PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 445 



remote military services, all the land of the empire is regarded as 

 the property of the emperor, and all original titles to land are 

 held directly from him subject to three conditions : * First, the 

 payment of a land tax; second, the payment of fees when the 

 crown title-holder or his successors sell mortgages, or leases; 

 third, the supplying of certain labor service when demanded by 

 the authorities. The land tax, which is exacted from all arable 

 land, varies in amount according to the productiveness of the 

 land, and does not ordinarily exceed one twentieth of the gross 

 product. There is no tax on waste and uncultivated land, and 

 rights in common exist in respect to waste land adjoining villages. 

 The fees incident to the alienation of land are nominally about 

 three per cent of the purchase money, but usually, by extortion, 

 range from five to six per cent. The supplying of labor, when 

 demanded by the authorities, is not well denned, and is apparently 

 limited to furnishing the Government with transportation and 

 labor on the public works, especially the repairing of dikes and 

 canals. If these conditions are complied with, the state rarely 

 interferes with the possession, alienation, or rental of land by its 

 subjects. When land is rented the Government tax is paid by 

 the landlord, and not by the tenant. The district magistrate is 

 tax assessor, tax collector, judge, and administrator. A board of 

 revenue fixes the amount that each district shall return to the 

 state, and the district magistrate is liable for this sum whether 

 he collects it or not. Any surplus collected, on the other hand, in 

 excess of what is due the state is his private perquisite. Remis- 

 sion of land taxes is made when any great calamities occur, as 

 floods, famines, and fires, and in such cases the tenant has the 

 benefit of three tenths of the remission. 



The other chief sources of imperial revenue in China are from 

 a monopoly of salt; from taxes on goods brought through the 

 gates of towns and cities, which appear to be analogous to the 

 European octroi taxes ; from taxes known as likin on the transit 

 of goods through the provinces; from export and import duties, 

 which are of modern origin ; and from the sale of honors or titles. f 

 There appear to be no taxes on personal property in China ; but in 

 Pekin, and probably in other cities, small license fees are re- 

 quired from certain occupations and manufactures, ostensibly for 

 defraying municipal expenditures. 



* It is even asserted that there is at the present time but one person in all China who 

 holds an absolute freehold title to any real estate, and he in virtue of being a lineal de- 

 scendant of the Ming dynasty which the Manchus supplanted. 



f The customs revenue of China for the year 1893 was reported as 3,646,350 (or 

 $18,331,750), of which fully one third was derived from the duties on opium. The aver- 

 age rate of duties on other importations was about six per centum of their entered valua- 

 tion. 



