谁阻路政:岑春煊与丙午广东粤汉铁路风潮

自粤汉路权从美国合兴公司赎回以后,粤汉铁路进入粤湘鄂三省分省合办阶段。鉴于广东绅商的集股办法存在弊端,张之洞一再强调和坚持官督商办体制,岑春煊提出广东官商"合力筹款"的思路,由官向商征收台炮捐、船捐、酒捐、盐捐等,由官收存,作为官款、公款,发给商铁路股票。这个思路和做法遭到绅商的反对,由此而出现官绅分歧,1906年(丙午)年初引发官绅冲突,是为丙午广东粤汉铁路风潮。岑春煊指责绅商阻挠路政,申述征收捐费属于"就地收捐",争辩本省人集款建本省路的合理性。绅商则指责岑春煊苛捐虐民,扰乱路政。风潮发生后,岑春煊和绅商分别采取相应的措施,绅商逐渐加紧了招股、收股的行动,并有初步成效。一直注重商权的岑春煊在张之洞和广东同僚的调停下表达了"但愿路事有成"的愿望,释放了被捕的黎国廉,颁布了同意商办的告示,铁路风潮得以消解,广东粤汉铁路的自办实现了由官督商办到商办的体制转型。风潮的发生和体制的转型是粤汉铁路自办进程中必然发生的现象,也是粤汉铁路筹建进展的结果和表现。在这个过程中,岑春煊和绅商都在探索筹款办法和体制问题,他们都不是阻挠路政或扰乱路政者,而是粤汉路政的推进者。

Cen Chunxuan and the Canton-Hankow Railroad Agitation in Bingwu

Since the rights of the Canton-Hankow Railroad were redeemed by the American China Development Company,its history had entered into the period in which it would be built by Guangdong,Hunan and Hubei provinces.The fund-raising method of Guangdong gentry merchants had its own drawbacks,and furthermore,Zhang Zhidong always emphasized and insisted on the system of government-supervising and merchant-managing.Thus,Cen Chunxuan posed the idea of"fund-raising with resultant force"among the officials and merchants of Guangdong.Officials levied cannon tax,ship tax,liquor tax and salt tax from merchants,and stored them as official or public funds.In return,officials gave railroad stocks to merchants.However,this idea and practice were opposed by the gentry merchants,resulting in official-merchant antagonism.At the beginning of 1906(the year of Bingwu),the official-merchant dispute was triggered,which was called the Canton-Hankow Agitation in Bingwu.Cen Chunxuan criticized the gentry merchants for obstructing the railroad affairs and stated that those taxes belonged to"local taxes",thereby proving the rationality of raising funds in their own province to construct provincial railroads.In the meantime,the gentry merchants criticized Cen Chunxuan for abusing people with harsh duties and disturbing the railroad affairs.After the agitation,Cen Chunxuan and the gentry merchants took respective measures.The gentry merchants took actions to raise and collect capital,which had some preliminary effect,while Cen Chunxuan,who attached importance to merchant rights of middle and small stockholders,expressed his desire to finish railroading as soon as possible under the mediation of Zhang Zhidong and other Guangdong colleagues.He released Li Guolian and issued the bulletin of agreeing with merchantoperating.The railroad agitation was dispelled in this way and the system of self-managing the Canton-Hankow Railroad was transformed from government-supervising and merchant-managing to merchant-operating.In the process of selfmanaging the Canton-Hankow Railroad,the occurrence of the agitation and the system transformation were not only the inevitable phenomenon,but also the results and manifestation of progress in the Canton-Hankow Railroad affairs.In the process,Cen Chunxuan and the gentry merchants had been continuously exploring the fund-raising method and the system issue.Their roles were not to obstruct or disturb the railroad affairs,but to promote the construction of the railroad.