The Ambiguities of an Imperial Institution: Crisis and Transition in the Chinese Maritime Customs, 1899–1911

Abstract

In the tumultuous years after the Sino-Japanese war the Maritime Customs Service reeled from one crisis to another, threatened by growing competition among the foreign powers to extract concessions and by the brutal Boxer war. Chinese political elites increasingly viewed the Customs with suspicion and sought to limit its influence. Meanwhile, the service suffered from deep internal dissention. Ageing Inspector General Sir Robert Hart – much celebrated in public – was criticised privately for his autocratic style and unwillingness to make reforms. Frustrated senior Customs officers lobbied for support in London. The Foreign Office viewed maintaining British predominance in the service as an important priority, only to see Hart undermine its efforts to establish a widely acceptable successor. While Hart always insisted that the Customs was a servant of the Chinese government, over the last decade of his career the service was increasingly alienated from its Chinese master, and became ever more an expression of imperial – particularly British – interests in China.