REVENUE  AND  EXPENDITURE  91
torialised,  and  officially  supported  by  the  Government,  pays
its  taxes  by  cheques  direct  to  the  Hsien,  and  is  not  compelled
to  submit  to  the  mediation  of  the  tax-collectors  and  pay  them
their  expenses.  It  may  further  be  safely  assumed  that  the
total  collection  reported  for  the  province,  even  less  in
amount  now  than  half  a  century  ago,  represents  the  tax
of  the  permanent  settlement.  On  these  assumptions  the
land  and  grain  tax  collected  in  Honan  may  be  calculated
as  follows  :—
Legal  land  tax,  return  of  collection  for  year  Taels.
1900  ..  •  •  ..  ..  ..  2,380,000
Accretion  at  the  rate  of  128  per  cent  3,046,400
Collectors’  expenses  at  assumed  rate  of  10  per
542,640
6,969,040
480,000
..  1,008,000
148,800
1,636,800
..  8,605,840

cent.

Grain  tribute  commuted,  return  of  1900
Accretion  at  the  rate  of  210  per  cent.
Collectors’  expenses  at  10  per  cent.

Total  land  and  grain  taxes
against  Mr.  Jamieson’s  minimum  estimate  of  Tls.12,000,000,
and  a  possible  collection  of  Tls.28,000,000.  Every  student
of  things  Chinese  knows  that  Mr.  Jamieson’s  minimum
estimate  is  well  within  the  mark,  and  that,  to  get  at  the
amount  paid  by  the  taxpayer,  the  official  return  of  the
amount  collected  must  be  at  least  quadrupled  ;  what  can
be  said  seriously  is  that  it  can  be  proved  that  the  amount
is  trebled.
In  applying  the  Honan  figures  to  the  rest  of  the  Empire
we  are  confronted  by  a  difficulty.  The  permanent  settlement ­
  was  decreed  by  the  second  Tsing  Emperor,  Kanghi,
and  it  is  a  matter  of  general  knowledge  that  the  earlier
Manchu  Emperors  governed  China  with  a  light  hand,  and