446 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The imperial revenue of China is believed to be about 85,000,- 

 000 taels, or $118,750,000, per annum, although the sum actu- 

 ally collected is probably much greater, the pari that is unac- 

 counted for being absorbed in the taking by the prominent offi- 

 cials. Under any circumstances, however, the great mass of the 

 people of China are not heavily taxed ; and their system of ad- 

 ministration has few inquisitorial and annoying features ; and to 

 the absence of these the permanency of the Chinese Government 

 for so long a period, and the tranquillity and contentment of the 

 Chinese people may, in a great degree, be attributed. As the 

 chief source of revenue to the state or Imperial Government, 

 furthermore, is the direct and indirect land tax, the existing sys- 

 tem of China may be regarded as a living, practical example of 

 the single-tax system. 



TAXATION IN JAPAN. Another example of an ancient sys- 

 tem of taxation, which until a recent period has been subjected 

 to very little change, is to be found in the case of Japan. In 

 this country, as in China, the system of taxation is now, as it 

 always has been, essentially a land tax, but greatly modified in 

 recent years to conform to modern conditions. During the feudal 

 period in Japan, taxes were for the most part paid in kind by the 

 cultivators of the soil, and were in fact a form of rent due to the 

 lord of the soil. Under the oldest regime, when the emperor was 

 the real as well as the nominal head of the government, the land 

 was divided into nine squares, the central one of which was culti- 

 vated by the holders of the other eight, for the use of the em- 

 peror, who thus received one ninth part of the total product of 

 the soil. During the fifteenth century, when the military chief- 

 tains the Daimios or Shoguns had gradually usurped the real 

 power of the emperor, a much larger proportion of the produce of 

 the land was exacted ; seldom less than four tenths of the total 

 crop, and sometimes as much as two thirds. The staple food of 

 the country being rice, the taxes were almost invariably collected 

 in that commodity. The amount paid, however, was not fixed by 

 any national measure, but varied from province to province, de- 

 pending on local customs, the humor of the Daimio, or other cir- 

 cumstances. Moreover, as the established policy of the ancient 

 feudal government was to preserve and fix the status of all classes 

 and conditions of men, it laid down a multitude of vexatious and 

 arbitrary rules regulating every kind of production, which in 

 turn prevented everything in the way of independent action and 

 progress on the part of the producers. Thus, the Japanese farmer 

 without government permission could neither increase nor de- 

 crease the amount of his cultivated land ; nor could he change 

 from the cultivation of rice requiring a wet or marshy soil to 

 some other agricultural product requiring a drier soil. In short, 



