海关造册处:中国最早开展出版贸易的机构

The Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs:the First Chinese Publishing House Engaged in Foreign Book Trade

海关造册处是中国近代具有现代意义的成立时间最早、跨越中国近现代存续时间最长的官办出版机构,也是中国最早开展书刊对外贸易的出版机构。它在“西学东渐”的社会潮流中独树一帜,在进行大量本土调研的基础上坚持通过多种语言出版中国社会及文化相关出版物,同时利用现代化贸易手段在全球多地销售出版物,充当中西交流的文化媒介,对中国文化的全球性传播具有启示意义。本文根据近代海关文物、档案、资料,从造册处开展出版贸易的背景出发,将其通过经销商在世界多国建立经售关系的时间点提前至1882年,并概括其出版贸易活动的现代性、商业性、开放性和规范性等特点。

The Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs was the first and also the longest-standing government-run publishing house in the modern sense in modern China,and it was also the Chinese publishing house engaged in book trade with the rest of the world at the earliest.It stood out against the social trend of the“introduction of Western learning into China”,by committing itself to publishing books on Chinese society and culture in many languages based on extensive local research,while selling these publications in many places around the world by the means of modern trade.The Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs acted as a cultural medium for the exchanges between China and the West,which is an inspiration for the global diffusion of Chinese culture.Based on modern cultural relics,archives and documentation of the customs,this paper starts from the background of launch of book trade by the Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs,moves the time when it established sales relations in many countries worldwide through distributors earlier to 1882,and sums up the characteristics of its trade activities,including being modern,business-driven,open,and well-regulated.