This archive provides a primary source collection vital to understanding and researching the social, political, legal, and economic history of the Shanghai International Settlement as well as the history of modern China from 1836 to 1955. It comprised of nine series of British Foreign Office files from The National Archives in the United Kingdom that are directly related to the history of Shanghai and the International Settlement, plus a small number of files selected from the records of the British Ministry of Labour, Treasury, and War Office.