, with the introduction of a private subscription system, the SMC began collecting monetary dues to pay for various infrastructure projects and law enforcement services beyond the Settlement’s boundary. While this move was initially intended to provide security in this area, the SMC gradually employed the policy to expand its influence outside the Settlement. Through proposal of the special tax of water in 1906, the SMC attempted to bring its private subscription system into the new millennium, by renewing its contract with the Shanghai Waterworks and levying surcharges on existing water rates. The same method was then used in contracting telephone services. On the other hand, the chief executive of the Qing Dynasty’s Shanghai local administration, the Taotai, was not about to recognize any encroachment of foreigner influence beyond the Settlement and thus refused to allow any SMC tax collection outside its border. At the same time, however, the Taotai was forced to recognize the utility of the Settlement’s various infrastructure projects on the periphery, thus approving water supply, while prohibiting the collection of external taxes to pay for them. Nevertheless, these actions did not mean that the SMC’s surcharges were completely eliminated, as the Taotai merely avoided mentioning their existence, resulting in Chinese subjects paying water surcharges to the SMC until 1911, when finally exempted; but the Council continued to collect from foreign residents. However Taotai might recognize all along the fact that the surcharges were still collected even after he banned, so rather than make further action on prohibiting their collection, he no doubt preferred to concentrate on the modernization of local administration in the Chapei region adjoining the Settlement. This is why it was necessary for the Taotai to continue to stress that the northwest suburb of Paoshan prefecture along the Yangtze River was not an open port, but rather a part of the Chinese inland territory, in order to demonstrate his success in preventing the expansion of foreign influence into its inland regions.