Our guest blog this week looks at how research using business archives at SOAS is helping to uncover the hidden history of Chinese merchant seamen serving on British ships and living in British ports during the First and Second World Wars, and the changing nature of their relationship with British authorities and shipping companies in the post war period. Our blogger is Yvonne Foley from the Half and Half memorial project.
We are lucky enough to hold several collections of paper and individual manuscripts which relate to the Chinese Maritime Customs at SOAS. The Chinese Maritime Customs Service (Imperial Maritime Customs Service until 1912) was arguably one of the greatest administrative achievements of the twentieth century. Established, and largely run by foreign consuls, the Customs Service grew to become one of the most important bureaucracies in China helping to shape Chinese history over
SOAS has held the archives of John Swire & Sons since the 1970s, and for three years has had a dedicated archivist sponsored by the company to work on developing the collection. This post aims to give a bit of background to the history of the company and the significance of the collection. Future posts will focus in more detail on how access to the collection is being improved. Today
