Secret Archives of the Chinese Customs: A Compilation of Correspondence between Robert Hart and James Duncan Campbell, Vol. 6, 1894-1899
Beijing: Zhonghua, 1990. Hardcover. Vol. 6 only. 8vo, boards, very good, light soil and wear to covers, contents a little tanned. 1084 pp. In Chinese. Published in 9 volumes in the 1990s as Confidential Archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs: Letters and Telegrams between Robert Hart and James Duncan Campbell, compiled from the archives of the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, together with the Institute of Modern History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The same letters, or Hart’s side of them, appeared in English as The I.G. in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs, 1868–1907, edited by John K. Fairbank and others (Harvard, 1975). Hart was an Ulsterman who served as Inspector General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service from 1863 to 1911. The Customs was a Chinese government agency staffed at the top by foreigners. Under Hart it collected much of the Qing state’s revenue and also ran lighthouses, the postal service, harbor work, and statistical publications. Hart was arguably the most influential Westerner in late Qing China. Campbell was a Scot who headed the Customs’ London Office from its founding in 1874 until his death in 1907. He was Hart’s agent, purchaser, recruiter, and confidant in Europe. Very good. Item #h46649
ISBN: 7101006116
Price: $30.00