英国驻华使领馆的情报工作与修约决策(1843—1869)

The Intelligent Deployment of the British Embassy and Consulates in China and the Decision-Making of the Amendments of Sino-British Treaties from 1843-1869

在19世纪40—60年代英国对华商贸扩张与修约决策中,英国驻华使领馆的情报工作发挥了关键作用。他们通过商贸情报的搜集与更新,配合英国政府将对华商贸扩张从沿海导向内陆。他们对清政府内政情报的刺探,使英国对华认知从商贸范畴扩展到政治领域。情报积累的日渐丰富,加深了英方的对华认知,使其对华交涉跳脱商贸扩张的单一视角,试图在商贸扩张与对华政策的把握上取得某种平衡。通过"情报搜集—认知中国—政策调适"的模式,英方不仅在1868—1869年的修约交涉中实现了商贸扩张与对华决策的平衡,为英国攫取在华利益打下了基础,而且改变过去向清政府一味施压的办法,开始着手在清政府内部培养"代理人",以诱导清政府实现变革,从而服务其在华扩张。

Between the 1840 s and 1860 s, the intelligence deployment of the British Embassyand Consulates in China played a pivotal role for the British Empire’s economic expansion and penetration into China and its decision-making of Sino-British treaty revisions. The Embassy and Consulates’ collection and interpretation of the intelligence about Chinese commerce and trade pushed the sphere of influence of the British Empire from the coastal cities to Chinese hinterland. The information about the Qing China’s internal affairs, furthermore, enabled the British Empire to advance their understandings of Chinese politics. Whilst its intelligence kept accumulating, Britain’s China policy gradually moved away from its sole economic expansion towards a more balanced pursuit between commercial interests and diplomatic policy. This new course, gathering intelligence, improving its China knowledge, and adjusting its policies, reflected on the revision of Sino-British’s Tientsin Treaty during 1868-1869, which eventually enlarge the British sphere of influence in China. Based on this experience, Britain started to change its past method of simply exerting diplomatic pressure on the Qing government, and began to cultivate "proxies" within the Qing government to induce the modern reforms of Qing government and thereby serve its expansion in China.