ABSTRACT
The Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service was an artificial agency of Great Britain’s informal empire in China. From its inception during the Taiping Rebellion through the chaotic years of the 1890s, the foreign inspectorate protected British commercial and political supremacy at Peking. The concept for a Western-staffed, European-style customs service in China had English origins. The organization was intended to aid and smooth the way for increased commercial ventures in China. The customs service provided honest collections at China’s main ports and enforced trade regulations equitably to allow open trade competition for all nations. A new Anglo-Chinese treaty was signed at Tientsin in 1860, negotiated chiefly by Horatio Nelson Lay, a former British assistant consul and first Inspector-General of the Maritime Customs Service. Isolated in London by poor communications, the British government endorsed the Maritime Customs Service. The Maritime Customs Service, with Sir Robert Hart as its director, was an artificial agency of British informal empire.
