China’s Maritime Customs and Chinese-Spanish Trade, 1900-1930

Abstract

The present article studies the Sino-Spanish trade between 1900 and 1930, through the annual reports of the Chinese Maritime Customs. This institution was one of the mainstays of the treaty port system, and its archives contain information about the Sino-Spanish trade and the Spanish population that lived in China, as well as their economic activities. Its function was to guarantee the conditions of free trade that China had signed with the foreign powers. However, despite the Spanish presence and the participation of this community in the custom service, the Sino-Spanish trade remained weak and with a negative balance for Spain. This article aims to explain the characteristics of the Spanish community in China and the reasons of the weakness of the Sino-Spanish trade.