A Research On Coast Duty In Late Qing Dynasty

Coast duty was an import tax collected from foreign ships which transported Chinese local products from one trading port to another. It was also named as re-import half duty, for its tax rate was half of the export tax rate. This kind of coast duty met the needs of imperialist powers that seizing equity of local product trade along the coast, developing coastal shipping power and resisting transit tariff. From its building to levying, the tax system experienced a complicated historical process.Although legitimizing the transshipment trade of foreign ships on Chinese seacoasts, damaging the original tax system, seriously hitting the traditional sailing boat business in China, at that time, it injected fresh factors into the economy and promoted the development of local product trade to some extent.The double effect of Coast duty on social economy in late Qing Dynasty was an unavoidable feature under that special social background.