上海公共租界工部局拒绝新式粪秽处置系统的原因探析

Reasons for Rejecting the New System of Night Soil Disposal by Shanghai Municipal Council

上海公共租界工部局重视租界内环境卫生的治理。从1864年开始施行的以招商承办的形式人工清除粪秽,工部局藉此获得一笔不菲承包费;同时,工部局又通过出售粪便,从中获利,二者成为其财政收入不可或缺的一部分。19世纪后期,以抽水马桶和化粪池为代表的西方新式粪秽处置系统传入上海公共租界,但工部局屡屡拒绝并设法阻止其在租界内的使用,究其原因,主要是工部局不愿放弃那笔由人工清除粪秽方式所带来的利益。

Shanghai Municipal Council（SMC）attached great importance to the management of environmental sanitation in international concession.Since 1864,SMC had seized two considerable sources of monetary income：the contract fee from commercializing labor disposal of night soil,and the selling of night soil.Both incomes were the indispensable parts of their financial revenue.The new system of night soil disposal was introduced into Shanghai international concession in the late19 th century.Surprisingly,SMC rejected the system repeatedly and even made regulations to prevent it from being used in the concession.The deep-rooted reason was that SMC clung to the sizable profits stemmed from labor disposal of night soil.