726 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tlieir credit, aiul tlie number of their branches or correspondents, 

 liave no rivals in north China. All exchange operations are car- 

 ried on in the money market, which is held every day in the south- 

 eastern part of the city, on the street, near the Tauist Temple, 

 Avhere all the houses in Peking are represented, and every one takes 

 care to be so, lest he be thonght in default. "When the rate is 

 fixed the news is dispatched by couriers, pigeons, etc., to all whom 

 it concerns. The couriers of the corporation, who communicate 

 with the brokers and bankers, are also the confidential agents of 

 the syndics, are acquainted with the amounts of the emissions 

 of each house, know whether a certain patron is really ill or only 

 feigning, and by their reports decide who shall be boycotted or 

 declared insolvent. All this goes on in full liberty, without sur- 

 veillance by the state, without any tax on the transactions, and 

 without any other interference than the prohibition of fictitious 

 dealings. The corn market is in the same way the almost exclu- 

 sive domain of the corn corporation, the state never interfering 

 except in the case of a famine in the region. 



Besides the merchants' corporations, there exist also corpora- 

 tions of artisans. The embroiderers, the makers of cloisonne, the 

 tanners, and the carpenters have theirs. The carriers and the 

 boatmen, who, before the opening of the railway, had the monop- 

 oly of transportation between Peking and the provinces without 

 forming associations, met at their respective inns and established 

 rules and rates for their business. Informal organizations, vary- 

 ing among the different towns in their degrees of development, 

 exist among the barbers — who at Peking meet every year for a 

 sacrifice and a banquet — the chair-bearers, and the jinrikisha men, 

 and so every city has its corporations and associations which are 

 not like those of the next city. 



Some branches of trade have no corporations, and the peasants, 

 when they come to town to sell their produce, trade on their own 

 account, for the best terms they can get, and have to accept, in 

 the market, an organization the origin of which is forgotten. 

 Every year, on the appearance of each sort of crop, the King ki 

 of the market, having agreed with the dealers, fixes the minimum 

 price of the commodity for the season. He also polices the mar- 

 ket. The function of King lei is the property of the person who 

 exercises it, who has bought it from his predecessor and will sell 

 it to his successor by private contract, and nobody contests his 

 right. In the market for azarohs the position is hereditary. The 

 monopoly of the corporations is often complicated with a provincial 

 question. The Chinaman regards every man who was born in 

 another district as a foreigner — still more if he is of another prov- 



