CHINA. 



263 



RTIU*I. ly moderate ; and it has been calculated, that, exclusive 

 ^"""Y"^^ of the husbandmen, the other classes of the community 

 are not assessed with more than four shillings each. 

 For the collecting of these revenues there are assessors 

 and valuators in every district, who are responsible for 

 its quota in land produce j receivers of the duties upon 

 shops, &c. in the citivs ; and custom-houses, with their 

 proper officers, in every principal town. At these cus- 

 tom houses, no interruption is given to travellers for the 

 purpose of searching their baggage and requiring a fee, 

 except at Wampoo and Canton, where the custom-house 

 officers are said to be most irritating and insolent in 

 their investigations of every foreigner's effects. The 

 merchant pays the duties by the piece or weight ; and 

 in the former case, the collectors generally depend upon 

 the statements given in his own books. The land-tax is 

 paid partly in kind and partly in money, in the propor- 

 tion of nearly one half in each. The amount collected 

 in villages and towns is conveyed to cities of the third 

 class ; the amount of these to cities of the second ; and 

 the amount of these again to cities of the first. From 

 the revenues of each province the civil and military offi- 

 cers are paid in the first instance, chiefly in kind ; a cer- 

 tain portion is then reserved, in the public granaries of 

 each city or district, for incidental expences ; and the 

 surplus is either transported in kind, or sold for money, 

 which is remitted to the imperial treasury at Pekm, for 

 the use of the court and the establishments of the em 

 peror. A statement of what is collected in the several 

 provinces, of what is reserved in the different cities, and 

 of what is paid into the treasury, is laid before the tri- 

 bunal of finances, which revises the whole, and keeps an 

 account of all that is expended. Besides these ordinary 

 revenues, additional assessments are sometimes levied, 

 especially in cases of insurrection, when the neighbour- 

 ing provinces are generally required to contribute the 

 expences of its suppression. 



The surplus of the general reveiue, after all the Revenue, 

 expences of the state Tiave been defrayed, belongs > ~*V^ < 

 to the emperor, who may indeed appropriate to him- 

 self what portion he pleases ; but it is understood 

 to be usually deposited in the national treasury, as a 

 fund for defraying any extraordinary expenditure, with- 

 out imposing farther assessments upon the people. 

 The emperor always receives from the general stock, 

 the necessary quantity of rice and other provisions, 

 of silk and other articles, for his household and atten- 

 dants, consisting of mandarins, eunuchs, servants of 

 the palace, and Tartar bands, who are calculated alto- 

 gether at a number not less than 100,000. Besides what 

 he may draw for this purpose from the ' general reve- 

 nues, his pnvy purse is supplied by the whole profit of 

 the trade in Ginseng, confiscations, seizures, presents 

 from the principal mandarins, and patriotic gifts from 

 his subjects, in porcelain, tea, silks, &c. which are all 

 pompously proclaimed in the Pekin Gazette, and which 

 afterwards serve as presents to foreign ambassadors and 

 favourites. The emperor possesses also very extensive 

 domains, along that part of the great wall, which is near- 

 est to the metropolis, the rents or produce of which 

 belong wholly to himself and his family ; and, besides 

 these lands, he maintains large flocks and herds beyond 

 the great wall, in the regions of Tartary, which are all 

 converted into money for his use. The amount of 

 his private revenue from these different sources can- 

 not be exactly asceitained, but has been estimated at 

 100,000,000 of French hvres, or about L. 4,444,444: 

 sterling. The following view of the gross sum of the 

 revenues and expences of the Chinese government is 

 founded upon the calculations of M. De Guignes ; into 

 the grounds of which, however, we have not room to 

 enter, but present our readers merely with the general 

 results. 



Revenues. 



French livres. 'Sterling 



One half of the land-tax in money, according to an Imperial edict in 1777 20<> 9.55,000 



Value of the other half collected in kind 20f>,955,000 



Additional land-tax upon the southern rice districts 161,820,000 



Duties upon salt, coal, &c 48,0*7,670 



Duties upon silk and other manufactures 50,722,330 



Capitation tax upon merchants, artisans, &c 30,000,000 '. 



Duties upon foreign trade at Canton 6,000,000 



710,000,000 or 31,555,55*- 

 Expendilure. 

 . French livres. 



Salaries of mandarins civil and military, whether superior or subordinate 57,500,000 



Expence of 600,000 infantry, at 3 taels per montn, one half money, and the other 



half provisions 162000,000 



Expence of 242,000 cavalry at 4 taels per month 87,120.000 



Expence of the waste <if horses, in the proportion of one for every ten, at 20 taels each 3 630 000 



Uniforms for 842,000 soldiers, at 4 taels each 25.260,000 



Arms, &c. for8t2,000 soldiers, atone tael each 6,315,000 



Marine, and boats . . 100.000,000 



anals 30,000,000 



forts and artillery 28.175.OOO 



500,000,000 or iC22,222,221 



. , French livres. 



nount of revenues. 710,000,000 or rf.'i 1,555.555 



Amount of expenditure 5'<0,0>K),000 or *22 222 222 



Sur P lu 210,000,000 or ^9,3^3,333 



