ABSTRACT
From its inception in the 1850s the Imperial Maritime Customs Service (IMCS) was a uniquely cosmopolitan institution dominated by British nationals. Stretching along the China coast and penetrating inland along waterways, the Service represented a vast network of over 40 Customs stations and sub-branches monitoring and regulating foreign trade with China. Its influence, however, reached far beyond tariffs and trade, ensuring its survival in the uncertain years of the early Republic (1911) and beyond; it was arguably the most important institution in China during the Republic. With a history of strong leadership from its successive Inspectors General (IG)—Horatio Nelson Lay (1859-63), Robert Hart (1863-1911), Francis Aglen (1911-27), Frederick Maze (1929-43) and Lester Knox Little (1943-50)—the key to the existence of the Service was undeniably through the treaty port system. Without foreign presence and privilege in China, reinforced though the Unequal Treaties and preserved by gunboat diplomacy, this Service would never have come into being nor would it have endured into the Republic.
