232
THE NEW TARIFF NEGOTIA- TIONS.
[ March 29, 1902.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
more powerful; and when the hormal | themselves. We believe that the great conditions have been restored each bas viceroys are themselves aware of this fact, returned to its ordinary practice. Hithert and would gladly adopt such a course but the efforts to have the illegal duties for two reasons, one of which, it seems, we rectified have been confined to having have the means of putting an end to. recourse to the central Government; and Here as elsewhere in China, the fiscal it has been supposed that the promise of system is bad, not so much intentionally as that Government to redress the wrong has from a want of knowledge as well as of a been sufficient. It is quite possible that trained staff. The first we can supply, and the Government itself has believed that it we believe it would be gratefully received, had this power, but it is hardly couceivable the second also the provinces would wel- that it was not perfectly well aware from come, if it were independent of Peking, previous experience that such powers were This is really the great difficulty. So beyond its ability; at all events it has left intense is the distrust of the Court, that the it, when the evil became excessive, to the dread of exposing their financial secrets is powers concerned to bring such pressure really the great bugbear standing in the as they could on the provincials, and way. Above all, the Imperial Maritime this the powers did not feel disposed to Customs as an emanation of the Peking do. Such is the present condition of the Government is in the last degree distasteful affair, and it has become self-evident on in the provinces, and it is the essential the face of it that the new proposal to weakness of all these schemes proposed that throw on the Central Government, in they too evidently proceed from this hostile return for any concession of duty, the source. All these things conspire together obligation of coercing the provinces, must to render impossible by any means short of ia the present as in the past prove equally a general revolution any of the means pro.. ineffective, and only result in the same posed, and of these we have no hesitation failure as before. The independence of the in classing that attributed to Sir JAMES provinces of the central Government is MACKAY as essentially the worst of all. still more plainly show in the differences between the methods adopted by the pro- vinces themselves. While in the southern, and to a less extent in the central provinces, the lekin system has strangled or almost strangled the circulation of goods, until lately lekin did not exist in the more northern provinces, or where it did exist was only found in a modified form. Un- luckily the mistaken action of the British Government has called attention to this fact, with the result of the introduction of the tax in localities where hitherto it was unknown. Still more mischievous would be the effect of Sir JAMES MACKAY's new measure for the sake of compromising the lekin in provinces where it is already a burden, he would make it in fact universal with the result that Peking would take advantage of the new levy still further to pile up its demands on the provinces in consideration of their extra ability to pay, so that while in no respect easing the burdens of the provincials, it would afford means for still further extravagances on the part of the Court; and all this would be done at the expense of the foreign, and especially British, trade with China.
(Daily Press, 27th March.) While everyone who has made a study of the financial systems of China has come to the conclusion that the system of lekin, and more especially its method, is not only injurious to the best interests of China, but is inefficient as a source of revenue to the provinces, the methods proposed for its abolition seem to vary almost as the meu who have tried to study its financial and political aspects. In one particular there is a general consensus of opinion, and that is that only by amalgamating the financial administrations of the Empire under one head can any successful result be looked for. That this is doubtless the case we do not deny, but the methods hitherto proposed, including the latest attempt fathered by Sir JAMES MACKAY, are throughout singular in their ineptitutude. The great principle | underlying the financial administration of the Chinese Empire up to the present is that the Imperial Government makes demands on the provinces in lump sums, leaving to the provincial governments to apportion the details. Experience in a rough way has pointed out the proportionate sum each province is capable of transmit- ting, and beyond this there is at present no machinery whereby the provincial levies can be controlled either in amount or in in- cidence. To add to this difficulty, there exists on the part of the provincial govern- ments and Peking a profound want of confidence. Each deeply mistrusts the other, and tries to deceive it as to its income and expenditure. Sir THOMAS WADE, who, with all his means of knowledge at hand, knew less of the practical adminis- tration of China than any other man ever entrusted with high responsibility, made a miserable failure of all his financial attempts; and very much the same may be said of the present Inspector-General. In both cases the failure has proceeded from the habit of looking at China not as China is in actuality, but as China should be on a theory existing in the mind of the adminis- trator. This evil is of very ancient origin, and dates back, it may be said, to the very foundation of the Empire. In theory the Chinese system is a beautiful combination of compensating machinery, but unfortunately the checks are too refined and delicate to be capable of being put in action; and the official mind, while always capable of quot ing the excellent rules laid down for his administration, takes care in practice to use the rough and ready methods that have been handed down amongst the traditions of his office. Hence it comes that China in theory and China in practice are two very different and distinct entities. The sea- borne commerce of China has always, it is true, been looked upon as an appanage of the Imperial power, and the provinces have never openly ventured to interfere in the Imperial arrangements, but when the cargo was once landed for local consumption the position was at once altered, and the Imperial Government had no more right to interferè than had the provincial in the first instance.. Such has been the theory. It is doubtless the fact that the provincial governments have as a matter of practice from time to time actually interfered with the import or export trade, and it is also from time to time the case that the cen- tral Government has interfered with the local fiscal regulations, but that in each case has been a mere matter of momentary consideration when one or the other has found itself for the instant the
Now, as we have before said, our words are not to be taken as an acceptance of the principle of lekin, but we think there are other ways to bring about a provincial revenue without the wasteful extravagance of the present system. The evil of the present practice is not so much that it brings iu a substantial amount to the provinces as that it is 80 enormously expensive in collection that it imposes an enormous burden on trade altogether out of proportion to the revenue actually paid into the treasuries. As conducted at pre- sent, the collection is practically put up to auction, so that the farmer of each petty!" district has no interest in benefitting his neighbour across the frontier line, This practise emphasises its worst fault, and that is its accumulative nature, This, it is easy to province at large, and actually reduces the see, is really no benefit to the
next collection. If, instead of seeking by impracticable means through the Imperial Government at Peking to abolish a system which as far as that Government is concerned is perfectly constitutional, we endeavonred to come to some und ratanding with the provinces whereby in each the whole collec- tion could be consolidated, we should be con- ferring a benefit, not merely on foreign trade, but on the revenues of the provinces
CHINA'S TRADE IN 1901.
This
(Daily Press, 26th March.) The report on the trade of China, in 1901 by Mr. F. E. TAYLOR, the Statistical Secretary of the Maritime Customs, has been issued at Shanghai. Mr. TAYLOR commences by calling attention to the fulfilment of his prediction last year, that with the restoration of peace trade would rapidly recover from the depression caused by the deplorable events of 1900 anticipation has been verified even sooner than was to be expected, he says, for during a great portion of 1901 conditions were not at all favourable to recovery. Military operations were still continuing in the North at the beginning of the year, and the disturbed state of Manchuria throughout and the Yangtsze floods much impeded the export trade. In spite of these drawbacks, however, the year was a good one for foreign trade, especially as regards imports, and the total estimated value of imports and exports was Hk. Tls. 437,959,675, higher than any other year except 1899. The increase of the tariff to an effective five per cent. ad valorem, which came into effect on the 11th November last, helped no doubt to swell the revenue, but there was not time for it to make very much difference. There was no rush of imports to escape the increased duty, except at one or two of the southern ports, aud the trade was thoroughly healthy.
The total revenue for the year was Hk. Tls. 25,537,574, which has only been ex- ceeded by the record collection of Hk. Tls. 26,661,460 in 1899, and was about three millions in excess of the average of the last decade. Mr. Taylor
says: "It was to be "expected that the figures would compare favourably with those for 1900, but even "when compared with 1899 we find in- creases under Import Duties, Coast Trade Duty, Tonnage Dues, and Transit Dues. "There was a falling off in Export Duty "and in Opiump Duty and Lekin; the former is of no significance, as it was due "to exceptional circumstances.
Wit's the additional Import Duties, and the opening up of so much country by railways, it seems not unreasonable to hope that the collection during 1902 may not fall far short of thirty millions of taels."
46
41
24
$1
Mr. TAYLOR dwells on the subject of rail- ways, which are destined to play so import- ant a part in the future history of China.