371
2
market values. Land was bought from about 6,000 individual proprietors almost all in plots of less than 1 acre, and some of only a few square yards. Regular deeds of transfer, such as are in common use among the natives, were obtained in all cases, thus constituting the Syndicate the absolute proprietor of the land, subject to the payment of the ordinary annual taxes.
"In due course notices to pay the land taxes were served, the correctness of the charges being vouched for by the Deputy of the Governor, specially appointed to manage the affairs of the Syndicate. We have no reason to suppose that the sums for which the Syndicate is assessed differ at all from those that would have been levied from the original proprietors. Taxes have now been paid for two years, that is, for 1903 and 1904.
"The following table gives the price paid, and the annual taxes levied.
acre :--
Ilsun sien
Hwa Hsien
Chi Hsien
Hein Hsiang.
Hwo Chia
Hsiu Wu Ho Nei Hsien
number of mow bought in each district, the A mow is roughly one-sixth of an English
Taels. 28,576-118 2,867 800
District.
Number of Mows bonghit.
Cost of Land, Local Currency.
Annual Taxes.
Average per Mow.
Kuping Tacls.
Kuping Taels.
1.585-623 169-809
146.00
*09
11'83
·07
1,798-742
29.903·164
328·19
+18
1,317-266 915-457
28,472·382
283.28
-215
16,804-140
185-62
.202
2.813-508
616 052
54,655 807 11,780-694
698 38
-248
86.58
-140
9.216-482
1,734.88
0-1882 taels.
Total
Average taxation per mow
For equivalents in sterling the Kuping tael, which is about 4 per cent. better than the local tael, and 11 per cent. better than the Shanghae tael, may be reckoned at 3s., and the taxation in English money is therefore about 6d. per mow, or 3s. 3d.
per acre.
"The nature of the tenure and the mode of calculating the land tax vary in almost every district. These are too complicated to give in the form of a table, but the following examples will illustrate the conditions:-
"In Isan Hsien the Syndicate bought-
Land teld on ordinary tenure (“min t'ien ")
73
military
•
tun tien ")
Total
Mows. 1,498-753
91-870
1,585-028
"The taxes account presented by the Magistrate of this district translates as follows:-
Land tax proper on 1,585 623 mow at 0368855 taels per mow For inferior touch or meltage fee, 44 per cent. on the above
Taels.
68.407
25.690
Expenses of collection at the rate of 300 copper cash on every tack of land
tax. Cash, 17,520
15'587
Grain tax at the rate of 005468 "shih" per mow on 1,493 75 mow (no levy on military land), equal to 8-169 "shib" or picals at 6.400 copper cash per picul. Cash, 52,282
46.316
146·000
3
fixed and immutable for all time coming, and no further increase was under any circumstances to be permitted. As a matter of fact, no statutory revision of taxation would seem ever to have been attempted, and to that extent the Decree of K'ang Hsi has been observed by his successors. The legal land tax stands as it was, but in practice, by surcharges in one form or another, it has been doubled or quadrupled, The meltage fee of 44 per cent. is, of course, a more fiction. Tender may be made in pure silver, in fact, must be made in pure silver, but the percentage is payable all the same. The 44 per cent. is a substantial increase, only it must be disguised under another name.
45
By a similar process the grain tax has been trebled. Originally, no doubt, payable in kind, it is now compulsory to pay in silver, and at a rate fixed by the officials from time to time, but always a long way above the market rate. In the above case the picul of grain is taken at 6,400 full-sized cash, equal at present exchange to fully taels, which must be three or four times the country price of grain, even if rice, of which, however, very little is grown in these parts.
The fixing of these surcharges and rates of commutation appears to be left mainly with the District Magistrates, with the cousent probably of the Provincial Treasurer. The Imperial Government does not, so far as I know, attempt to regulate such matters. The Magistrates are mainly hound by old custom, what has been done before is tolerated, but there is always a tendency to seize on every occasion to try on a little more. This, if too much, provokes a riot, the Magistrate gets into trouble with the people, and a haggling ensues until either the extra impost is abandoned or a modus vivendi is arrived at on some middle ground.
"It may be noticed in passing with what extreme accuracy calculations were made in those days when figures were worked out to the seventh decimal. One wonders by what extraordinary arithmetic the land tax came to be fixed at exactly '0,368,355 per mow, or in what conceivable coin the unhappy cultivator paid down to, say, the ten thousandth part of a farthing.
more
"To return to the taxation accounts presented to the Syndicate, one example will suffice. I take that for the district of Hsin Hsiang Hsien. In this the Syndicate purchased
Land on ordinary tenure
military
11
Total
The taxes account was presented as follows :----
Total
Mows.
1,203.512
105.845
1,509.857
Tarls.
17
Land tax proper on 1,203 512 mow of common land at 0548392 taels per mow..
105.845
military
65.9996
·044
4.6574
22
17
39
70-687
Taels.
Payable at the rate of 2,600 copper cash por tael Cash, 188,710 Expenses of collection at the rate of 30 copper cash per mow on common land, and
25 cash on military land. Total copper cash, 38,752, equal to Grain tax at the rate of 01255 pienls on common laud (nothing on military land), total 15 1075 picals, payable at the rate of 6,000 copper cash per picul. Total cash, 90,645, equal to
166.20
85.06
Total, Kuping taels
82.02
283.28
Total, Kuping tacls
"The Kuping tael being a theoretical tacl, the above was paid by converting it into local currency at the rate of 103-72 local taels to 100 Kuping, giving 151:43 local taels as the equivalent.
"For those curious in such details the following note may be added. The land tax proper, the first item on the list, is apparently the amount leviable according to ancient regulation, dating back to the 51st year of the reign of the Emperor K'ang Hsi (1710). In that year a well known Decree was issued declaring the land tax throughout the Empire, as shown by the records of that particular date, to be
Equivalent in local currency to 293-82 taels.
"In this case it will be noticed there is no meltage fee, but it is made up for by the curious juggle of converting the silver into copper cash at an arbitrary rate, and then converting it back again at the market rate, a process whereby 70-657 taels is suddenly transformed into 166:20 taels. This, it may be observed, is an expedient frequently resorted to. The cash currency bears no fixed relation to silver, and the weight of the tael, or Chinese ounce of silver, varies in every district, as also does the fineness or touch of the silver itself. All these are the instruments or mechanism by which the juggling is carried on, and it may be remarked en parenthèse that the prospect of a uniform national coinage, promised by the Mackay Treaty, is probably not regarded with a friendly eye by the large army of officials and underlings, who make their livelihood or their fortunes, as the case may be, out of the present confusion. Such a reform would necessarily entail revision of the whole system of taxation and national book-keeping.
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