THE GREAT UNPROGRESSIVE PEOPLE 363 



Government interferes very little with the even tenor of the 

 Chinaman's way. He is not harried by inspectors of nuisances. 

 His house may be as insanitary as he likes to make it. If he 

 chooses to drink water containing cholera germs, as he often 

 does, the state has no objection. The municipal authorities 

 may leave the streets in an absolutely pestilential state. Such 

 evils may cause epidemics, but they do not tend to a disruption 

 of civilisation as a Chinaman understands it. But the man who 

 flogs his mother is striking at the very foundation of social life, 

 respect for parents. On them, on the seniors in a collection of 

 families, all government depends. 



In the matter of property government interferes only when it Property 

 considers the welfare of the people is involved. For the rights 

 of the individual as such it does not care. It is the essence of 

 the Chinese land system that every square yard of cultivable 

 land should be cultivated. The land-tax, therefore, is on the 

 area of land so that what lies barren pays as heavily as that 

 which bears heavy crops. Proprietorship in land is to be 

 encouraged ; therefore a landlord must be left to collect his 

 rents as best he can, and a very difficult job it appears to be. 

 The tenant is the real producer and must not be robbed of the 

 fruit of his labours. The rents, therefore, are very low, pay- 

 able in kind, and must under no circumstances be raised. Picture 

 a landlord trying to collect rents in kind over a large estate 

 without police assistance ! No wonder that peasant proprietor- 

 ship is the rule ! 



Land is the ordinary investment for money except in the few 

 great centres of commerce. The accumulation of capital on a 

 large scale is beset with difficulties. Usury is very limited in Usury 

 amount because of the extreme difficulty of getting the interest 

 or recovering the capital. A very high interest, as much as 

 three per cent, per month, seems to be the rule, because the 

 lender thinks it very possible he may never see the principal 

 again. Thus the money-lender does not thrive ; the set of 

 things is against him. Pawnbrokers, on the other hand, are 

 many and do a large business. Contrast with all this the ever- 

 growing ubiquitousness of government in England and in 



