Breaking with the Past

The Maritime Customs Service and the Global Origins of Modernity in China

Nonfiction, History, Asian, China, World History
Cover of the book Breaking with the Past by Hans van de Ven, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Hans van de Ven ISBN: 9780231510523
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: February 11, 2014
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Hans van de Ven
ISBN: 9780231510523
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: February 11, 2014
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Between its founding in 1854 and its collapse in 1952, the Chinese Maritime Customs Service delivered one-third to one-half of all revenue collected by China's central authorities. Much more than a tax collector, the institution managed China's harbors, erected lighthouses, and surveyed the Chinese coast. It funded and oversaw the Translator's College, which trained Chinese diplomats while its staff translated Chinese classics, novels, and poetry and wrote important studies on the Chinese economy, its financial system, its trade, its history, and its government. It organized contributions to international exhibitions, developed its own shadow diplomacy, pioneered China's modern postal system, and even maintained its own armed force. After the 1911 Revolution, the agency became deeply involved in the management of China's international loans and domestic bond issues.

In other words, the Customs Service was pivotal to China's post-Taiping integration into the world of modern nation-states and twentieth-century trade and finance. If the Customs Service introduced the modern governance of trade to China, it also made Chinese legible to foreign audiences. Following the activities of the Inspectors General, who were virtual autocrats within the service and communicated regularly with senior Chinese officials and foreign diplomats, this history tracks the Customs Service as it transformed China and its relationship to the world. The Customs Service often kept China together when little else did. This book reveals the role of the agency in influencing the outcomes of the Sino-French War, the Boxer Rebellion, and the 1911 Revolution, as well as the rise of the Nationalists in the 1920s, and concludes with the Customs Service purges of the early 1950s, when the relentless logic of revolution dismantled the agency for good.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Between its founding in 1854 and its collapse in 1952, the Chinese Maritime Customs Service delivered one-third to one-half of all revenue collected by China's central authorities. Much more than a tax collector, the institution managed China's harbors, erected lighthouses, and surveyed the Chinese coast. It funded and oversaw the Translator's College, which trained Chinese diplomats while its staff translated Chinese classics, novels, and poetry and wrote important studies on the Chinese economy, its financial system, its trade, its history, and its government. It organized contributions to international exhibitions, developed its own shadow diplomacy, pioneered China's modern postal system, and even maintained its own armed force. After the 1911 Revolution, the agency became deeply involved in the management of China's international loans and domestic bond issues.

In other words, the Customs Service was pivotal to China's post-Taiping integration into the world of modern nation-states and twentieth-century trade and finance. If the Customs Service introduced the modern governance of trade to China, it also made Chinese legible to foreign audiences. Following the activities of the Inspectors General, who were virtual autocrats within the service and communicated regularly with senior Chinese officials and foreign diplomats, this history tracks the Customs Service as it transformed China and its relationship to the world. The Customs Service often kept China together when little else did. This book reveals the role of the agency in influencing the outcomes of the Sino-French War, the Boxer Rebellion, and the 1911 Revolution, as well as the rise of the Nationalists in the 1920s, and concludes with the Customs Service purges of the early 1950s, when the relentless logic of revolution dismantled the agency for good.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Chaos Imagined by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Hatred and Forgiveness by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Cosmopolitan Style by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Political Liberalism by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book The Racial Discourses of Life Philosophy by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Globalization Challenged by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Robert N. Butler, MD by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Prophecy, Alchemy, and the End of Time by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Groups That Work by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Four Jews on Parnassus—a Conversation by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Chaos in the Liberal Order by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Moments of Uncertainty in Therapeutic Practice by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book The China Boom by Hans van de Ven
Cover of the book Action Movies by Hans van de Ven
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy