[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 370
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
C.O.
[September 36641
TRECH SaoTRE114 OCT 65
No. 1.
Sir E. Sutow to the Marquess of Lansdowne,~(Received September 25.)
(No. 267.) My Lord,
Peking, July 24, 1905. I HAVE the honour to inclose a report on land taxation in the Province of Honan, based on the experience of the Peking Syndicate as landowners and tax- payers in that province, which I have received from Mr. George Jamieson.
That gentleman in sending it to me states that it is intended as a supplement to his report on the revenue of China (Foreign Office Reports, 1897), and begs me to transmit it to your Lordship with a view to its publication should you think it of sufficient interest.
I have, &c.
(For His Majesty's Minister),
(Signed) LANCELOT D. CARNEGIE.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Report on Land Taxation in the Province Honan, based on the experience of the Peking Syndicate (Limited), as Owners and Taxpayers of Land purchased for their Railway in that Province by George Jamieson, C.M.G., formerly His Britannic Majesty's Consul General at Shanghae.
THE following paper is intended as a supplement to the Report on the Revenue and Expenditure of the Chinese Empire, furnished by the writer as Consul at Shanghac, and printed in Foreign Office Reports, 1597," Miscellaneous Series- Reports on Subjects of General and Commercial Interest:----
"In that Report among other sources of revenue discussed the principal was the land tax, which in China, as in other Oriental countries, was and continues to be by far the most important. An attempt was there made to estimate what the actual yield as collected from the peasantry should amount to, in comparison with the sums returned by the provincial officials as received. As to the latter there was no doubt, as the figures were taken from official reports printed in the Peking Gazettes, but as to the former one could only form a rough estimate, based on bearsay evidence, as to what individual proprietors here and there said they paid. Since then, however, something more definite and tangible has come to light, the result of which is set out in the following pages. The Peking Syndicate, by virtue of Mining Concessions obtained in 1898, secured the right to build a railway to connect its mines with navigable waters, and for that purpose to acquire by purchase the necessary land. This they proceeded to do in 1902 after the Boxer trouble, and with no great friction became owners of about 1,500 acres of land, not as leaseholders at the Treaty ports under Treaty rights, but as ordinary proprietors under native tenures and subject to the same taxation and incidents as Chinese landowners. This is the first case of the kind, at least of this magnitude, where foreigners have acquired land in China by ordinary transfer, for the Chinese Government has always been very jealous of alienating any portion of the soil. At the Treaty ports the land is invariably described as being 'leased,' not sold, and in the case of other railways, such as the Luhan, the land is acquired by the Government itself, the foreign Company merely holding a mortgage pending repayment of the loan.
"The Peking Syndicate's railway runs from Taokow, on the Wei River, westerly to the city of Chinghua, a distance of 90 miles. It passes through six hsiens or districts, in each of which land had to be bought. A scale of prices was arranged with the officials varying from 8 taels per mow for the poorest, to 25 taels for the best. The actual cost worked out to an average of about 19 taels per mow (21. 10s., or, say, 15. per English acre), this being probably about 50 per cent, above the ordinary
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