This article surveys the global acquaintances of Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, a world-renowned authority on progressive public finance and professor of political economy at Columbia University between 1885 and 1933. Through his published writings, networks, and internationalist efforts, Seligman extended an emerging theory of progressive taxation to an international arena. This empowered his students, especially his Asian students, to build an analysis of the limitations of imperial political accountability and suggest bold financial reform. These links are uncovered for the first time and reveal Seligman’s place in the intellectual and political history of tax reform in American and European formal and informal empires. Consequently, the article also sheds new light on the history of what the legal historian Ajay Mehrotra has called the ‘early Columbia school of taxation and economic development’.

中文翻译：

---

Edwin Seligman，全球进步公共财政的发起人

本文调查了埃德温·罗伯特·安德森·塞利格曼 (Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman) 的全球熟人，他是 1885 年至 1933 年间在进步公共财政方面享誉全球的权威，也是哥伦比亚大学政治经济学教授。通过他发表的著作、网络和国际主义努力，塞利格曼扩展了一个新兴理论累进税制进入国际舞台。这使他的学生，尤其是他的亚洲学生，能够对帝国政治责任的局限性进行分析，并提出大胆的金融改革建议。这些联系首次被发现，并揭示了塞利格曼在美国和欧洲正式和非正式帝国税收改革的知识和政治史上的地位。所以，