92 



CHINA. 



long as the amount did not vary greatly from year 

 to year and was remitted in case of flood or fam- 

 ine occurring in any province, imperial aid being 

 given instead of a tax demanded when the dis- 

 aster was grave, the assessments were paid with 

 some punctuality. When more and more was 

 asked for, it was only obtained with increasing 

 difficulty. The expens'es of local government had 

 first to'be provided for, and the demands of the 

 Pekin Government could only be met out of the 

 surplus, or, if there was no surplus, by increased 

 taxation, with its attendant unpopularity and 

 risk of rebellion. The viceroys and governors 

 have power to resist demands for fresh taxation 

 from Pekin, for, though one of them be deposed, 

 his successor would be prompted to repeat the 

 refusal, such is the solidarity of interest that per- 

 vades the whole civil service. Of the revenue 

 collected by the provincial officials, it is supposed 

 that they retain from 50 to 70 per cent, as costs 

 or perquisites. An estimate of the revenue of 

 the Imperial Government for the years immedi- 

 ately preceding the Japanese war made the aver- 

 age total amount 88,979,000 haikwan taels of the 

 par value of about 45 cents. Of this total, 25,- 

 088,000 taels in silver and 6,562,000 taels worth 

 of grain come from the land tax, which varies in 

 different provinces from 25 cents to $1.50 per acre. 

 The duty and likin tax on salt yield 13,659,000 

 taels, salt being a monopoly of the Government, 

 which buys up the whole product and resells to 

 merchants at a price covering the duty. The 

 likin, or tax on merchandise in transportation, 

 payable at appointed barriers, produces 12,952,000 

 taels a year, including a tax on production that 

 is now united with it. The receipts of foreign 

 maritime customs are about 21,952,000 taels a 

 year. Native customhouses have been accus- 

 tomed to collect 1,000,000 taels, the duty and likin 

 on native opium is 2,229,000 taels, and various 

 other duties yield 5,550,000 taels. The disburse- 

 ments of the Imperial Government were appor- 

 tioned according to the same estimate, as follows: 

 imperial household, Manchu garrisons, and ad- 

 ministration of the metropolis, 19,478,000 taels; 

 admiralty board for the Peiyang squadron, 

 5,000,000 taels; southern naval squadrons, 5,000,000 

 taels; forts, guns, and coast defense, 8,000,000 

 taels; defense of Manchuria, 1,848,000 taels; Kan- 

 suh and Central 'Asia, 4,800,000 taels; aid to Yun- 

 nan and Kweichau, 1,655,000 taels; interest and 

 repayment of foreign loans, 2,500,000 taels; rail- 

 road construction, 500,000 taels; public works, 

 river embankments, sea wall, etc., 1,500,000 taels; 

 customs administration, including maintenance of 

 lighthouses, beacons, and revenue cruisers, 2,478,- 

 000 taels; administration of the 18 provinces, in- 

 cluding cost of troops, 36,220,000 taels; total, 

 88,979,000 taels. Since these estimates were made 

 the foreign debt has been greatly increased, the 

 expenditure for military purposes and on rail- 

 roads, telegraphs, etc., has swollen enormously, 

 and changes have been made in the collection of 

 taxes, principally the likin on imported merchan- 

 dise, which by the convention of March 2, 1898, 

 is collected in the ports of Suchau and Kiukiang 

 and in the Shanghai district and eastern Che- 

 kiang, as also is the salt likin in the districts of 

 Hupeh and Anhui and the port of Ichang by the 

 Imperial Maritime Customs, which expects to ob- 

 tain a revenue therefrom of 5,000,000 taels. The 

 only public accounts of which reports are pub- 

 lished are those of this branch of the service, 

 which is superintended by Sir Robert Hart. The 

 public debt of China has been raised mainly for 

 the purpose of paying the Japanese war indem- 

 nity. Before the war a loan of 5,000,000 marks 



at 5J per cent, was contracted in Germany in 

 1887, and a silver loan of 11,300,000 taels was 

 obtained abroad in 1894 at 7 per cent. In Feb- 

 ruary, 1895, a gold loan of 3,000,000 was raised 

 on the security of the customs, which were further 

 pledged for advances amounting to upward of 

 2,000,000 obtained from banks and foreign syn- 

 dicates. Internal loans amounting to nearly 

 5,000,000 were raised at the same time. After 

 the close of the war, in order to pay the indem- 

 nity of 200,000,000 treasury taels and 30,000,000 

 taels for the evacuation of Liao-Tung, a foreign 

 loan of 15,820,000 was raised at 5 per cent., and 

 in March, 1896, an Anglo-German loan of 16,- 

 000,000 was contracted, which was followed on 

 March 1, 1898, by another loan of 16,000,000 

 raised through English and German banking cor- 

 porations doing business in the East, for the pur- 

 pose of paying off the last installments of the 

 war indemnity and secured on the likin collec- 

 tions transferred to the Imperial Maritime Cus- 

 toms. Foreign merchants have brought diplo- 

 matic and financial pressure on the Chinese Gov- 

 ernment to induce it to do away with the likin 

 taxes, which are a greater incubus on trade than 

 the similar octroi duties ever were in Europe. The 

 Chinese Government on its part has tried to in- 

 duce foreign governments to consent to an increase 

 of the customs duties. The import duty on for- 

 eign merchandise is fixed by treaty at the uni- 

 form rate of 5 per cent, ad valorem, and the com- 

 muted likin duty, payable at the port of entrance 

 at 2 per cent. Merchants have discovered that 

 the payment of likin commutation does not alto- 

 gether exempt their goods from further taxation 

 in the interior, because the provincial mandarins, 

 unwilling to sacrifice the revenue formerly de- 

 rived from likin, have imposed or revived various 

 other taxes in the place of likin. In May, 1900, 

 Chinese commissioners were authorized to offer 

 to abolish likin and all further charges on im- 

 ports if the European governments would consent 

 to an increase in the import duty from 5 to 10 

 per cent., and in the transit pass or commuted 

 likin duty from 2i to 5 per cent., making 15 per 

 cent, in all. The export duty they proposed to fix 

 at 5 per cent., as the treaty allows, although lower 

 rates have been charged. The Maritime Customs 

 collections for 1899 showed an advance under every 

 heading, the total amounting to 26,661,460 taels. 



The Army. The principal military organiza- 

 tion of China is the Army of the Eight Banners, 

 descendants of the Manchu conquerors and their 

 allies, subdivided into Manchu, Mongol, and Chi- 

 nese groups, and constituting a military caste in 

 which intermarriage is compulsory. This army, 

 which is recruited constantly from among the 

 population of Manchuria, is supposed to number 

 300,000 men, of whom from 80,000 to 100,000 have 

 in recent years received a training in European 

 fashion and been armed with modern weapons and 

 kept on a war footing. This Manchu army is 

 under the direct control of the Imperial Govern- 

 ment at Pekin, and, with the exception of gar- 

 risons in chief cities of the center and south, is 

 quartered in the imperial province. The national 

 army, or Army of the Green Flags, is the name 

 of the Chinese force which the governors and vice- 

 roys are required by law to raise in each of the 

 18 provinces, and which some of them have raised, 

 armed, and drilled irt accordance with modern 

 methods; some have trained in the old Chinese 

 way, and some have neglected, keeping only a 

 nucleus and pocketing the pay of the rest of the 

 contingent. The nominal strength is 660.000 men, 

 of whom about a third are available. The most 

 important force is the Wuwei army, or Grand 





