试析1955年美日关税谈判

1955年美日关税谈判是战后美国对日政策的必然结果。为了复兴日本经济,使日本成为东亚冷战战略的支柱,美国采取的一个重要措施就是推动日本加入关贸总协定,而日本入关的最关键一步是美日完成最重要的关税谈判。为此,美国政府克服了来自国会的障碍,在谈判桌上向日本做出了巨大的让步,使日本获得了颇为可观的利益。这在世界贸易史上是极不正常的现象,对日本、美国以及资本主义世界经济秩序均产生了深远的影响。     

南京国民政府时期关税改订的性质与日本的对策——兼论1933、1934年度中国关税改订与棉业的关系

1933年中国提高进口关税,是在主权范围之内的合法措施,并带有较强的保护关税性质。‘棉制品进口税率大幅度的提高,是这一次关税改订最明显的特征。本文分别研究了中国民族纺织业、日本在华纺织业和日本国内纺织业与此次关税改订的关系,进而对中日之间围绕关税改订和棉麦借款进行的交涉,做了述评,指出了1934年关税再改订既有财政上的原因,更是国民政府内部对日妥协政策占支配地位的结果。     

关税特别会议的评价问题——以“关税自主案”为中心的分析

关税会议对恢复中国关税自主权问题的讨论以及它所通过的关税自主案,既是当时社会各界关注的焦点,也是评价关税会议的要点。关税自主案既非有效条约亦非国际协定,并不具有约束各方的国际法效力,不能对其评价过高。从其形成过程来看,关税自主案存在悬而未决的问题。围绕关税会议而形成的关税自主运动高潮及其本身所体现出的自主趋向,方为认识和评价关税会议的基本层面。     

清代烟草税收研究

烟税在当今中国的财政收入中有重要的地位,而烟税并非朝夕形成的.烟草自明万历年间传入之后,中国历届政府随即开始了烟禁政策.烟禁失败以后,则开始对烟草实行征税政策,清朝初年形成了较为系统的烟草税收.清朝前期的烟草税收,主要分为烟草商品税与烟草关税,烟草一般作为"百货"与其他商品统一征税.晚清时期,清政府开始征收烟草厘金,烟厘被从厘金之中提出,与酒厘形成烟酒税,成为政府财政收入的重要来源,逐渐演变成当今的烟税.     

近代中外经济关系中关税与厘金的纠葛

关税与厘金的复杂关系是近代中外经济关系中长期存在的重要问题,从晚清到民国,一直是外交谈判中的主要议题之一。厘金产生之后,就与海关的子口税产生矛盾,从而产生了漫长的裁厘加税谈判。随着关税地位的上升,中国方面要求关税自主的呼声日渐高涨,于是裁厘加税又转变成列强要求裁撤厘金和中国要求关税自主之间的较量。最后的结果是协定关税和厘金同时废除。从近代关税和厘金的纠葛来看,这是中国历届政府和列强为本国经济利益而进行的较量,也暗含了中国政府加强自身统治力量与列强控制中国这两者之间的冲突。     

评哈斯基森的关税政策改革

19世纪20年代的哈斯基森关税改革,打破了英国传统经济与商业政策下保护主义的坚冰,廓清了通往自由贸易道路的主要障碍,促进了国内制造业、商业及对外贸易的发展,与同时期英国在内政和外交领域的自由主义改革相互呼应,是英国由重商主义转向自由主义的重要环节。     

南京国民政府关税政策对江苏省植棉业的冲击

江苏地处太湖流域,气候风土极宜植棉。经过千百年的积淀与发展,江苏省最终成为全国棉业的中心。南京国民政府时期,江苏省的传统植棉业迅速萎缩,一个主要原因就是国外优质棉花对国内原棉市场的挤占。缓解外棉冲击最有效的措施就是施行资本主义国家惯用的关税保护政策,而南京国民政府在这一方面的表现却是让人大失所望的,江苏省植棉业始终没能摆脱外棉的竞争压力,这种状况甚至变得越来越糟。     

北洋外交与华府会议条约规定的突破——关税会议的事实梳理与问题分析

关税会议是北洋政府争取中国关税自主的一次艰难外交努力。北洋外交家利用社会主流舆论的支持,成功地将关税自主列为会议议题,并通过论证裁厘的可行性,说服与会代表通过了未被华盛顿会议列为讨论范围的关税自主议案;在附加税加征问题上,会议突破华府条约二五征税的税率规定,在实现关税自主之前的过渡时期为中国争取到了实际的经济利益,一定程度上实现了设定的外交目标。     

“关税特别会议”中有关附加税及税率问题之讨论

1925年10月26日召开的关税特别会议,就结果而言,一如之前历次商约、税则修改的谈判,成以失败告终;但就过程而论,却可视为近代中国在争取关税自主努力上的一个重要里程碑。在与会代表的努力和收回主权意识的觉醒下,为日后实行关税自主及开征二五附加税,奠定下了良好的基础。     

中世纪和近代早期英国关税性质的演变

中世纪和近代早期,英国关税性质发生了根本性变化,从一种国王特权税,逐渐演变为处于议会严格控制下的议会间接税。中世纪和1625年前的近代早期,关税主要是国王的一种特权税。1625-1660年间,随着议会和王权斗争的高涨,以及议会的暂时胜利,关税一度转变为处于议会直接控制下的间接税。复辟时期,关税的最终课征批准权继续掌握在议会手中,但因缺少日常操控权,其关税权残缺不全。光荣革命后,因议会在与王权的斗争中取得了决定性胜利,关税演变为完全由议会严格控制的间接税。     

论晚清"裁厘统捐"与"裁厘认捐"的尝试及夭折

厘金在晚清财政中占有重要地位,但因多次征收而导致的税率过高使多方极为不满,也造成了中央与地方的财政矛盾。《辛丑条约》签订后,为了预备“裁厘加税”,清政府决定对厘金进行改革,实施“裁厘统捐”。随着立宪运动的展开,商民势力较大的江浙等省发起“裁厘认捐”,以抵制清廷的“裁厘统捐”。由于厘金问题事涉中央、地方、商民等多方利益与矛盾,加之清廷措置失当,短时期内难以顺利调适,博弈的结果是官方的“裁厘统捐”和商民的“裁厘认捐”均以失败告终。     

朝野纠葛:北京政府时期的舆论与外交--以关税特别会议为个案的考察

关于北京政府时期的外交,尽管学术界近来已开始有了较为客观的评价,不过对于其背后因素的考察还有待深入。实际上,在北京政府时期,由于特殊的时代背景,各种社会舆论被全面动员起来,以汹涌澎湃之势冲击着外交这一特殊的政治领域,从而形成了近代史上国民外交的黄金时期。于是,由于中央政府统治的虚弱,在其决策者进行外交运作时,就处处受到来自舆论界的影响,这是一个极为明显的历史特色,通过对当时舆论的考察,就会更深层次地探究北京政府外交的两难境地。笔者在考察时,主要以关税特别会议为个案,以上海舆论为核心,以《申报》、《东方杂志》等报刊为第一手资料。     

How Not to Run a Political Campaign: The Failure of the Unionist Free Traders 1903–6*

In 1903, Joseph Chamberlain launched a campaign aimed at the economic and political union of portions of the British empire behind a system of tariffs. The attack on Britain's 60‐year‐old system of free trade led to a polarising of opinion and sparked fierce controversy in the political sphere. It also shattered the unity of the Unionist Party, dividing it into three factions. One faction supported Chamberlain's policy, a second a more moderate policy proposed by party leader, Arthur Balfour, and a third – the smallest – the fiscal status quo. This article concerns this last faction, its motivations, actions and effectiveness. It argues that its concern with parliamentary alliances and methods, rather than the mass campaigns that were launched by its fellow opponents of Chamberlain, not only meant it was always bound to fail in its objectives, but made the problems of the Unionist Party far worse than they might otherwise have been. It concludes that the main reason why it failed to stop, or even delay Chamberlain's domination of the Unionist Party, not to mention suffering serious electoral losses, was largely due to its own incompetence in failing to grasp the new reality of mass politics and the need for new political approaches to deal with it.     

加入世界贸易组织对中国农业发展的影响及其对策

新一轮中国加入世界贸易组织多边谈判的开始,标志着中国入世进程的加快。中国作为一个有8亿多农民的农业大国,入世后农业的发展将首当其冲地受到影响。本文研究了加入世贸组织对中国农业产生的影响及应采取的措施。认为:中国加入世贸组织将有利于优化农产品出口的国际市场,有利于国际贸易争端的有效解决,有利于促进中国农村经济体制的改革;入世后随着进口关税的降低和我国农村经济体制存在的固有矛盾,国内农产品市场将遭受前所未有的压力,国内粮食生产将受到一定的冲击,且一定时期内政府用于进口农产品的外汇将显著增加;国际市场对我国不同种类农产品的生产及贸易产生的影响具有显著的差异性;加入WTO对中国农业发展的影响是机遇和挑战并存,有必要采取积极可行的措施促进中国农业的稳定发展以保证国家粮食的安全。     

Lancashire Conservatives,Tariff Reform and Indian Responsible Government

The success of Tory Democracy in Lancashire heightened its influence in Conservative party debates about tariff reform and India. New Delhi’s imposition of tariffs from 1917 prompted Lancashire Conservatives to gradually modify their position on free trade, so that by 1931 they supported imperial preference. India’s reluctance to lower tariffs led many to criticise the 1933 India white paper. Historians have examined front bench and die-hard conservative efforts to win over Lancashire, but they have overlooked the extent to which local feeling and activism on India was native to the county and not imported from Westminster.     

A ‘Small Free Trade Oasis’?: agriculture,tariff policy,and the Danish example in Great Britain and Ireland,c. 1885–1911

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Denmark was an important overseas example in the United Kingdom's intertwined debates over free trade and agricultural modernization. Both countries remained open to foreign agricultural imports even as many other European states protected their farmers. But whilst British and Irish agriculture struggled, Denmark became a hugely successful exporter of dairy and pork. This achievement of rural prosperity under a liberal trade regime had obvious relevance to the future of agriculture in Britain, and particularly Ireland. Agricultural reformers in the two islands used the Danish example to show that technical education and co-operative production would allow farmers to profit even under free trade, whilst for British Liberals, ideologically committed to free trade, Denmark demonstrated that imported foodstuffs were actually a prerequisite for a flourishing rural economy. Several prominent Danish free traders personally intervened in the early 20th-century debate over tariff reform to affirm these very points. However, British and Irish protectionists contested the ‘free trade’ character of Denmark's fiscal policy. The article situates the Danish comparison within a broader Anglo-Scandinavian transnationalism, in which the themes of modernity and liberalism reside to the fore.     

A Crisis of Urban Conservatism? Politics and Organisation in Edwardian Norwich

Writing in the mid 1990s, Ewen Green suggested that the Edwardian Conservative Party was locked in a crisis which, after 1910, was leading towards a disintegration of Unionism. Recent research has challenged this view, contending that at constituency level, Conservative activists and parties were recovering, rebuilding around issues such as Ireland, land reform and opposition to National Insurance. However, there are few studies of the causes and consequences of the crisis of Conservatism in urban constituencies or the extent to which the party may have been recovering by the outbreak of the Great War. This article considers these issues in the city of Norwich. It assesses the profile of activists; the fortunes of the Conservatives in the parliamentary election contests of the period, addressing the ways the party used a variety of candidates to attempt to attract popular support; and the particular issues of tariff reform and socialism, to determine the extent to which voters and activists were willing to accept protection as part of a broader defence against socialism. These national issues are contrasted with the performance of the party in municipal elections, considering the basis of the growing appeal they evidenced in council elections after 1906, along with the continuing emphasis on organisational weakness evidenced by party leaders. Overall, it suggests that, despite their municipal strength, the continued commitment of the local party to tariffs prevented them from challenging effectively for the constituency against a Liberal‐Labour alliance with a shared belief in free trade.     

‘The apostle of free trade:’ Adam Smith and the nineteenth-century American trade debates

This paper examines the diversity of uses of Adam Smith’s ideas in nineteenth-century American debates about the tariff. Legislative debates about American trade policy ran almost uninterrupted from the 1820s to the end of the century; as a result, they provide an abundance of examples of the ways in which legislators marshaled economic ideas to shape political discourse and influence policy. Smith’s causal ideas about free trade and its effects were referenced in policymaking, and Smith’s intellectual authority was often invoked as a legitimating device for partisan ideology. These uses, I argue, contributed to the sloganizing of Smith as the ‘apostle of free trade’ and his enduring popularity as a political icon in American politics.     

A European political-economic space that embraced Japan: the international context of the conventional-tariff network,ca.1892–1914

This article sheds new light on the economic globalization in Europe and Asia from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, with a special focus on the role of bilateral commercial treaties and import tariffs. Countries concluded a number of treaties in those days, and they came to form an extensive ‘conventional-tariff network’. This mechanism contributed to the stabilization of international economic-political space by facilitating reciprocal tariff concessions. The extent of this conventional-tariff network was both temporally and geographically larger than has been assumed. First, as the recent scholarship has shown, the network, which emerged in the 1860s, survived the political turbulence of the 1890s and spanned Central European countries such as Germany and Italy by the early 1910s. Second, the network spread outside Europe and reached East Asia by the 1910s, when Japan renegotiated its commercial treaties and became a new member of the network. The network embodied so strong a mechanism of self-maintenance based on the coordination of economic interests that it was resilient to a major political shock such as the First World War. While the tariff systems in Europe and in East Asia around 1900 have been separately discussed in the literature, this paper focuses on the treaty partnership between these two areas to show how the mechanism of the conventional-tariff network enabled the countries to cooperate for mutual concessions on international trade.