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The Status of Foreign Concessions and Settlements in the Treaty Ports of China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

William C. Johnstone
William C. Johnstone
Affiliation:
George Washington University
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Extract

Hostilities now in progress in the Far East may produce significant changes in the status of foreign concessions and settlements in China. It may be useful, therefore, to classify these areas and to survey their status prior to the present “undeclared war.” Among the several privileges gained by Great Britain, the United States, and France in their treaties with China in 1842–44 was the right of foreign residence in the five ports opened to trade by these treaties: Amoy, Canton, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai. Arrangements for the residence of foreigners and their families in these ports were to be made by the consular officials and the local Chinese authorities acting “in concert together.” These arrangements resulted in the delimitation of areas for foreign residence, generally called “settlements,” which grew into municipalities exempt from Chinese jurisdiction and completely under foreign control. As more ports were opened for trade by the various treaties negotiated after 1844, certain nations requested exclusive areas in many of them. Such areas were generally called “concessions.”

Type
International Relations
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , October 1937 , pp. 942 - 948
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1937

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References

1 The “treaty powers” are those nations possessing special rights and privileges in China by treaty. There are at present 15: Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Peru, Mexico, and Switzerland. Germany and Austria-Hungary lost their treaty rights after the World War, and Russia gave up her rights as a matter of political expediency. Belgium was declared by China to have lost her rights in 1927. See Willoughby, W. W., Foreign Rights and Interests in China (Baltimore, 1927), Vol. II, p. 586Google Scholar.

2 In some concessions, Chinese are excluded from renting land, but circumvent this by renting in the name of a foreigner, paying him for the privilege. In the area known as the British Extra-Mural Extension in Tientsin, and in the extensions of 1898 and 1914 to the French concession in Shanghai, land leasing is on the same basis as in a general foreign settlement.

3 Hertslet, G. E. B., China Treaties, Vol. II, p. 774Google Scholar.

4 See table appended.

5 Hertslet, Vol. II, p. 1125.

6 Rendition of British concessions at Hankow and Kiukiang, by Chen O'Malley agreement, March 15, 1927. Text in China Year Book, 1928, pp. 739 and 741 ff.Google Scholar; and in Great Britain, Foreign Office, Papers Relating to British Concessions in Hankow and Kiukiang, China No. 3 (1927). Rendition of British concession at Chinkiang by exchange of notes, October 31, 1929. Texts in China Year Book, 1929–1930, pp. 105–109Google Scholar, and in League of Nations, Treaty Series, No. 2289, Vol. XCIX, p. 441.

7 Rendition of Belgian concession in Tientsin by agreement of August 31, 1929. Text in China Year Book, 1929–1930, pp. 916 ff.Google Scholar, and in League of Nations, Treaty Series, No. 2810, Vol. CXII, p. 105.

8 Protocol concerning Japanese settlements, inland navigation, etc. Oct. 19, 1896. Hertslet, Vol. I, p. 91. 1896/6, Arts. 1, 3.

9 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1867, Part I, China, Inclosure in No. 125.

10 Ibid., 1901, Vol. I, pp. 40 ff. See inclosure No. 2 in No. 551, p. 50.

11 Instructions to this effect quoted in sub-inclosure No. 3 in No. 551, op. cit.

page 947 note 1 The following table indicates the location of settlements and concessions, the dates of the original grants or agreements for their establishment, and dates of extensions and of rendition where that has taken place.

International Settlements:

Shanghai: British settlement delimited, 1845; made international, 1854; extensions, 1863 and 1899.

Kulangsu (Amoy): Developed as a general foreign settlement after 1843; right to national concessions granted Great Britain and Japan, 1860; international settlement established formally, 1903.

National Concessions:

Great Britain:

Canton—formally granted, 1859.

Tientsin—granted, 1860; extension, 1897; additional grant, 1900–02; grants consolidated, 1918.

Hankow—granted, 1861; extended, 1896; returned to China, 1927.

Kiukiang—granted, 1861; returned to China, 1927.

Chinkiang—granted, 1861; returned to China, 1929.

Amoy—right to concession, 1861; right given up, 1930.

France:

Shanghai—granted, 1849; extended, 1861, 1898, 1915.

Tientsin—granted, 1861; extended, 1902.

Hankow—granted, 1861; right not exercised; regranted, 1896.

Canton—granted, 1859.

Japan:

Tientsin—granted, 1896; extended, 1900–02; additional property leased in 1934–36; status of this property in doubt in relation to concession.

Hankow—granted, 1896.

Amoy—right granted, 1896. (See International Settlements above.)

Shanghai—right to request concession granted, 1896; not exercised to date.

Hangchow—granted, 1896—reported renewed for 30 years, 1935.

Shashih—granted, 1896; present status in doubt.

Yochow—granted, 1898; present status in doubt.

Samsha—granted, 1898; never taken up.

Foochow—granted, 1898; never taken up.

Chunking—granted, 1896; present status in doubt.

Soochow—granted, 1896; present status in doubt.

Belgium:

Tientsin—granted, 1902; returned to China, 1931.

Italy:

Tientsin—granted, 1901.

Germany:

Tientsin—granted, 1895; extended, 1901; taken over by China, 1919–20.

Hankow—granted, 1895; taken over by China, 1919–20.

Austria-Hungary:

Tientsin—granted, 1902; taken over by China, 1919–20.

Russia:

Tientsin—granted, 1900; taken over by China, 1920.

Hankow—granted, 1896; confirmed by China, 1900; taken over by China, 1920.

United States:

Shanghai—American settlement delimited, 1863; not recognized by United States government; amalgamated with former British settlement to form part of International Settlement, 1863.

Tientsin—Area delimited for American residence, 1869; quasi-U.S. jurisdiction over land until 1880; all jurisdiction abandoned, 1896; area included in British extension, 1901–02.

Amoy—Area known as American Settlement until 1900; never formally recognized.