CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS.

£1,250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Service List, 1904. First edition, sole printing, with a pleasing provenance, of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service internal staff list for 1904, issued to the sinologist Charles Williams in his first year as an employee. Williams annotated this copy throughout his successful three-decade career to track the fortunes of Service colleagues. His signed armorial bookplate is to the front pastedown.Charles Alfred Speed Williams began working for the Service's revenue department in November 1903 at the junior level of Fourth Assistant. He rose to the rank of Acting Commissioner at the Lungchow station, before retiring in late 1935. On leaving the service, he was given the honorary rank of Commissioner.Williams' manuscript additions show that he maintained an evolving record of the careers of those who worked with him in the revenue department. He notes colleagues who reached the senior grade of Commissioner and their dates of compulsory retirement, while he also records whether members of staff resigned, retired, or died in office. In line with his own interest in the Chinese language, Williams also highlights those who attained the Service's highest grade of Chinese language proficiency.The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was founded in 1854 by Britain and other foreign powers to collect taxes on maritime trade for the Chinese government, but its remit quickly expanded to include domestic customs administration, the postal service, waterway and harbour management, and meteorol

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