Hart And The Chinese Maritime Customs And Clean Government

Before the establishment of modern Chinese customs system, the Chinese customs official's salary is low, their competence is inferior and the efficiency is not high. Because the system of civil servant assessment and punishment, and the system of supervision and audit was formalistic, the corruption within custom system was very popular, and it led to the serious leakage of the tariff.When Robert Hart became the Inspector General, he put into practice the high salary system to keep officials uncorrupted, the recruitment of talented persons, the punishment and admonition system, uninformed audit, the advocation of civil servant consciousness. The strict recruitment and assessment system, the high salary system to keep officials uncorrupted, the internal power restricting mechanism, the regulations against corruption, and the punishment and admonition system were adopted. All these laid down the foundation of a relatively efficient and incorruptible customs system.Hart's measures did not only provide Hart political resources to solidify his post but also guaranteed the increasing customs income. What is historically important is that it has laid down the framework of Chinese customs system and has strongly promoted the modernization of Chinese customs system.