THE I.G. [Inspector General] IN PEKING. Letters of Robert Hart Chinese Maritime Customs. 1868-1907. Two Volumes.

Fairbank, John King. Katherine Frost Bruner. Elizabeth Macleod Matheson.

Published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England., 1975

About this Item

Two Volumes.The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England. 1975. Two volume total: 1625pp. Photo Plates. 20 photographs. Introduction by L.K. Little. Label of previous owner: H.T. Wong. HIST DEPT. E WASH UNIV. CHENEY WA. 99004. Robert Hart's contribution to the commercial stability of China, through the efficient collection of taxes and duties, was outstanding. As Inspector General, he was in charge of Chinese Maritime Customs. Martin Lynn recounts the experiences of Robert Hart employed by the Chinese in the dying phases of the Qing Dynasty. This article first appeared in SACU's China Now magazine in 1988 Robert Hart was witness to many of the major events of late nineteenth century Chinese history, a period when the country was wrestling with the twin problems of foreign intervention and the need to modernise. He was to live through four foreign invasions of China, the Taiping Rebellion of 1852-64, the Boxer rising of 1900, the attempted partition of the country by the West and the eventual crumbling of power of the last of the great Chinese imperial dynasties, the Qing. An Ulsterman, born in Portadown in 1835, he arrived in China aged only 19 as an assistant and interpreter in the British consular service. After service in Hong Kong, Ningbo and Guangzhou (Canton) he resigned in 1859 and became Deputy Commissioner of Customs at Canton. For the rest of his career until his death at the age of 76 in 1911 he was to be an employee of the Chinese government. He received a Chinese peerage in 1889 and a British Knighthood in 1893. In 1863 Hart became Inspector General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, a position he was to hold for the next 48 years. The Customs Service grew out of the 'treaty port' system, with its foreign privileges and extra-territorial rights, that were imposed on China by the Western powers during the mid-nineteenth century. Its function was to regulate trading relations between China and the Western powers and to collect customs revenue for the Chinese government. Although a department of the Chinese government, the Customs Service was almost entirely staffed with foreigners in its upper echelons. Its Inspector General was always a Westerner. In collecting revenue for Beijing however, the Customs Service provided the government with a regular income independent of interference by the provincial authorities, thereby strengthening the dynasty's position against its rivals. But by the end of the century, China fell more and more into debt due to the indemnities it was forced to pay following defeats by foreign powers, as well as loans raised abroad. Much of the Customs revenue came to be pledged to outsiders for many years in advance. Custom-made post The Customs Service, and Hart's role in it, illustrates the West's influence in China in the late nineteenth century, with China's independence slowly being eroded by outsiders. But it also illuminates China's first steps in modernisation: it was the first department run on western lines. By the turn of the century it employed nearly 18,000 Chinese and 1,500 foreigners. It was also responsible for China's western-style Postal Service, established in 1896. The revenues of the Customs Service were used to pay for the modernisation of China's military forces and for the building of railways, arsenals and factories in the reform and 'self-strengthening' movements of the 1880s and 1890s. In many ways the Customs Service was Hart's own creation. Like it, he stood at the interface between China and the West, representing foreign influence in China, yet being used repeatedly by the Chinese government as its representative in dealing with foreign powers. He had, in the words of one historian, 'a profound sense of loyalty and obligation to the Chinese government'. Both volume in fine condition. Heavy book, extra postage likely.

Seller Inventory # 2299

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE I.G. [Inspector General] IN PEKING. Letters of Robert Hart Chinese Maritime Customs. 1868-1907. Two Volumes.
• Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England.
• Publication Date: 1975
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • China