ABSTRACT
This chapter produces an assessment of whether Francis Aglen's stewardship of the Customs was economically beneficial for China. Francis Aglen, the inspector general (IG) of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, became widely known as China's finance tsar. Aglen could become China's finance tsar because of the rise of a market for China bonds first abroad and then in China itself. Aglen's identification with China's financiers increased further with the creation of Consolidated Debt Service for unsecured domestic debt. The 1911 Revolution constituted a threat to the Customs Service and to the continued servicing of the China loans. The joint efforts of the Customs Service, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), and British diplomats were necessary to create a China bond market in London. The HSBC managed to link the silver-dominated financial world of China with the gold-based one of the City of London.
