晚清的中国海关,是隶属于中国政府却又由洋人长期把持的特殊机构。在英国人赫德担任总税务司时,曾一扫旧机构办事拖沓、无章可循、贪污腐败的积弊,按照西方模式建立起一套近代海关制度。这套制度中有两个突出特点,一个是洋员众多,一个是关员待遇高。 The late Qing China Customs was a special institution that belonged to the Chinese government but was permanently controlled by foreigners. When Hurd, the British General Staff, took the time to evade the longstanding shortcomings of the old institutions in handling unscrupulous corruption and corruption and established a set of modern customs systems in accordance with the Western model. There are two salient features of this system. One is the large number of foreigners and the other is the high level of customs clearance.