The Inspector General's Last Prize: The Chinese Native Customs Service, 1901-31

摘要

The roles of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service (CMCS), particularly the role of the inspector general (IG) have most frequently been discussed in the context of Sino-foreign relations. The relationship between the CMCS and the Chinese Native Customs establishment has seldom been studied. It is worth noting how, after the Boxer Uprising, the CMCS, dominated by the British, successfully, and much more quietly, extended its power to the Chinese domestic arena through its assumption of control over the Native Customs Service. The thirty-year period during which the CMCS controlled the Native Customs before the latter was abolished in 1931 actually tells us a great deal about the nature of the CMCS and the limits it faced to the exercise of its power. This paper's case study of the Native Customs provides a wider opportunity to re-examine the structure of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service on the ground, in localities away from Shanghai and the more visible world of the treaty ports.