Catalogue description Central Administrative Records of the Board of Customs to 1909

A secretary of customs was first appointed in 1671. After the commissioners he was the most important officer of the department, as it was through him that their connection with all aspects of customs business was maintained. His general duties were to see that petitions were referred to the proper officers, to draft the board's reports and letters, to draw up and communicate orders and minutes at the board's direction, and to superintend the clerks in their execution of those orders.

The Secretary's Office was the chief administrative office of the department, dealing with all communications addressed to the commissioners and responsible for seeing that their orders were carried out. Originally the principal business was under the supervision of two clerks, one for northern ports and the other for western ports. Later, colonial business required a separate Plantation clerk. In the nineteenth century the main function of the Secretary's office was to co-ordinate and control the activities of the staff throughout the country. In 1849 the northern and western clerks were abolished and the business of the office was classified by subject instead of geographically.

In 1870 the Office of Inspector General of Imports and Exports was abolished. The functions of the Examiner's Office concerning check of revenue were transferred to the Comptroller General's Office, and its statistical branches became the nucleus of a new Statistical Office. The primary duty of this new department was the compilation of trade statistics from the documents connected therewith that passed through the hands of the Customs department.