Gong Muju

Gong Muju (宫慕久, Gōng Mùjiǔ) was the Chinese official who opened Shanghai to foreign trade on the Qing side and put his name to the first Land Regulations.

A native of Dongping in Shandong and a provincial graduate of 1819, he became Shanghai daotai (circuit intendant) in May 1843 and joined the talks on opening the port. Soon after, he set up an inspection post north of the Yangjingbang creek to collect import duty from Western ships. He turned down a British request to place a consulate inside the walled county city, and in October 1845 he declined the French envoy Lagrené’s demand for the old Catholic church site, saying the matter exceeded his powers.

The same year he proclaimed the 23-article Land Regulations, worked out with British consul George Balfour and approved by the Viceroy of Liangjiang. They allowed British merchants to lease land north of the Yangjingbang for housing; the western limit was left open. The gazetteer treats this as the start of the concession. In 1846 the western boundary was fixed at the Boundary Road and a new customs house replaced the inspection post. In 1847 he moved to a post in Jiangsu.