Robert Hart and China's Statistical Revolution

Bibliographic Data

ID3645209
AuthorsAndrea Bréard (0000-0002-0496-5059, corresponding author), Andrea Eberhard-Bréard
Year2006
Volume40
Issue3
Pages605-629
Publication date2006-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0026749x06002101
OpenAlexW2047488381
LanguageEN
Citations received4

In 1890 Robert Hart was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Hart had sent copies of the statistical publications of the Maritime Customs Service regularly to the Society, but he himself was no statistician. He did publish one piece in the Journal of the Statistical Society of London, but this was no more than an extract of a conclusion Hart wrote to reports written by the Commissioners at China's Treaty Ports on local opium consumption. But Hart, as Inspector General of the Maritime Customs Service, bore general responsibility for its publications and involved himself deeply in its statistical projects. H. B. Morse, who would serve as Statistical Secretary, wrote: 'while weak in the fiscal and economic field, he was a marvel in organisation and the direction of the work of others'. Within the Customs Service, it was the Statistical Secretary who had immediate responsibility for the statistical publications of the Customs. He was stationed in Shanghai, China's busiest port, rather than Beijing, where the Inspectorate had its offices close to the Zongli Yamen, the Qing agency overseeing China's relations with Western countries

Beijing · China · Economics · Economy · Morse code · Political science · Service (business · Statistical analysis · Statistician · Treaty · Census and Population Estimation · Engineering · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Medicine

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