84  '  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
in  aid  to  Kansu.  The  tax-note  will  be  in  Treasury  taels,
it  will  be  paid  in  local  taels  ;  the  proceeds  converted  int°
Tsaoping  taels  for  remittance  to  Shanghai,  where  it  lS
converted  into  Shanghai  taels  ;  again  converted  int°
Tsaoping  taels  for  remittance  to  Kansu  (assuming  that
it  is  remitted  by  draft),  where  it  is  received  in  local  taels,
these  are  converted  into  Treasury  taels  for  accounting  with
Kiangsu,  and  back  again  into  local  taels  for  deposit  i%  a
bank,  and  again  into  Treasury  taels  for  accounting  with
the  Imperial  Treasury,  and  again  into  local  taels  or  int°
cash  for  disbursement.  This  is  no  burlesque,  but  an  exact
account  of  what  happens,  and  we  have  a  series  of  n ine
exchange  transactions,  each  of  which  will  yield  a  profit
of  at  least  a  quarter  of  one  per  cent,  on  the  turn-oveb
apart  from  the  rate  of  exchange  on  actual  transfer  fro^j
place  to  place,  and  altogether  outside  any  question  0
“  squeezing  ”  the  taxpayer.  Moreover,  as  we  are  deaW
with  the  past  more  than  with  the  future,  it  is  right  t°
record  that,  regularly  in  the  past  and  frequently  in  th e
present,  the  remittance  is  made  by  actually  sending  th e
silver  from  Kiangsu  to  Kansu,  not  reducing  the  exchange
operations  noted  above  by  a  single  step,  but  adding  eno f '
mously  to  the  cost  by  the  expense  of  transport  and  esco f
for  a  journey  which  must  be  counted  by  months  and  V o
b?  days-  ,
All  these  considerations  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  aw
study  of  figures  *  purporting  to  represent  the  revenue  al1
expenditure  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  In  Western  budg et5
the  receipt  side  includes  the  entire  sum  taken  from  ®
taxpayer  for  the  maintenance  of  the  fabric  of  govern#^
and  the  payment  side  gives  the  entire  amount  expend^
for  administrative  purposes.  In  China  this  is  not  so.

few  heads  of  revenue  may  be  regarded  as  strictly  Imp er
such  as  the  tribute  and  the  receipts  of  that  new  and  se* 1 ®
foreign  institution,  the  Maritime  Customs.  Other  receip

*  The  principal  authorities  for  the  taxation  and  expenditure^
China  are  E.  H.  Parker  and  George  Jamieson,  and  any  figures  fi u °
will  generally  be  from  their  writings.