The Spatio-Temporal GISystem for the Studies of the Service Lists of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, 1875-1948

The Service Lists compiled by the Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs started from 1875 and ended in 1948. The Service Lists stated over 24000 staff members’ information, namely name, birthplace, station, nationality, promotion, etc. These staff members were from more than two dozens of nationalities so the Service Lists were probably the most explicit and fruitful records for this internationalized staff in modern history.

Historians have been aware of this vault since the late 19^th century but the scale of this set is too vast to research. Since the beginning of the 21^st century, the digital database technologies allow historians to research this set to a deeper extent. Hans van de Ven and Robert Bickers have finished an Access database for all staff members. Nowadays, the online spatio-temporal database and GISystem could push the studies of this set a step further. This article discusses the latest design of the database and the trouble shooting of the construction of which. Then this article also turns to how this database could reflect on the visualization of the staff members’ transfers and promotions on maps and how new personnel records can be generated from the database.