134 



CHINA. 



thing over 13.500,000 taels, has been slightly in- 

 creased since the war and could be much further 



.i Mil. The officials and middlemen coin 

 with the iii<>in>|Mly ; . y one 



that they M-nd to 'IVkin. Th ed in kind 



known as tnb -uld >i.-ld 1 ,<MH),000 taels 



more if greedy officials did not c<.ntrol the 

 portation. 000 taels. 



The r _rr.wn opium is 2.000,000 



taels, two fifths as much as is derived from half the 

 quantity im ported from India. The Imperial cus- 



. ii Id nearly 22,000.000 tacl*. From the 

 the Imperial (J. 18,000,000 



taeU. audit i* constantly demanding larger remit- 

 tance* from the provincial auth- .using 

 them to iiicrruM- the aggravating restrictions on in- 



,1 trade. Three or four different sets of offi- 

 cials collect taxe* from the same goods, and some- 

 time* even compete with each other. Fnglish iner- 



suggest that their G.-vi-rnim-nt refuse to 

 accede to the n-\ 1-1- -n <>f the tariff desired by ( 'hina. 

 except on condition that all the taxes on trade be 

 consolidated, which the IVkin authorities might be 

 induced to agree to. since they could thereby derive 

 a much lav . ie from tlie internal coini: 



exceeding as it does tenfold the foreign com 

 of the empire. The total expenditure is taken to 

 be the same as the revenue in amount. The chief 

 items are 36.250,000 taels for the general provincial 

 administration and 1J),000,000 ta.-l- for the admin- 

 on of the metropolis, including the exiwnses 

 of the Manchu garri-on and of the imperial I. 

 hold. No attempt is made to adjust taxation or 

 expenditure by mean- of an annual budget, either 

 provincial OT imperial After the demands of IV- 

 kin are satisfied the provincial authorities are left 

 to dispose of the rest of the revenue in their own 

 way, the auditing of their accounts in Pekin being 

 a mere formality. None of the provinces, in fact, 

 furnishes reports of expenditures, of the revenue 

 collected by the provincial authorities, including 

 all except "the imperial customs, about two thirds 

 are applied to the civil and military expenditure of 

 the provinces. The sums actually paid by the tax- 

 payers are believed to be at least three times as 

 much as ultimately reaches the public treasury, the 

 extravagat of collection costing as much 



as the net revenue, and the irregular perquisites re- 

 tained by the officials ab-orbing as much more. 

 The gross revenue for !*!)<;, as returned by the 

 Board of Kevenue. is much ! than the abo\ 

 timate. amounting to 73,300,000 taels, or about 

 12.000.000. made up as follows: Imperial maritime 

 ms, 15,500,000 taels ; grain and land taxes, 

 10,800,000 taels; salt gnbdlr. 12,200.000 taels: or- 

 dinary taxes on home produce. 2,600,000 ta>l-: 

 : "0.000 taels; various license fees. 3,500,- 

 000 taels; miscellaneous duties, 15,300,000 taels. 

 The imperial customs collected amounted to 22,- 

 000,000 tael-. from which must be deducted the cost 

 of collection, about 10 percent., and the amount of 

 opium Kkin. etc., paid to provincial authorities. 



maritime customs, under European adminis- 

 tration, make annual reports. The receipts for 

 1W5 21,385,389 haikwan taels (1 



haikwnn tael=81 cent*), of which 6.039.582 taels 

 were import di, x port duties. 1.216.- 



361 taels dutie- collected from the coasting trade 

 in foreign merchandise, 478317 taels tonnage dues, 

 520,927 taels transit dues, and 4.104.145 taels the 

 commuted liktn tax on foreign opium. 



The debt of the Imp-rial Government previous 

 to the war with Japan consisted of a loan of 627,- 

 675 contracted in 1874. one of 1.004,276 borrowed 

 in 1878, silver loans of ! l ..VVi.000 and 2.250.000 

 raised in 1884 and 1886, a German 1 r.o.OOO 



borrowed in 1887, and a loan of 1,635,000 in silver 



raised in 1894; total outstanding on Dec. 31, 



il. !:,!. In l^.i:, a gold 1, . .coo u ;i s 



raised, and about I-J.JHKMHMI more \\civ ad\. 

 b\ foreign houses and 5,000,000 raised by don 

 loans. The Japanese indemnities amount to aliout 



"MHKMI. making the pre-ent indcbtcdili 

 the Imperial Government 



Japanese war indemnity was Axed at v 



kuping taels d kuping tiiel ; ..;id :;o.(K)0,. 



000 t;, vert demanded for the evacu 



of the I.iaotung peninsula. To meet t h. -. 'liliga- 



tions the (io\erntnent coniracteil a new forl^H 



loan of the nominal amount . 



at 5 |>er cent., ami in March. IS'.H'I. an An::! 



man loan 



total foreign debt now out-landing is about JJ^I 



KK). 



('I. 1 fn.ni tl 



000, and up to 1SH7 had paid ' 

 a balance remaining in London ol ' 

 ficieiit to pay the installments due in IS'.)?. (>fthe 

 4,000,000 a'pplied to other pu: 

 been expended in the purchase of shi|.> ami 

 and 750.000 was depo-itcd in the Uus-.-n 

 Hank a- a guarantee that China will fulfill theol.li- 

 g.-itioii- umiertaken in connection \\ith the Sii 

 Uailroad thnnigh Chinese territory. The sum still 

 due Japan i- l'16.450,4!>0. being the e.juival. 

 100,000,000 taels at the agreed rale of Merln 

 change, though the sterling value of that sum ;ifi. r 

 .lap.m adopted the gold standard fell t.. L 

 -Japan de^iren t hat the liquidation should be efl 

 at once, being in need of gi.ld.and China \va- a: 

 to dear ofT the indebtedness by raising a new loan 

 of 16,000,000, becac OOOoi interot ah 



paid on the part of the indemnity still due v. 

 refunded if t he whole is paid before M 

 in-trad of dragging almig the payments till 

 For the projected loan China ha- oib-rrd ;i- -'curity 

 the unhypothecated remainder of the imj.ei-ial cus- 

 toms revenue, which is U(H).(KH) per annum, and 

 the guarantee of the Hoard of Revenue. The total 

 foreign indebtedness of the Chinese Government is 

 about 38,500.000. In September a contracl 

 made with a British syndicate for a loan of 

 000,000 to pay the Japanese indemnity, whi. > 

 taken at !U. and for other loan- for the "const ruction 

 of railroads. The indemnity loan is secured on the 

 customs, the II Lin, and the salt revenue. Th- 

 of foreign control of the ///,-/;< was acki 

 but the Chinese Government refused to admit 

 extension of foreign administration to the collec- 

 tion of tiffin taxes, as advocated by Sir liobert Hart, 

 chief of the imperial cu-toms and support- 

 the British minister. The Hriti-h and other 

 ernments have agreed in principle to t 1 

 of the tariff fixed in 1S5S by the treaty of Tient-in. 

 The fall in the price of silver has greatly im : 

 the burden of the foreign debt of China, payable in 

 gold, and the amount of the debt ha- been enor- 

 mously swelled by the addition of the war indem- 

 nity to .Japan. The ( 'hine-e (Jovernment ha- 



fore asked to be permitted to double the | i 

 tariff rates. T> . -AMU- to the flu-t i. 



in market prices, fall considerably short of ' 

 per-cent. ad m/orem ba-i- upon which the tariff of 

 1858 was framed, and probably do not n 

 an average more than 3$- or Sf-per-crnt. tul >" 

 Three quarters of the present custom- reveniK 

 been mortgaged to secure loans to meet 1 1 

 indemnity and other expenses connected with the 

 dwastrou- conflict with Japan, and before th< 

 demnity can be cleared off the remaining portion 

 of the revenue now collected from foreign trade 

 must be pledged. 



I he \riny.The military forces of the Ci 

 Km j. ire have two separate organizations. The Army 



