From accountability by imperial decree to the minute disclosure of international trade: Hart’s accounting system for China’s maritime customs, 1861–c1880’s

This paper examines the accounting system of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, a Chinese government department led from 1861 to 1907 by Robert Hart, an Irishman, who reported directly to the Chinese Government in his capacity as Inspector General. Utilising reports produced by the system and instructions given to staff for its operation, the paper outlines the system's main features. It shows how Hart transformed it from being an inward-looking accounting system involved in the collection of duties and the payment of operational expenses reporting to the Government only, to one that created a mass of publicly available data on Chinese international trade that was provided across the world as well as to the Chinese Qing Government. The paper evaluates the system and sets it in the context of recent accounting history by commenting on its Western and Chinese features.