38  Camphor:  Groivth  and  Manufacture.  {Am-^nr.\m&irL' 
of  Formosa  and  his  official  staff.  The  annual  output  ran  as  high  as 
250  and  300  tons  and  netted  the  distinguished  syndicate  over 
$100,000  a  year.  The  profit  can  be  easily  appreciated  when  it  is 
known  that  the  poor  peasant  was  paid  four  cents  per  pound  for  the 
camphor  which  was  sold  a  week  afterwards  in  Hong  Kong  for  any- 
where from  24  to  35  cents.  The  monopoly  was  abolished  in  1870 
at  the  intervention  of  the  ministers  of  all  the  great  powers  at  Peking. 
Foreign  merchants,  especially  British  and  American,  prepared  to 
enter  the  trade  on  a  large  scale.  The  authorities,  with  character- 
istic shrewdness,  enacted  forthwith  a  likin  or  internal  revenue  sys- 
tem which  completely  frustrated  all  attempts  to  do  business  suc- 
cessfully. 
(1)  A  tax  was  imposed  upon  every  pot  or  boiler,  no  matter 
whether  used  full  time,  half  time,  or  no  time  at  all.  As  non-pay- 
ment of  a  tax  in  China  is  a  crime  punishable  by  fine  and  imprison- 
ment, this  measure  caused  the  camphor  makers  to  break  and  de- 
stroy one-half  of  their  plant  rather  than  run  the  risk  of  going  to  jail. 
(2)  A  heavy  "  battery  tax  "  (or  an  assessment  for  the  building 
and  maintaining  of  forts  in  the  district)  was  imposed  upon  the  fin- 
ished product.  This  was  nominally  about  three  cents  per  pound, 
but  as  levied  came  to  twice  that  figure. 
(3)  The  barrier  imposts  (or  likin  proper)  were  assessed  at  from 
one  to  two  cents  a  pound  upon  the  article.  In  instances  a  donkey 
load  of  camphor  would  be  obliged  to  pass  six  to  a  dozen  barriers 
between  the  point  of  production  and  the  market  place. 
(4)  An  export  duty  was  laid  upon  the  camphor. 
(5)  A  system  of  terrorization  was  set  on  foot  by  the  subordinate 
officials,  which  frightened  nearly  all  the  camphor  growers  from 
selling  to  the  foreign  hongs.  Under  these  circumstances  the  trade 
languished,  and  the  supply  demanded  by  Europe  and  America  was 
drawn  from  Japan  and  other  countries. 
In  1885-86  there  was  a  change  in  the  administration  of  Formosa 
and  a  more  liberal  and  progressive  set  of  men  came  into  office. 
They  began  their  regime  with  promise  of  reform,  of  new  laws  for  the 
extension  and  benefit  of  trade,  and  of  a  more  generous  and 
equitable  treatment  of  the  foreign  hongs.  The  latter  were  delighted 
and  made  contracts  with  the  native  merchants  and  farmers  for  large 
quantities,  to  be  delivered  at  the  place  of  production  and  to  be 
brought  down  to  the  port  under  the  protection  of  official  permits. 
