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sending the proceeds of the duties to Peking. To this Meniorial there was sent an Imperial Rescript, ordering the Superintendents of Customs to see that the returns are duly forwarded every quarter, and that the duties be energetically collected, &c. The Board of Revenue, in transmitting these orders, stated that from Liang Ting, under the Tien-tsin Customs, from Kalgan, Sha Hu Kou, and Kuei IIwa Chêng, such inadequate sums as 200 taels to 1,500 taels had been sent as a year's levy.
From Han-kwan, Hwai-an, Yang-chow, Ling-ching, and Tung-hai, no improvement in the reveme had been reported for years. That Ningpo and Foochow, where not only duties on opium are collected, but transit dues also, should by rights show a large increase; the last Reports, however, showed a falling off in the revenue. It is evident that there must be a great deal of remis- ness among the officers, and of smuggling among the people. Yang-chou (in Kiang Su), and other places, have for several years neither sent a cash of opium duty to Peking, nor any accounts whatever of the opium duties.
In future those officers who fail to forward respectable sums, or who neglect to send in quarterly accounts, will be severely dealt with.
On the 23rd February, 1875, a Decree was issued to the following effect:-
Censor Wang Chao-Lan has addressed a Memorial to us, in which he treats of finance, govern- ment, and army drill; all his remarks are to the point.
We order the Board of Revenue to furnish us with a detailed estimate of the receipts and dis- bursements of each province on account of salt, gabelle, land-tax, li-kin, sale of offices, &c., and to furnish a scheme whereby the former can be increased, and economy effected in the latter.
We further order the provincial authorities to send in reports stating the number of l-kin offices there are in each province, and annual accounts of the revenue received by each of such offices.
As all the provinces are now at peace, a reduction in the army estimates can be brought about. We order the Board of Revenue to devise and subrait to us a detailed plan of disbandment in each province. We order that no more than the regulated price be charged for articles supplied by the provinces to the palace, &c.
The last portion of the Decree only contains the usual orders to the provincial authorities to exercise a strict supervision over their subordinate officials, and to report to the Throne the names of military officers who evince high talents for promotion.
No. 3.
Further on Li-kin,
Early in the year 1875 the Censor, Wang Li-ching, addressed a Memorial to the Throne, which received the Imperial sanction, to the effect that, since the prevalence of disorders, the ordinary revenue not sufficing for the expenditure, offices to collect li-kin and systems of salt licences were inaugurated, and in Kiang Su, An Hui, and Hu Kuang, bureaus were established to sell salt; that such of these offices and bureaus as are in the provincial capitals are superintended by high officials, and are properly managed, but it is otherwise with regard to the subsidiary stations in the outlying districts, which are presided over by native gentry and elders, who, whenever a case arises, collude with the local authorities in aiding their friends and protecting them from justice; even the better class of gentry enter into private arrangements with suspected persons, and use their official influence to connive at smuggling.
The employment of gentry and elders in their own villages to supervise l-kin offices leads to abuses too grievous to mention. In An-Hui and Hu-Nan, to each of these subsidiary stations there is one seal of office and half-a-dozen officers who use it, and in other provinces there are other mal- practices.
The Memorialist proposed, as a remedy to this state of affairs, that in future no one should be employed in his own district as wei-yuan (deputy of a superior officer) in the collection of li-kin.
Further, on the 23rd April, the Board of Revenue addressed a Memorial to the Throne, which also received the Imperial sanction, and which was to the following effect :---
Li-kin, though not a regulation source of revenue, yields more than any other impost, except land tax, salt, gabelle, and maritime duties. It is of three kinds; on miscellaneous goods, on opium, and on salt It was first imposed in the beginning of the reign of Hsien Fêng to supply the necessary military expenditure, and now, though peace has been restored, it has to be maintained to supply contingents to Feking and to various disturbed provinces, and to pay the local expenses of maintaining order in the provinces in which it is raised.
The Board has frequently memorialized the Throne, praying that orders should be sent to the high provincial authorities to furnish it twice a-year with detailed accounts of li-kan receipts. In conse- quence of these Memorials, the Provinces of An-Hui, Kiang-Si, Hu-Peh, Fali-kien, Kwang-Tong, and Kwang-Si, have duly sent in these returns. Kiang-Su, Chel-Kiang, Shan-Tung, Shan-Si, Hu-Nan, Yun-nau, and Fungtion (Manchuria), have either only reported the gross receipts, or have delaye sending the returns. Ho-Nan and Sze-Chuen have only sent returns of the li-kin levied on opium, and have not stated whether or no li-kin on miscellaneous goods is there levied. Chih-Li, Kwei-Chow, Shan-Si, and Kan-Suh have only furnished yearly Returns.
From the reports to hand it appears that the total receipts on account of la-kin of the Empire are about 17,000,000 to 18,000,000 taels a-year; of this only 1,200,000 or 1,300,000 are sent to Peking for the troops, and a few hundred thousand for public works; the rest is either retained in the province that raises it, or sent in contingents to disturbed provinces. It seems to the Board that the amounts retained are excessive, but as only a few of the provinces send in detailed accounts twice a-year, which are very vague as regards expenditure, and as the other provinces only report the gross receipts, the Board has no data on which to take action.
Again, where there is not a fixed amount of li-kin leviable settled, the Government has to rely on the integrity of the collectors; this is why the Board has asked for lists of the names of all persous
employed at the subsidiary stations, so that regulations may be put in force by which rewards may be As yet the provinces have only sent Reports conferred on the meritorious, and the useless got rid of.
of the stations closed or opened, and have not given the names of the superintending officers, so that for several years past the Bourd has not been able to bestow recompenses or inflict penalties upon
them.
For the last few years the receipts from li-kia have been falling short. The Board considers this decrease must be caused by malpractices on the part of the collectors, and quotes the Memorial of Wang Li-ching (an abstract of which is given above) in support of this view. It also quotes a Memorial of Censor Wang Chan-lao, praying that the provincial authorities should be directed to send in Returns of all the li-kin stations within their several jurisdictions. Under the above circumstances the Board suggests the promulgation of the following orders --
1. Detailed Returns of the three denominations of li-kin must be sent to the Board every six months.
2. No person must be employed as branch collector in his own district. Such persons as are now so employed must be dismissed.
3. Stricter supervision must be exercised over the subsidiary stations. Purchase of posts and extortion must be put a stop to.
4. Li-kin must not be collected more than once on petty trade.
5. There must be a wholesale suppression of unnecessary stations and barriers.
6. There must be means of rewarding or punishing deputies according to their merits or demerits.
The Board believes that if the above rules are strictly adhered to the receipts on account of li-kin will increase year by year.
There is another suggestion which the Board considers of still greater importance. The fact that there is no fixed amount settled of how much li-kin should be levied, that the Board has not been able to decide what percentage should be sent to Peking, and that the tax is paid at the station by the merchant, causes the li-kin to be quite a different kind of impost from the land tax, which is collected by Government. Hence each province looks upon the li-kin it collects as its own money to do what it likes with, and the wei-yuan who collect it, not being responsible officers, have no fear of the consequences of their acts. The reason why the supervision of the high authorities has produced no satisfactory result is, it is believed, because these li-kin sub-collectors combine in sending false Returns and in embezzling the receipts; and it is on this account that, though the Board has asked for a list of the names of all these wei-yuan, it has never received them. The wei-yuan natu- rally fear that if once they give in a list of their names, there will be an end of their illicit gains, and take good care not to give it; the high authorities screen the wei-yuan, do not press for the list, and disregard the Board's Memorials. The Board, therefore, prays His Imperial Majesty to again order the provincial authorities to forward the Returns, Lists, &c., without delay, under penalty of degradation in case of disobedience.
On the 15th April the Board of Revenue addressed a Memorial to the Throne, which has received the Imperial sanction, and which is to the following effect:---
On the 3rd January the Board received a Decree ordering it to report on a Memorial of Censor Hsu Ting-kuei, which stated that, though since 1864 the south and cast provinces of the Empire had been restored to order, though land tax and Chinese duties in these yielded a revenue equal to that formerly raised, and li-kin and foreign duties had increased 100 per cent, no reduction had been effected in the army or militia. He accordingly suggested that Imperial Commissioners should be sent into the provinces to aid the provincial authorities to disband the militia and convert them into regular troops, so as to effect a saving in army expenses. He further stated that the provinces had not supplied the Board of Revenue with proper Returns of the receipts from li-kin, and instanced the Liang-hwai station, which sold more than 500,000 salt licences a year, and levied 84 taels odd on each licence, He calculated that if to this and consequently ought to collect several million taels per annum.
were added the sums raised by selling licences in Cheh-Kiang, Fub-Kien, Kwang-Tung, and Sze-Chuen, the amount so realized could not fall short of some 12,000,000 taels, and that, if further li-kin ou iniscellaneous goods were added, the amount would be probably doubled. Very little of this rooney, however, reached the Imperial Treasury. He accordingly proposed that Commissioners should be sent to the provinces to report on li-kin receipts and expenditure.
On this Memorial the Board of Revenue remarks that li-kin was first raised in 1861* to supply funds, then urgently required.
In 1868 and 1874 the Board called on the various provinces to furnish it with half-yearly Returns of the receipts and expenditure of the li-kin, and advised, in the latter year, the abolition of as many stations as possible.
The tax itself, li-kin, is only an expedient to which it was necassary to resort pro tempore. In the north and west of the Empire peace is not yet restored, and military operations there entail an enormous expenditure, which, as well as the contingents to Peking, is entirely dependent on the li-kin.
Under these circumstances, it is evident that the Board would not for a moinent allow false Returns to be sent in; the frequent Memorials of the Board are a proof of the attention it has bestowed on the matter, and it now takes this opportunity to again pray His Imperial Majesty to direct the attention of the provincial authorities to its Memorial of 1873, calling upon them for Returns of receipts and disbursements, and to abolish such tax-stations as can be dispensed with.
The Board considers that some confidence should be reposed in Viceroys and Governors, all of whom, the Board feels certain, deserve the high trust reposed in them, and that no Commissioners should be sent to report on li-kin, or to aid the provincial authorities in disbanding militia or in con- verting militiamen into regulars.
*It began in 1853, if not earlier.-T. F. W.
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