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CHAPTER  XII
THE  INSPECTORATE  OF  CUSTOMS
The  foundations  of  the  “  Foreign  ”  Customs  were  laid  iu
the  necessities  of  the  Chinese  Government,  and  not  in  any
demand  by  the  foreign  merchants  that  an  improved  revenue
service  should  be  provided  for  them.  The  forces  of  the
Taiping  rebellion,  marching  from  Kwangsi  in  1852,  worked
their  way  north  through  Hunan  and  thence  down  the  valley
of  the  Yangtze,  destoying  the  fabric  of  Imperial  Government ­
  in  all  the  provinces  through  which  their  devastating
course  was  marked  ;  twelve  months  later  they  entered
Kiangsu  from  the  west,  and  in  September,  1853,  the  Chinese
city  of  Shanghai  was  captured.  The  limit  of  their  advance
was  the  moat  of  the  city,  the  foreign  settlements,  imm e '
diately  adjoining,  being  defended  by  the  foreign  nava
forces  ;  and  to  this  haven  of  refuge  the  Chinese  official 5
all  fled.  The  Custom  House  was  thus  closed  by  f° rCi
majeure  ;  and  for  a  time  there  was  no  authority  to  cofl eC
the  revenue  from  the  important  foreign  trade  of  Shangha^
The  merchants,  then  chiefly  English  and  American,  inherit
the  honorable  traditions  of  the  old  factory  days  of  Cant 011 '
and  had  no  desire  to  evade  the  payment  of  their  du^ 5 '
which  had  been  placed  upon  a  just  and  moderate  basis  ky
the  treaties  of  1842  and  later  years  ;  and  the  Consuls,  nevW
armed  with  extraterritorial  jurisdiction,  conceived  it  to  k e
as  much  their  duty  to  control  as  to  protect  their  national 5 '
control  being  rendered  the  more  easy  by  the  fact  that  oO  j

three  powers  were  involved.  The  first  step  taken  to
over  the  moratorium  was  an  arrangement  by  which  1
foreign  merchants  declared  to  their  Consuls  the  nature

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