From "Tariff Increase" To "Tariff Autonomy"

The unequal treaties signed after Opium Wars deprived China of its rights on tariff.As the result,The tariff rates had been strictly limited under 5%.As sovereignty consciousness awakening and the deterioration of government finances,the qing government to actively seek to negotiate with the modified tariff,but no progress.Beiyang governmentusing the existing treaty provisions on "10 years of maturity(revised)continue to negotiate with other countries since its established,,and hope to make tax rate to reach 5% of the standard,but still slow progress.This situation was broken by the first world war,China made use of the powers’ abruption to require complete tariff autonomy,completed the important transformation on the target from the "Tariff increase" to "tatiff autonomy".Paris Peace Conference marked the fail of recover tariff autonomy by directly consult with powers at the same time.As a result,China made use of the international situation after first world war,turning to abolish related privileges by separate negotiation.At the same time,with the promote of the negotiations,China abandon the intention of immediately restore the tariff autonomy.In contrast,hope to restore the right by gradually improving the tariff rate.China’s concessions prompted the differentiation of the powers’ camp.As the result,both the north and the south government could begin to collect the super-tax.The tariff autonomy movement has a clear development skeleton inthe period of Beiyang government.Demarcated by the first world war,the target,strategy and method have made great progress.The outstanding performance of career diplomat’s and the government.The positive interaction between government and popular.Both of this were the positive factors in the tariff autonomy movement.It is due to the accumulation of beiyang period,the Nanjing National Government recovered the tariff sovereign as soon as its development.Therefore,the period of Beiyang government played an important role in the process of recover the tariff sovereign.