SIR ROBERT HART -- IN CHINA 1853-1906

Sir Robert Hart may be the most appreciated foreigner in Chinese history. After the Opium War the Chinese Government needed import tariffs to support the federal establishment. The corruption and incompetence of Chinese customs agents and their employees motivated the Chinese govt. to appoint a British citizen commissioner of customs. He brought in young men from England and Scotland to act as customs officers and instituted financial controls so the revenue from customs revenue grew from 7 million to 26 million “taels”in a few short years. He, however, served the interests of China and not Britain or any foreign interests throughout almost 50 years in the employ of the Quing dynasty.

Some may be aware of the story that, among other proposals to increase China’s military capability he offered to buy, equip and train a Chinese navy to limit the monopoly on military power represented by foreign gunboats at the treaty ports and on the rivers throughout China. The Chinese chose to do it on their own but the empress dowager was able to divert the funds provided to build her own “navy” --- the nautical summer palace on a lake near Beijing which now is a popular tourist attraction!

Memorials to his service to China still stand in Beijing and Shanghai unmolested by years of anti-foreign sentiment by the Chinese and even unmolested in the excesses of the Cultural Revolution of the late Communist era.