REVENUE  AND  EXPENDITURE  87
resulting  from  many  a  battle  and  sanctioned  by  the  custom
of  years).  The  amount  shown  as  the  total  on  the  note  is  the
amount  which  must  be  turned  into  the  Hsien  s  treasury,
and  takes  no  account  of  the  actual  cost  of  collection,  though
an  amount  is  always  included  for  it  ;  for  the  Hsien,  more
sínico,  pays  his  subordinates  little  or  nothing  as  salary,  but
compels  them  to  scratch  around  for  their  maintenance  ,
and  even  a  tax-collector  must  live.  The  Hsien,  however,
arms  his  collectors  with  power,  and  thus  armed  they  are
enabled  to  extract  their  “  costs  of  collection  ”  from  the  taxpayer. ­
  The  amount  to  be  exacted  is  indeterminate,  and
forms  the  subject  of  a  battle  annually  renewed  between
payer  and  payee  ;  but  on  an  average  it  is  quite  safe  to  put
it,  at  the  very  lowest  estimate,  at  ten  per  cent,  on  the  sum
officially  demanded.  The  official  accretion  is  the  accumulated ­
  result  of  repeated  battles.  As  Jamieson  puts  it  :
“  The  fixing  of  these  surcharges  and  the  rates  of  commutation
appears  to  be  left  mainly  with  the  district  magistrates,  with
the  consent  probably  of  the  provincial  treasurer.  The
Imperial  Government  does  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  attempt
to  regulate  such  matters.  The  magistrates  are  mainly
bound  by  old  custom  ;  what  has  been  done  before  is  tolerated,
but  there  is  always  a  tendency  to  seize  on  every  occasion  to
try  to  obtain  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.”
In  one  district,  as  shown  in  the  cases  given  below,  44
per  cent,  is  added  for  meltage  fee,  and  26  per  cent,  for  an
illusory  “cost  of  collection  ”  :  in  another  the  amount  in  taels
is  converted  into  cash  at  2,600  to  the  tael,  and  converted
back  into  taels  at  1,105,  being  an  addition  of  135  per
cent,  and  then  50  per  cent,  is  added  for  “  cost  of  collection.”
The  latter  method  is  the  more  usual,  and  cases  are  common
and  well  known  where  the  conversion  into  cash  was  at  the
rate  of  between  5,000  and  6,000,  with  the  effect  of  increasing
the  land  tax  to  over  five  times  the  statutory  amount.
For  the  province  of  Honan  we  have  an  illuminating